These elites in politics, business, media, and church have brought shame on themselves and us. Either covertly or overtly they have supported or wilfully ignored the genocide. History will  be a very harsh judge.

Politicians have run scared of the Zionist lobby. Business complains about disruption of shipping, whilst many are making huge profits by supplying arms. Our white man’s media including the ABC (7/30) shamefully parrot US and Israeli propaganda. Our Churchmen, and they are all men, seem unable to understand that Brown Muslims are as precious as White Christians.

When students point out the cowardice of the elites, they are unfairly attacked for violence, being anti semitic and making Jews unsafe on Campus. Those that have real grounds for feeling unsafe are the Palestinian students and others who have seen 35,000 of their fellow students, family and friends butchered by the IDF. With more killing to come!

As Professor Richard Falk a former UN Rapporteur on Palestinian Territories put it…. ‘In Gaza, the west is enabling the most transparent genocide in human history.’

Joe Biden tells us that an enormous increase in money and arms for Israel ‘is a good day for peace’. Where is his moral compass? He tells us that America is the indispensable country. He tells Israel that it can continue the violence but should be more circumspect and more targeted in the killing. He orders air drops of food in a PR effort to suggest that good old Uncle Sam really cares. And our media fall for this propaganda time and time again.

Palestinians are humiliated every day of their lives as John Lyons showed us on Four Corners. The former head of Shin Bet Ami Ayalon said, ‘we control the lives of millions’.

When Palestinian’s revolt or resist we call them terrorists. But the real terror comes day after day from Israel.

Moshe Dayan said in 1956, ‘What cause have we to complain about their fierce hatred to us? For eight years now, they sit in their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we turn into our homestead the land and villages in which they and their forefathers have lived’.

Numerous justifications and excuses are doled out by Netanyahu and the IDF for the genocide. In this the US is complicit.

Hamas must be destroyed if there is to be security for Israel.

But Hamas is the excuse for the Israeli attack on Gaza. The real intent is to expel all Palestinians not just from Gaza but from the West Bank as well. Israel’s intention is not primarily eradicating Hamas. It is eradicating Gaza. One reason why Netanyahu will not consider a ceasefire would be an admission that he and the IDF could not eradicate Hamas. And even if Hamas was defeated an even stronger Palestinian resistance would replace it.

Israel has the right to defend itself

But surely an occupied people, as the Palestinians are, have a stronger right to resist their occupation.

The settler colonisation of Palestine started with the Nakba in 1948. It is continuing with a second Nakba.

In 1948 Palestinians owned 94% of all land; now Israelis own 82%. These figures tell the real story. Israel is a brutal occupying power.

What rights has the occupier of stolen land to defend illegal gains?  Surely the slave has more rights to act against oppression than the slave owner to oppress the slave.

If Country J had occupied Australia in WW2, would Country J have the right to defend itself on our soil? Surely occupied people have a much greater right than the occupier to defend themselves.

October 7 did not occur in a vacuum. It was the result of decades long Israeli occupation, imprisonment, apartheid and never-ending violence and oppression. The pressure cooker exploded!

Apologists for Israel want us to ignore the history and context.

The expelling and killing of Palestinians by Israel started 76 years ago in 1948, not in October last year.

Ehud Barak a former Prime Minister told Four Corners, ‘I once was asked some 30 years ago what I would have done if I were a Palestinian.. 30 years ago I was new enough in politics to tell the truth: that if I were born Palestinian I probably would’ve joined one of the terror organisations.’

That 1200 Israelis were killed by Hamas on October 7 is appalling. Some were killed by Israeli helicopters and tanks. Israeli allegations about Hamas killing babies together with other atrocities has been found to be highly dubious. President Biden fell for Israeli propaganda. Media around the world has been complicit in the huge Israel/US propaganda campaign.

How do we balance that tragic Israeli loss of life on October 7 compared with over 11,000 Palestinians killed by Israel before October 7 last year and over 35,000 killed by Israel since October 7?

Israelis are naturally concerned about 130 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. Yet 10,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons. Palestinians regard them as hostages held by Israel. And that is what they are. Many of the detainees in Israeli prisons are young Palestinians arrested for doing not much more than throwing stones at heavily armed Israeli vehicles.

A two state solution

For years we followed the US with lip service to a two-state solution. But we did little to advance it. We talked endlessly about it to ease our consciences with the continuing Israeli humiliation and displacement of Palestinians. Recognising Palestine would be a key step in a political settlement. But the Israeli government rejects it. Netanyahu boasts that he has thwarted a Palestinian State.

The Australian decision to reluctantly support admission of Palestine to the UN is very welcome but recognition of Palestine still awaits. There will be no resolution until the US and the international community forces Israel to accept a two-state solution that ensures security and justice for both Israelis and Palestinians.

There is no one to negotiate with

Netanyahu says that Israel has no one it can negotiate with for peace. Our media mindlessly agree. But they choose to ignore  the most popular Palestinian leader by far, Marwan Barghouti who has been in an Israeli gaol for 22 years–shades of Nelson Mandela. Netanyahu funded Hamas to weaken Fatah. President Abbas of Fatah is a creature of the Israelis, not of the Palestinian people.

Blame Netanyahu and excuse Israel

A recent US propaganda trick has been to try and blame Netanyahu and not Israel for the genocide. But polls suggest that 75% of Israelis believe that the war should continue.

Hamas is certainly not winning in our Washington centric media. But Hamas is winning overwhelmingly in the Arab street and the Global South. It shows in the UN General Assembly and the ICJ.

Anti semitism and victimhood

As Henry Reynolds put it ‘Opposing Genocide is not anti-Jewish’. The Zionist Lobby has become tiresome in accusing its critics of anti-semitism. It uses it as a battering ram against all its critics. It employs the holocaust as a cloak to hide its own cruelty. Israel incessantly portrays itself as the victim. The real victims are the Palestinians, but the white man’s media is blind to facts.

Israel’s reputation will be for ever sullied by its barbarity in Gaza. With its behaviour the IDF is no longer ‘the most moral army’ in the world, if it ever was.

The genocide is  doing great damage to American standing not just in the ‘Arab Street’ but across the western world and in the Global South. Israel maybe the death of America.

There must be a political settlement acceptable to both Palestinians and Israelis. The US has the power to force that settlement, but it is in thrall and manipulated by the very powerful Israeli Lobby in the US.

The US’ failing global ‘leadership’ and domestic sickness can no longer be hidden. Gaza and Ukraine will be seen as historic hinge events.

The US makes no attempt to practice what it preaches about human rights and international law. In step with the US, we talk about a Rules Based International Order, but Gaza has effectively shredded the US constructed RBIO. Numerous UN resolutions have been contemptuously rejected by the US and its allies.

Hopefully Australian students and other demonstrators across the world will persist until security and justice is assured for both Palestinians and Israelis. They are awakening our conscience.

In 1963, I accompanied Gough Whitlam on a visit to Israel. I was impressed, very impressed. On return I inquired of the Israeli Ambassador the possibility of some of our children in future living on a kibbutz for several months. I visited Israel again after the Six Day War. I changed my mind about Israel. Arrogance had replaced modesty.

https://johnmenadue.com/gaza-genocide-protests-by-students-shames-the-elites-in-the-western-world/

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