Israel surrounds Gaza, and on Oct. 9 lost 1200 lives in a Hamas attack where a year earlier Israel had the Hamas plan on paper, but somehow let it happen. To exact revenge, 21,000 Gazans have been murdered, 2/3 being women and children; Israel dropping a massive number of American made bombs from American made jet airplanes against people with no uniformed military and not a single armed aircraft. And they're still at it. And that is according to a plan Israel instituted earlier in bombing Hezbollah targets disproportionately with a troubling disregard for civilian casualties. Wikipedia notes Israel's top military commander said at the outset of its war impacting Gaza civilians -
On 9 October 2023, following the beginning of the October 2023 Gaza−Israel conflict and attacks in Israel by Hamas militants, Gallant said that Israel would impose a "total siege" of the Gaza Strip while at the same time "fighting human animals", referring to Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.[25][26][27] A total blockade of the Gaza Strip was announced by Gallant, who stated: "There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly."[28][29]
On 13 October 2023, Gallant met with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, including Gaza City, saying: "The camouflage of the terrorists is the civilian population. Therefore, we need to separate them. So those who want to save their lives, please go south. We are going to destroy Hamas infrastructure, Hamas headquarters, Hamas military establishment, and take these phenomena out of Gaza and out of the Earth."[30] On 13 October, he said that "Gaza won't return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything."[31]
If not a genocidal intent to that it does fall quite short of "Love thy neighbor." Moreover, this is not a one-off shot in the dark over-reaction to 1200 lost souls. It is a coldly calculated reviewed and adopted Israeli policy:
The Dahiya doctrine, or Dahya doctrine,[1] is a military strategy of asymmetric warfare, outlined by former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff Gadi Eizenkot, which encompasses the destruction of the civilian infrastructure of regimes deemed to be hostile as a measure calculated to pressure combatants,[2] and endorses the employment of "disproportionate force" (compared to the amount of force used by the enemy[3][4]) to secure that end.[5]
There has been media concern and express Palestinian exception taken over an Israeli document proposing hostility sufficient to drive a majority of Gazans into the Sinai to shelter as refugees-
JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli government ministry has drafted a wartime proposal to transfer the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million people to Egypt's Sinai peninsula, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians and worsening tensions with Cairo.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office played down the report compiled by the Intelligence Ministry as a hypothetical exercise — a “concept paper.” But its conclusions deepened long-standing Egyptian fears that Israel wants to make Gaza into Egypt's problem, and revived for Palestinians memories of their greatest trauma — the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of people who fled or were forced from their homes during the fighting surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.
“We are against transfer to any place, in any form, and we consider it a red line that we will not allow to be crossed," Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said of the report. “What happened in 1948 will not be allowed to happen again."
Crabgrass has posted of this before. Now a new "genocide" charge has been lodged by South Africa in the World Court alleging genocidal intent and action -
Among other sources, MiddletownPress carrying an AP feed:
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa says more than 50 countries have expressed support for its case at the United Nations' top court accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in the war in Gaza.
Others, including the United States, have strongly rejected South Africa's allegation that Israel is violating the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Many more have remained silent.
The world's reaction to the landmark case that was heard Thursday and Friday at the International Court of Justice in The Hague shows a predictable global split when it comes to the inextricable, 75-year-old problem of Israel and the Palestinians. Sunday marks 100 days of their bloodiest ever conflict.
The majority of countries backing South Africa's case are from the Arab world and Africa. In Europe, only the Muslim nation of Turkey has publicly stated its support.
No Western country has declared support for South Africa's allegations against Israel. The U.S., a close Israel ally, has rejected them as unfounded, the U.K. has called them unjustified, and Germany said it "explicitly rejects" them.
China and Russia have said little about one of the most momentous cases to come before an international court. The European Union also hasn't commented.
US: ‘MERITLESS’ ALLEGATIONSU.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to Israel a day before the court proceedings began that South Africa's allegations are “meritless" and that the case “distracts the world” from efforts to find a lasting solution to the conflict. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said genocide is “not a word that ought to be thrown around lightly, and we certainly don’t believe that it applies here.”
“We don’t agree with what the South Africans are doing,” U.K. Foreign Minister David Cameron said of the case.
Israel fiercely rejects the allegations of genocide and says it is defending its people. It says the offensive is aimed at eradicating the leaders of Hamas, the militant group that runs the territory and provoked the conflict by launching surprise attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking around 250 hostages.
[...] Israel's military response in Gaza has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The count doesn't distinguish between combatants and civilians. It says more than two-thirds of the dead are women and children. Much of northern Gaza has become an uninhabitable moonscape with entire neighborhoods erased by Israeli air strikes and tank fire.
South Africa has also condemned Hamas' Oct. 7 attack but argues that it did not justify Israel's response.
[...] Germany said it intends to intervene in the case on Israel's behalf.
The EU has only said that countries have a right to bring cases to the U.N. court. Most of its member states have refrained from taking a position.
Turkey, which is in the process of joining the EU, was a lone voice in the region. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country provided documents that were being used against Israel in the case.
“With these documents, Israel will be condemned,” he said.
ARAB CONDEMNATION
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation was one of the first blocs to publicly back the case when South Africa filed it late last month. It said there was “mass genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli defense forces” and accused Israel of “indiscriminate targeting” of Gaza's civilian population.
The OIC is a bloc of 57 countries that includes Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt. Its headquarters are in Saudi Arabia. The Cairo-based Arab League, whose 22 member countries are almost all part of the OIC, also backed South Africa's case.
South Africa drew some support from outside the Arab world. Namibia and Pakistan agreed with the case at a U.N. General Assembly session this week. Malaysia also expressed support.
“No peace-loving human being can ignore the carnage waged against Palestinians in Gaza,” Namibian President Hage Geingob was quoted as saying in the southern African nation's The Namibian newspaper.
Malaysia's Foreign Ministry demanded “legal accountability for Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.”
[...] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no one — including the world court — will stop Israel's war against Hamas. Russia didn't obey the court when it told it to halt its invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.
As a large fraction of the nation is facing cold winter days, we should be grateful we are not having to live in Gaza, where bombing continues and hunger and disease adds misery to the constant threat of being killed, or otherwise dying. We are fortunate and should be appreciative it is so. We should question our war materiel being put into play to stress Gaza's citizens; it being national policy to assist the Israeli effort.
As Gazans die in distressing numbers, the IDF in turn is suffering lost lives, but far less so than Gazan civilians, the disproportion being even greater than the 1200 to 21,000 ratio from the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion to the present. And when three Israeli hostages are being shot dead by the IDF, white flag and all, one has to wonder if take no prisoners is military policy at least in part of the IDF action in northern Gaza. In turn, some prisoners have been shown in media events to have been taken and transported alive into Israel. Things are unclear.
Then, there is this Jan 14, 2024, WashingtonTimes.com item, which suggests a high leadership stress level in Israel along with a lack of accord and sound behavior among Israeli war leadership:
Tensions boiled over Saturday night during a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and key aides, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant storming out of the room amid deepening disagreements at the highest levels of government in Jerusalem, Israeli media reported.
The clash between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant came as Israel marked the 100th day of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which began after the Palestinian militant group launched a terrorist assault on Israel on Oct. 7. Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant have been key partners in Israel‘s “war Cabinet” formed immediately after that attack and charged with overseeing the military campaign in Gaza.
But the two men now appear at odds. The Times of Israel reported that Mr. Gallant stormed out of a Saturday night meeting with Mr. Netanyahu after being informed that his top aides would not be allowed to attend the session. Mr. Netanyahu, meanwhile, brought multiple assistants with him to the meeting, the Times of Israel reported.
Mr. Gallant reportedly rejoined the meeting about an hour later. But both he and fellow war Cabinet member Benny Gantz, a former defense minister and political rival of Mr. Netanyahu‘s, were not invited to a press conference the prime minister gave Saturday evening, according to Israeli media.
Israeli lawmakers cast the rift between war cabinet members as immature and dangerous. Tally Gotliv, a member of Israel‘s Knesset and of Mr. Netanyahu‘s Likud party, took aim at the government in a post on X.
“How can you trust a limited cabinet that behaves like children in kindergarten?” she wrote. “Isn’t there one responsible adult who will call the people to order?
“The minister of defense can’t enter with his assistant who serves as his right hand?” Ms. Gotliv said. “Little children is what you are … None of the cabinet members has the right to broadcast a message of disunity. The circus broadcast of indescribable ego games hurts our soldiers who demand the leadership and rightfully so to be strong and united.”
[...]
Last March, Mr. Netanyahu fired Mr. Gallant after Mr. Gallant had publicly questioned the pace of the prime minister’s controversial judicial reform push. Mr. Netanyahu reversed that decision just weeks later after heavy public criticism of the firing.
Amid the political drama in Jerusalem, Mr. Netanyahu spoke Saturday night. He projected his trademark defiance and took aim at Iran and its allies in the region, and at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, which last week held hearings on charges that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
“No one will stop us, not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anyone else,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
BDS might fail to stop Netanyahu and his more intransigent cabinet members, but it might message the Israeli population that there are difficulties and outside judgments which can impact complacent well being. That after Gaza it might be time for a change. For a re-evaluation of settlement policy and other things. Meanwhile, opinions may differ, but to Crabgrass this is an unsettling photo:
We as a nation so far are fortunate no other nation is fingering us as a material asset to any alleged genocide, real or imagined. We arm one side, the sides being disproportionately armed, while Israel itself has a major worldwide arms industry, arming itself and with booming sales.