Israel’s Incremental Genocide

I am appalled!

Except for Jeffrey St. Clair’s May 15, 2022 outstanding and meticulous narration of the May 11, 2022 Israeli assassination of American-Palestinian journalist under the title “the Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh: A Flag, a Song, a Rock, a Voice” (CP+), Jonathan Martin’s “Palestinians Are Always the Target,”  and Laura Flanders’ right-on-target May 18, 2022 CP column under the title “From Scotus to Shireen: Same Extremism,” there has been a dearth of CP columns on this heinous crime and perpetual violation of human rights in Palestine in what is now a 74 year grotesque orgy of Israeli incremental genocide.

I am appalled!!

I have no doubt that Alan Silverman will, as he has previously done, respond to this column with something as sinister as this 3/13/2022 cynical email he sent me:

I read your article, and I wondered how you, as a scholar, could come to the conclusion you reached.  I see you are emeritus, which implies the wisdom of age, and that your expertise is not in any hard science or similar field requiring objective analysis and logic. But surely you are able to make significant distinctions.  You say, “The 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021 heinous assaults on Gaza are no different from Russia’s brutal assault on Ukraine. Really?”

That counselor Silverman had to resort to ad hominem remarks does not surprise me. He is, after all, an ardent Zionist  blinded by Israel’s extremely virulent ethnocentric values.

And I am not appalled!!!

On May 17, 2022  My name is Joe Biden and I am Zionist went to Buffalo, NY, to decry the vicious and cold-blooded-murder of 10 African Americans going about their business of negotiating the many challenges of daily life.  He rightfully decried the violence, hatred, and the ideologies that helped spawn and indoctrinate the eighteen-year-old.  He told us that

White supremacy is a poison running through our body politic. We need to say as clearly and forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America. No more. And it’s been allowed to fester and grow right in front of our eyes. In America, evil will not win, I promise you. Hate will not prevail. And white supremacy will not have the last word. I call on all Americans to reject the lie [Great Replacement], and I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain and for profit. Americans of all races, from every background, [should] speak up as a majority [so as] to reject white supremacy and the views of a hateful minority.

Twenty-seven-year-old Wayne Jones Jr., grandson of victim Celestine Jones, stated that Biden “gave a heartfelt speech. … It was genuine. It wasn’t fake.”

I am more appalled!!!

Appalled at Biden’s double standard, one condemning domestic and Russian terrorism, and the other condoning and supporting Israeli state-sponsored genocidal terrorism

Biden can’t deliver a speech without having to use the teleprompter, and even at that, he often stumbles. While his Buffalo speech was laced with recycled platitudes and buzzwords about hatred, violence, the “soul of America,” justice, harmony, guns, and hateful ideologies; his referring to the victims by name, age, and personal status was on target and most deserved. And this is the least we can do for the innocent victims of home-grown evil and hatred.

But, I am even more appalled!!!

Over two months ago 78 year-old American- Palestinian Omar Assad was roughed up Israeli soldiers, had his hands zip-tied behind his back, and left overnight in the shell a building previously demolished by the most moral army in the world. Exposed to the elements, the 78 year-old froze to death. The following morning he was found with a “blue face.”  As usual, the State Department gave lip service, and the Israelis, as usual, investigated – more like white-washed this cold-blooded murder.

Last week  an American-Palestinian journalist was assassinated while covering one of Israel’s serial assaults on Jenin, a town whose population has endured repeated assaults, killings, and destruction. To keep the world from seeing live footage of this almost daily incremental barbaric genocidal assaults on an occupied, starved, and impoverished population, Israeli soldiers decided to execute Shireen and pin the blame on “Palestinian terrorists.”  This time they did not get away with it as they have gotten away with the destruction of a twelve-story Gaza high rise housing journalists and world news agencies and the killing of over 65 Palestinian journalists and the maiming of over 200 others during the last 25 years.

One Israeli official stated that she was “armed.” Armed with a camera, that is.

Simply put, I am appalled at I am Joe Biden and I am a Zionist’s condoning, excusing, supporting, financing, and arming an ethnocentric colonial occupier whose leaders and members of Knesset spew hatred, brag about seeing nothing wrong  with killing Palestinians (as Israeli Prime Minister Bennet has done), and  egging their fanatic settlers to chant death to Arabs.

Joe, why the selective indignation? You’ve not even condemned  the killing of these two Americans by blood-thirsty Israeli border police, much less mention their names. How can you, Joe, decry a supremacist ideology at home yet refuse to admit that your malignant policies have allowed Israel to get away with murder?  You and your congress  are guilty for allowing hatred to fester in Palestine. You didn’t even have the courtesy to express your condolences to the Akhle family, much less mention Shireen’s name. And what about the Israeli forces’ assault on mourners? Anyone seeing this footage would be appalled. But not you, Joe Biden, a man short on principles and selective moral indignation.

Joe, say her Name (SHIREEN).  Say her Name (SHIREEN), Joe. Say her Name (SHIREEN), Joe, and especially say her name when you kneel down in the confession booth.

And finally, to regular CounterPunch contributors George Ochenski, Howard Lisnoff, Eric Draitser, John Feffer, David Rosen, Eve Ottenberg, and Thomas Klikauer,  to name but a few, each of you has written outstanding articles about a range of injustice, social and political issues affecting humanity. Please watch the video footage of Israel’s assault on Shireen Akhle’s funeral procession and the incursion of armed soldiers breaking into St. Joseph’s hospital, including the emergency room, and the firing of stun grenades – inside the hospital. In Mr. Silverman’s words, each of you has the wisdom, expertise, and intellect to use “hard science” that is required in this “objective analysis and logic” of Israel’s continued assault on men, women, and children.

If these images do not move you to express your moral indignation, then your silence is as abhorrent as Joe’s.

And you, Mr. Klikauer, you’ve authored over 750 articles, most of which deal/dealt with Nazi Germany, its virulent hatred, its systemic genocidal practices, its ideology of racial superiority, its dastardly evil, and its disregard for human life, an ideology that led to the horrific crematoriums. Do you not see many of these parallels spawning and festering in Israeli society as it conducts its incremental genocide?

Raouf J. Halaby is a Professor Emeritus of English and Art. He is a writer, photographer, sculptor, an avid gardener, and a peace activist. halabys7181@outlook.com