And how are the terrorist actions by the state to be justified? Simply call its unspeakable actions that violate basic humanitarian principles, rights and laws ‘counter-terrorism’. Other words and phrases can now be used to further cover up their culpabilities as is, for example, widely being done in the mainstream India media for Israel. So Israel’s murderous actions in Gaza (and in the West Bank) should be described as ‘retaliation’, as ‘reprisals’.
Insofar as there are those who describe Hamas as motivated not so much by the desire to liberate Palestinians but by an ideologically driven jihadi ‘terroristic’ fervour, how many among them or others would be prepared to declare that the Israeli state’s behaviour is motivated by a Zionist ‘terroristic’ fervour! Islam or Judaism, like any religion, can be selectively interpreted to justify politically racist and exclusivist purposes but no religion is inherently so. Zionism is not a religion but a political ideology which is inherently exclusivist.
Like all colonised people, those willing to carry out armed struggle against the colonial oppressor must do so in an underground fashion. Moreover, there is no possibility of there being a geographically ’remote’ area separated from the mass of civilians in what is the world’s most densely populated zone. Israel knows this and doesn’t care. The definition of terrorist behaviour applies universally. There are never any excuses for intentionally or knowingly or indiscriminately killing civilians. Israel has no right to attack Gaza with or without evacuation warnings which, when occasionally given, are for the purposes of pretending to the global public that it will be justified in carrying out its subsequent brutalities.
Going after a military base and attacking enemy soldiers is justified but never an assault on innocent unarmed civilians. In spite of the absence of any universally accepted definition of terrorism, there is enough of a global consensus to recognise this as a terrorist act that must be condemned no matter which side does it. But then how is it that Israel is able to get away, both before and after the Hamas assault, with its assaults on civilians not being widely recognised at home and abroad as terrorism?
Israel’s War on Palestinians: Language in the Service of the Unspeakable
Achin Vanaik Achin Vanaik 19/Oct/202 in The Wire
US President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing whether to go ahead with an $18bn arms transfer package to Israel that would include dozens of F-15 aircraft, according to the Reuters news agency.
The sale of 25 F-15s has been under review since the US received the formal request in January 2023, Reuters reported, citing one of five sources familiar with the plans, long before Israel’s six-month-old military campaign in Gaza. This sale would boost that number to as many as 50 F-15s.
Biden considers $18bn arms transfer to Israel, including F-15 jets: Report
Biden faces pressure from foreign partners, rights groups and some fellow Democrats in Congress to impose conditions on arms transfers to Israel.
Biden considers $18bn arms transfer to Israel, including F-15 jets: Report in Al Jazeera
But it’s not just the U.S. that has steadfastly backed the scorched-earth war; it’s virtually the entire Western establishment, with a few notable exceptions. Canada, they’re all-in. Britain, all-in. France, all-in. Germany, enthusiastically all-in. It is this coalition of the killing, and what motivates these nations to support Israel’s war of annihilation, that we are going to focus on on today’s program.The U.S. is not some outside observer. It is complicit in all of this. It’s an active partner in the carnage, the bombings, the attacks against defenseless civilians. And it’s leading the international charge to defund the most important aid organization operating in Gaza. And yet, we are told that Biden — who apparently spends his mornings watching Morning Joe on MSNBC — is losing patience with Netanyahu.
JOE BIDEN LEADS A WESTERN “COALITION OF THE KILLING” IN BACKING ISRAEL’S GAZA WAR
Examining the colonialist roots of U.S. and European support for Israel’s scorched-earth siege in The Intercept
