Israel’s war in Gaza has been brutal, but Palestinian genocide is by Hamas

Hamas says it won’t compromise on key demands as US leans into hostage talks

Perhaps the Allies should have ‘negotiated’ with Hitler in 1945. Hitler could have promised to — generally — end hostilities which would have been, as would be now from Hamas, a lie.

Hitler could have promised to start releasing Jews, among those others, held in his Concentration Camps but in small numbers over which he kept control so long as the Allies released many thousands of his most brutal troops to include Gestapo and SS for every one almost dead Jew freed.

After all, much of the world has long preferred dead Jews.

Hitler could have demanded he receive unconditional amnesty for an end to the war despite the horrors he planned and unleased on Europe and the world; that he would receive amnesty for his ‘Final Solution’ along with a promise by the Allies that they would completely withdraw from Germany while leaving it under his and Nazi rule. Hitler, of course, would also be free to rearm without oversight.

Hitler could have demanded that the Allies take full responsibility for the feeding of and medical care for those who remained in his Concentration Camps even as he continued to control how they were treated as who was released and when.

Hitler could also have promised not to target Allied militaries as they withdrew from Germany thereby reducing further Allied causalities. Politicians always like to claim credit for that result.

This last hypothetical promise was exactly what Trump, and his slobbering Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, worked out with the Taliban to include the release of about 5,000 Islamist militants jailed in Afghanistan with the Talban’s second in command jailed in Pakistan also freed.

When the Taliban  agreed, Trump and Pompeo then unconditionally handed Afghanistan back to them — then left — dooming that sad nation and, especially, its women and girls.

It’s all not very unlike Palestinian citizens under the long ignored and viscious Hamas occupation of Gaza. But the problem only started when brutality to Gazan citizens was overtly changed to Israel rather than Hamas. This, also no matter that Hamas started the war with Israel based on its medieval, Mongol-like slaughter on October 7 in southern Israel.

Most have since forgotten that the Taliban’s brutal reoccupation of Afghanistan and the US’ sudden promised departure was a gift from Trump while setting up Biden. Similarly, Hamas’ brutal occupation of Gaza while it was also killing Israeli Jews has been all but forgiven by their collaborators at the UN and long standing anti-Israel ‘progressives,’ liberals and old Leftists in the West.

Hamas’ only purpose is to recover all of modern Israel to include the ethnic cleansing of all remaining Israeli Jews. This reality has also been largely overlooked by the ‘pro-Palestinian’ Hamas collaborators.

For the record and before I get flamed for this last sentence, I am ‘pro-Palestinian’ and (had been) a strong supporter of a two-state solution. I still would ultimately like to see a two-state solution, but that has now been blocked…not by Israel but Hamas whose assault on October 7 first targeted  the pro-Palestinian, two-state supporting, ‘peace’ kibbutzim who provided direct support to Gazan citizens to include arranging and driving them for medical care in Israel.

Those were the first Israeli’s butchered by Hamas terrorists.

Hamas could not tolerate such a relationship…or any risk of true pro-Palestinian politics. Hamas has no interest in Palestinian rights or independence but seeks total control in an expanded occupation while engaging in the ethnic cleansing of every single Israeli Jew.

So, though being ‘pro-Palestinian’ does not automatically mean pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, or antisemitic (I’m also Jewish and strongly support Israel), that is how this term has largely come to be recognized through the many large protests, histrionics, and governmental proclamations all of which overlook Hamas’ own history, their murderous responsibility or the relevance of their genocidal attack on Israel of October 7 where 1200+ Israeli men, women and children were murdered and extreme sexual violence was an active component piece.

Despite this reality, only Netanyahu and his disturbed Jewish Supremacist coalition could so quickly lose the broad global empathy and support offered after October 7 and help Hamas reestablish itself as the ‘legitimate’ occupier of Gaza while making Israel the seeming cause for the Gaza War. Only Netanyahu could have about lost President Biden and America’s Democrats; traditionally Israel’s strongest unconditional supporters.

Hamas is not a government or an organized national military but an Iran, Russia, Qatar (and who else?) funded proxy terrorist organization designated only to target Israel. Towards this end, Hamas has occupied and consistently brutalized Gazan citizens for 20 years.

Hamas has tortured and murdered its LGBTQ citizens. It has politically identified and butchered Gazan citizens it proclaimed to be ‘collaborators’ with Israel. But the world didn’t give a damn until dead Gazan citizens were primarily by Israel’s hands in larger numbers rather than Hamas.

Hamas was also responsible for many thousands of dead Israelis over a period of years before it unleased its October 7 mini-Holocaust against Israel promising it many more times if able to do so. And though this is an opportunity Hamas must never remotely have again, based on the gross mishandling and horrific prosecution of this war by Netanyahu and his coalition, that is no longer assured. Netanyahu may still ‘win’ the war and stall his own accountability, but he is sure as hell losing the battle…and will be ultimately held accountable

A reality which remains now largely overlooked due to Netanyahu and his coalition, is that Israel is neither the cause nor the reason for the war in Gaza. Israel is not the reason for the violence or the extreme  deprivation of Gazan citizens. It is all and only Hamas. But Netanyahu and his coalition played right into the hands of Hamas

As the occupiers of Gaza, Hamas should be expected to have arranged for the maximum protection of and resources for Gazan citizens. Hamas should have had food stores for other than themselves. Hamas should have been minimally expected to bring women and children into its massively fortified tunnel system and away from Israeli bombs.

But Hamas was counting on those bombs and the destruction. Hamas has counted on the large numbers of dead Gazan citizens. Hamas and it’s health propaganda ministry has been sure to instantly and almost magically provide hourly counts of Gazan dead even before the smoke has cleared blended with prepared if sometimes conflicting statements.

No matter, since it all has been duly transcribed by the global media without question or challenge. Israel, on the other hand, has openly provided spokespeople to be interviewed and directly challenged. Israel has taken journalists into Gaza to see those items they’ve collected and tunnels they’ve exposed. Do I buy into everything? Certainly not. But much of the information is solid and the contacts credible.

Such attempts to do so with Hamas would cost journalist lives. There has yet to be a Hamas offer to provide armed escorts to journalists in Hamas controlled portions to verify any of their claims or to take impromptu questions. Yet, that point is never referenced. Israel is a much easier target with which to wax self righteous in televised broadcasts.

There is no question that Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war in Gaza has been, as President Biden said, far ‘over the top’ and excessively brutal. But it is not Israel who has been guilty of ‘genocide.’ Genocide is Hamas’ planned targeting of Israeli and Jews.

More so in the immediate term, it is only Hamas who is  pursuing a genocide of Gazan citizens — and all Palestinians — with full intent to kill as many as possible since every dead Gazan, real and perceived, is covered by a breathless media with blame put solely on Israel no matter the evidence.

Hamas wasn’t ‘surprised’ by Israel’s response to Oct 7 but was counting on it. Hamas effectively set up Netanyahu and his extremist coalition along with its own citizens with full intent to make them international photo ops thereby effectively moving pressure to Israel and away from itself.

Much of the global media has been more than happy to oblige. The world, once again, decided it is perfectly ok with dead Jews while agonizing over every single stat put out by the Hamas’ health propaganda ministry in Gaza.

Netanyahu, Ben Gvir, Smotrich and colleagues almost happily walked into the trap Hamas set for them connected to the horrors of October 7 with their ‘over the top,’ thoughtlessly brutal, and remarkably counterproductive bulldozing through Gaza.

As one more connected analogy to Trump who is now running for president only to gain protection from his crimes and revenge against his enemies, both real and (so many) perceived, Netanyahu’s war in Gaza has allowed him a similar, if so much more tragic, cover.

I have written for years that Netanyahu has long been a far bigger threat to Israel’s immediate security and future stability than Iran, the PA and Hamas combined. That prediction, very sadly, now is playing out on a daily basis.

Bibi and his fundamentalist coalition of Jewish Supremacists should have been forced out of office on October 8 with elections called immediately. That this failed to happen portended the subsequent catastrophe facing Israel and Palestinians.

Netanyahu must resign now if he still has any interest in saving and securing the future of Israel rather than focusing only on himself. It is not too late to still neutralize (not ‘eliminate’ but neutralize) Hamas while creating the security blanket and regional network to which Israel seemed so close on October 6th.

While a two-state solution will be politically untenable for quite awhile due to Hamas’ slaughter and sexual violence of October 7, a plan to slowly increase Palestinian autonomy while backing off Israel’s blockade of Gaza is a doable target. But it can only happen without Hamas, or Netanyahu,  who remain a shared primary interference. Those outside of Israel still unconditionally demanding ‘Palestinian independence’ or a state right now are, as is the presence of Hamas, also assuring little will change.

But any form of true Palestinian autonomy is not remotely welcomed by Hamas, Netanyahu, his fundamentalist coalition of Jewish Supremacists or the Christian Zionists who have long been a primary source of the Israeli Right’s support and funding. This, since the Christian Zionists believe that all ‘biblical’ Israel must be in the hands of Jews to pursue their New Testament magical mystery tour.

Those demanding that Palestinian ‘independence’ happen immediately ignore the geopolitical complexity, true History, and Israel’s right to survive in security thereby compromising rather than helping to enhance any realistic probability