The unreasonable delay by the United States in supporting calls for a ceasefire has resulted in thousands of needless deaths that could have been prevented by a simple US vote. This obstructionism and the lack of leadership is an eternal shame for a country that purports to claim moral leadership and respect for the international rules based order.
What does Gaza stand for?
G stands for genocide and war crimes. In modern times the charge of genocide has been at times loosely applied to many situations that struggle to satisfy the proper definition. What is happening in Gaza leaves no doubt about the meaning and the intent of Israel’s military action. The claim that they target only Hamas is a flimsy fig leaf used to justify the killing of women, children and non-combatants with bullets, bombardment or starvation. This indiscriminate slaughter carries all the hall markets of the true meaning of genocide. Even if the charge of genocide is put to one side, there is no doubt that the ongoing methods of inflicting industrial death on the Gazan population is a war crime with all the characteristics of genocidal intent.
A stands for abhorrent activity in any language. Remove the now-emotive terms Jew and Palestinian, Israel and Hamas, when considering the situation in Gaza and look at this from a prejudice free point of view.
The conclusion is inescapable. What is happening is multiple war crimes on a massive scale.
The war crimes include the killing of civilians after driving them into so-called safe areas. It is the deliberate starvation of a population by impending food convoys and making collecting it an ambush death trap. It’s the creation of a Gaza ghetto that replicates many of the aspects of the Warsaw ghetto.
The war crimes include the bombing of previously identified UN aid centres. It’s the Israeli military attacks on hospitals killing patients in their beds and destroying the infrastructure necessary for a functioning medical service.
In World War Two a special horror was reserved for the Japanese who murdered patients in their beds in Singapore’s Alexandra hospital. Israel has joined this infamy of base war crimes.
The Israeli death count of ‘terrorists’ replicates the body count statistics used by the Americans in Vietnam. All those shot or bombed are identified as enemy combatants by virtue of the fact of their death. In this abhorrent narrative, there are no innocents. Various statements from Israeli politicians, military commanders and officials make it clear that all in Gaza, including children and new-borns are considered as Hamas supporters and terrorists who have forfeited the right to live.
Those who lived beside the Auschwitz death camps were not believed when they said they did not know what was happening. No one with access to social media or the news can deny the war crimes unfolding on their screens.
Z stands for Zionism. Selective use of religious texts can propel the highest levels of love and sacrifice, or, when used by Netanyahu, descend to the vilest depths of revenge and slaughter. Zionism is an excuse for other deeply racist beliefs about the value of gentile lives.
Hamas is not excluded from the religious motive and the destructive pursuit of revenge.
However, the fact remains that this has triggered a disproportionate response from Israel. An estimated 1200 killed by Hamas and in the Israeli free-fire Hannibal directive compared with the 30000 civilians, women, and children killed in the revenge response.
This is not the calculus of a civilised nation. This is the barbarity of Nazi retributions in Oradour-sur-Glane, Lidice and other centres of resistance. It is medieval in its in its conception and execution.
A stands for America and its long history of assisting repression in pursuit of profit. The IBM punch card system enabled the industrial scale slaughter of Jews by the Nazis. IBM knew its equipment was being used for this purpose, and just as today, profit over-ruled ethics. America sold the equipment for the suppression of opponents to Chile’s murderous Pinochet regime and other dictators intent on the slaughter of opponents be it based on race or political beliefs. Today America continues to supply arms and equipment, without which the Israeli assault would have already rapidly ground to a halt.
The unreasonable delay by the United States in supporting calls for a ceasefire has resulted in thousands of needless deaths that could have been prevented by a simple US vote. This obstructionism and the lack of leadership is an eternal shame for a country that purports to claim moral leadership and respect for the international rules based order. The litmus test of these claims for America is its compliance, or not, with the successful UN Security Council ceasefire resolution.
Daryl Guppy
Daryl Guppy is an international financial technical analysis expert. He has provided weekly Shanghai Index analysis for mainland Chinese media for more than a decade. Guppy appears regularly on CNBC Asia and is known as "The Chart Man". He is a former national board member of the Australia China Business Council. The views expressed here are his own.
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