Hamas is the excuse for the Israeli attack on Gaza. It is not the reason.
The real Israeli objective in Gaza is to drive out the population and destroy infrastructure as part of a long term plan to expel Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere.
This settler colonisation has been ongoing since 1948, starting with the Nakba. In Australia we are very familiar with settler colonisation – driving out the original inhabitants.
In 1948 Palestinians owned 94% of all land; now Israelis own 82%. These figures tell the real story.
October 7 did not occur in a vacuum. It was the result of decades long Israeli occupation, never ending violence and oppression. The pressure cooker exploded!
The US and Australian parrott on about a two state solution but we do nothing to advance it. We use it as a fig leaf to hide our support for US policies in support of Israel.
Recognizing Palestine would be a first step in a political settlement. But the Israeli government rejects it. Netanyahu boasts that he has thwarted a Palestinian State.
Instead Israel pursues occupation of more and more land, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.
Even if the military defeat of Hamas was possible it would not end Palestinian resistance. It would continue in another and stronger form.
Hamas is certainly not winning in our Washington manipulated media. But it is winning overwhelmingly in the Arab street.
Netanyahu repeatedly tells us about how Hamas is a great threat to Israel. But in recent years he has been channelling financial support to Hamas.
A recent poll by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) of persons in Gaza and the West Bank should be essential reading. It reports on Hamas and other key issues;
• Support for Hamas has more than tripled in the West Bank compared to three months ago. In the Gaza Strip, support for Hamas increased but not significantly. Despite the increase in its popularity, the majority in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip does not support Hamas. It is worth noting that support for Hamas usually rises temporarily during or immediately after a war and then returns to the previous level several months after the end of the war.
• Support for President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party drops significantly. The same is true for the trust in the PA as a whole, as demand for its dissolution rises to nearly 60%, the highest percentage ever recorded in PSR polls. Demand for Abbas’s resignation is rising to around 90 percent, and even higher in the West Bank. Despite the decline in support for Fatah and Abbas, the most popular Palestinian figure remains Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader (in jail). Barghouti is still able to beat Hamas’ candidate Ismail Haniyeh or any other.
• Support for armed struggle rises ten percentage points compared to three months ago, with more than 60% saying it is the best means of ending the Israeli occupation; in the West Bank, the percentage rises further to close to 70%. Moreover, a majority in the West Bank believes that the formation of armed groups in communities subject to settler attacks is the most effective means of combating settler terrorism against towns and villages in the West Bank.
• Despite the above-mentioned reference to the lack of confidence in the seriousness of US and European talk about reviving the two-state solution and despite the increase in support for armed struggle, support for the two-state solution has not dropped in this poll. To the contrary, support for this solution has increased slightly in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This increase seems to come especially from those who believe that the US and European talk about the two-state solution is indeed serious.
Asked about their degree of ‘satisfaction’ of various actors in the Gaza genocide the US was placed last.
For full details of the Poll see:
The Zionist Lobby has become tiresome in accusing its critics of anti semitism. It uses it as a battering ram against all its critics. Think Jeremy Corbyn. The Lobby seeks to define ‘anti semitism’ to suit its own purposes. It has become a victim of its own propaganda.
There has to be a political settlement acceptable to both Palestinians and Israelis. The US has the power to force that settlement but it is in thrall and manipulated by the very powerful Israeli Lobby in the US.
Perhaps Netanyahu will become the scapegoat to save Biden’s political skin.
But one thing is certain.
US ‘leadership’ is failing everywhere. In Gaza, President Biden urges Israel to be more cautious in its killing!
For further reading P&I recommends:
Both Biden and Bibi Could be Victims of the Israeli War Against Hamas
John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.
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