It's always the Palestinians' fault... Not!

January 24, 2025

I’ve always respected Jack Waterford’s writing but this … “the war on Gaza … was consciously started by Hamas, which … has long been provoking Israel, …” brought me up short.

Hamas consciously started this genocide? (It’s not a war.) Please show me the proof. Long provoking Israel? How convenient to ignore almost a century of provocation by Israel itself and its predecessor terrorist groups.

Compared to the combined Israel-US might, anything Hamas could inflict is an irritation in comparison. The Palestinian death toll has always far exceeded Israel’s. There were, and are, thousands upon thousands of Palestinian hostages, including children, held by Israel for “years” without trial. Since 7 Oct. 2023 we have witnessed that Hamas, or Palestine, simply does not, never has had, the ability to counter their century long persecution.

To me, the more likely scenario is that Netanyahu, like Trump with his eyes on legal proceedings against him, was biding his time to “blow the joint up”. On 7 October it could just as easily have been one rocket that killed nobody that triggered the genocide that we’re watching now on our screens in real time.

Whatever …. this did NOT start in 2023.