Obliteration was always, and remains, the aim

August 11, 2025

Everything John Menadue writes of the genocide in Gaza is true. I would add only a couple of things.

First, as 7 October 2023 didn’t come out of nowhere, neither did the Nakba. In 1948, Israel grew out of several terrorist organisations and its early prime ministers came from within those organisations, ie they were terrorists.

I couldn’t find a quote I remembered from Moshe Dayan on a TV show to the effect “Israel was taken at the end of a gun and will be kept the same way” but, in searching, found three others from him showing the original intention to clear Palestine of Palestinians.

1. “We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and gun barrel, we shall not be able to plant a tree or build a house.” (1956)

2. “There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population. (1969)”

3. “[his] vision: “a new State of Israel with broad frontiers, strong and solid, with the authority of the Israel Government extending from the Jordan [river] to the Suez Canal."(1973)

Second, anyone surprised by 7 October wasn’t paying attention or chose to ignore what they saw.