Posts Tagged ‘Palestine’
What is Israel?
Israel is historical fiction. The idea comes from the Bible, the most successful work of fiction ever, and the story of a people called the Israelites, named after their ancestor who was called Israel or Jacob, the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham. The legend developed and the name ‘Israel’ eventually came to refer to the people as a whole. The ‘Land of Israel’ is described as a promised homeland.
That is all there is. It has as much basis in fact as the Hobbit, the Loch Ness monster, Robin Hood or Beowulf.
Then in the 19th Century the idea of Zionism appeared driven by the need for a Jewish homeland in response to antisemitism, and influenced by European nationalism. Zionist leaders decided that there should be a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The idea developed over time, even gaining Hitler’s support in the 1930s, as he thought he could deport all German Jews to Palestine. Eventually after WWII and the Holocaust, the UK and USA supported the invasion of Palestine by about 100,000 Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe. They drove out about 750,000 Palestinians by military force and so established the state of Israel.
This was quite clearly a terrible war crime but to our eternal shame, probably because of guilt over the Holocaust, UK and USA manipulated the UN into post facto ‘legalisation’ of it. There you have the cause of all today’s problems after 77 years of slaughter and subjugation of Palestinians by Israel.
The Greater Israel Project. Netanyahu’s Real Agenda
Netanyahu and his ultra-Zionist regime are pursuing the ‘Greater Israel’ project (Eretz Yisrael HaShlema). This claims the entire area from the River Nile, north-east to include the southern part of Turkey and south-east to include Iraq, Kuwait, west to include a large part of Saudi Arabia and about two-thirds of Egypt. This is based on the Zionist belief that around 2000 BC Abraham said ‘God’ had told him he and his descendants have the exclusive right to this land as defined in the Torah.
This includes annexation of half the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, the Sinai, Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank, Syria and Lebanon. Even the island of Cyprus is included in their ambitions. There is uproar in Cyprus right now from the native inhabitants as great tracts of land in the south of the island are being bought by Zioinist Israelis.
Ridiculous you may say and I would agree with you it seems so but Netanyahu has repeatedly shown his map of his ‘Greater Israel’ in public briefings confirming his government’s intent. Google it. You can see him holding a map with the area shaded in green.
There is also the ‘Ben Gurion Canal Project’ to cut a canal from Ashkelon, just north of Gaza, down to Eilat at the northern tip of the Red Sea. This would bypass the Suez Canal, just in case that ambition cannot be realised.
This is the reality of the ambition of the regime which is crazed with blood lust, expansionism and Zionist supremacy. Everything it is currently doing in Gaza and the West Bank is part of the process.
References
‘It’s Time to Confront Israel’s Version of “From the River to the Sea”’, The Nation, 22nd Nov 2023. https://www.thenation.com/article/world/its-time-to-confront-israels-version-of-from-the-river-to-the-sea/
‘What is the ‘Greater Israel’ movement?’, The Week, 18th Oct 2024. https://theweek.com/world-news/what-is-the-greater-israel-movement
‘Netanyahu says he’s on a ‘historic and spiritual mission,’ also feels a connection to vision of Greater Israel’, Times of Israel, 12th Aug 2025. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-says-hes-on-a-historic-and-spiritual-mission-endorses-vision-of-greater-israel/
‘The “Greater Israel” Plan Has a Colossal Reach’, Fair Observer, 19th Dec 2024. https://www.fairobserver.com/politics/the-greater-israel-plan-has-a-colossal-reach/
‘Greater Israel—From the Euphrates to the Nile’, Times of Israel, 8th Jan 2024. https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/greater-israel-from-the-euphrates-to-the-nile/
‘Greater Israel’, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Israel
The Future of the Land Between the River and the Sea
‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!’ is a legitimate, non-exclusive ambition for freedom of the Palestinian people. It’s nothing like the exclusive, racist and hate filled Israeli slogan ‘Between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty’, as enshrined in Netanyahu’s Likud Party constitution.
For all decent people, it makes no difference if you are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Atheist, Israeli, Palestinian, British, American or a Buddhist from Outer Mongolia. To borrow from Martin Luther King, what matters is the “content of your character” and your actions.
The content of Israel’s ‘character’ and the history of its actions since its inception in 1948 are so disgusting, so barbaric that despite enormous support from the West, it has now descended into such sordid inhumanity that, unless it makes radical change, I don’t think it has any future.
Obviously a place is going to have be found for Israeli citizens, irrespective of whether they are Jews or not. The only solution that makes sense is the formal re-establishment of Palestine under supervision of the UN and the world community. Extraordinary safeguards will have to be put in place to protect the rights of all citizens, preserve their religious freedom and ensure there are no reprisals and no return to the sort of supremacist, apartheid society that Israel established.
Clearly this will not be an easy or trouble-free process but a line has to be drawn under the disaster of the past 77 years and the people of the region given a chance to live in peace, mutual respect and, in time, some sort of harmony.
State Political Violence is Terrorism
When Israel steals land, occupies territory, subjugates an entire population and kills them with impunity, it’s called “the right to self-determination.”
When Palestinians resist military occupation, it’s called “terrorism.”
When Israel bombs hospitals, flattens homes, and kills tens of thousands of civilians, it’s called “defence.”
When tens of thousands take to the streets to protest genocide it is labelled a hate march in support of “terrorism”.
When a far-right extremist murders an MP, it’s reduced to just “murder” with no ideology, no wider context.
When a pro-Palestinian chant is raised, it’s accused of “glorifying terrorism.”
When Israelis say from the River to the Sea it’s glorious assertion of biblical “identity”.
When Palestinians say from the River to the Sea it’s genocidal “terrorism”.
When Israel and the US illegally bomb Iran it called “preemptive defence”.
When a protest group supports Palestinian rights, it’s proscribed as “terrorist.”
When a single Israeli is kidnapped or killed it runs 24 hour news cycles and state leaders condemn it as “terrorism”.
When 50 Palestinians are killed in a single day it is….. “nothing”.
Let’s be clear: more people have been killed by Western state violence than by Islamist terrorism.
Post-9/11 wars led by the US and its allies have caused over 4.5 million deaths. All Islamist terror attacks globally since 1979? Around 220,000 deaths. Yet only one of these is consistently labelled “terrorism.” The other is sanitised as “defence,” “intervention,” or “stabilisation.”
Political violence is political violence. Whether it’s a homemade rocket or a billion-dollar airstrike. The only difference is who has the media, the money, and the power to write the story.
Resist and fight the deep state propaganda machine that keeps you from the truth.
Tyranny Now Rules in UK, Not Just of Government but of Most of Our Corrupt Israel-Sponsored Parliament
In my 68 years, I have never been so ashamed of my country. The decision to proscribe a group supporting the Palestinian cause and to deem it as a terrorist organisation because it has carried out action directly analogous with the behaviour of the Suffragettes, the protestors against the illegal Iraq war and South African apartheid is beyond absurd.
Yes, all these protestors committed criminal offences by damaging property but to decide in 2025 that this puts them in the same category as the 7/7, Manchester Arena bombers or the murderers of PC Keith Palmer is ridiculous. It is more than absurd or ridiculous, it is unjust and, should be unlawful. Certainly the protestors should be tried for criminal damage or whatever crimes are appropriate. The power of their protest is in their readiness to accept punishment for such crimes. If, however, the High Court refuses to halt the outrage of deeming them as terrorists then the rule of law has been subverted by a totalitarian government.
Starmer and his cabinet are already proven to be corrupted by huge amounts of Israeli money and hundreds of MPs on all sides of Parliament are sponsored by the Israeli lobby. Britain’s record in standing up to Israel’s crimes is dreadful but the conduct of Israel since the Hamas atrocity of 7th October 2023 has involved hundreds of war crimes and has now, without doubt, become genocide, the most serious crime of all. The previous Conservative government, led by Rishi Sunak, was bad enough but Starmer is far worse, as Israel’s crimes have become more and more outrageous. Sunak, Starmer and many of their ministers and MPs are fully complicit in these war crimes and justice dictates that some of them should face trial on these issues. As I understand it, war crimes are not covered by Crown Indemnity.
In my view there has not been a more serious juncture in our history since we stood alone against the Nazis in 1940. Israel’s conduct today is of the same nature and Britain’s part in it is a national disgrace. Wherever we go from here, even if the High Court does rein in this latest, disgusting episode, there are senior British politicians who must face trial.
Denial of Israel’s Genocide of Palestinians is the Same as Holocaust Denial.
Except that it is happening right now, streamed live, while our useless, cowardly, so-called ‘leaders’ stand idly by. Never before has such evil been so obvious while those with the power to act are complicit by their negligence.
Israel is a Failed Experiment
Israel was created in 1948 by the UK and USA supporting Israeli terrorists in the violent expulsion of native Arabs from Palestine. They sought to provide a homeland for Jews fleeing Eastern Europe after the Holocaust.
A noble ambition but one pursued without any moral or legal regard for those people being displaced.
Sadly it is an experiment that has failed because even after the initial invasion and colonisation of the land, the Israeli state has continued to seize more land, slaughtering or subjugating the inhabitants.
This has continued every day since and is ramped up even further by the deranged, genocidal rhetoric of minsters like Ben Gvir and Smotrich.
As there is no sign at all of Israel wanting to make peace or restrain its expansionist and genocidal ambitions it is time to call a halt. It is a failed experiment.
This tragedy has been a mistake from the very beginning. Give their stolen land back to the Palestinians and give current Israeli citizens full citizenship of the new Palestine.
Humanity Needs A Rallying Point To Stand Against Israel
I have resisted the urge to write about Israel over the past year because it is so painful. Every day I am moved to greater outrage, often to the point of tears. Never has such evil persisted on this planet while it pretends to be a civilised democracy and is shamefully supported by the USA, UK and EU.
I have no hesitation now in supporting a one-state solution where the state of Israel is dissolved and all its former citizens guaranteed full citizenship in the new state of Palestine. This is justice.
Every red line has been crossed. It is an open truth that Netanyahu promotes conflict to evade both an election and his return to face serious criminal charges in court.
My opposition is not to a people, a race or a religion, it is to a nation state, the state that has become a venal, degenerate insult to the human race and to any concept of decent moral standards.
Israel is evil manifested through its political and military leadership. The IDF is its armed enforcer and the world needs a new judgement on what responsibility must be placed on individual soldiers. If the Nuremberg doctrine applies then the list of war criminals in the IDF is almost too long to comprehend.
Western governments are responsible for their support which clearly breaches international law and many treaties. If they are to maintain any moral leadership, they must, without delay, provide the forum through which Israel and its leaders will be held to account.
Of course, I acknowledge the grievous wrongs against the Israeli people and that those responsible must be held to account. Equally, Israel’s criminals must face justice but the state itself is compromised beyond redemption.
I cannot see that it should survive. The Israeli people must be offered equality and protection in the new state of Palestine, which must be guaranteed at the UN.
The Israeli Psychosis. Its Biggest Threat is Itself.
Both Israelis and Palestinians are suffering extraordinary pain and trauma right now, yet one people’s suffering does not erase the suffering of another. Express horror at the Hamas atrocity and one is accused of defending Israel, a state that is undoubtedly engaged in war crimes. Or express horror at the Israeli massacre of more than 400 children every day in Gaza and one is accused of defending Hamas, a terrorist death cult.
Both Israeli and Palestinian civilians are equal and deserve justice. Similarly, both the Israeli state and Hamas are engaged in mass murder and both deserve the strongest condemnation. Both must be stopped.
But there can be no doubt that the Israeli response is disproportionate. It seems crass to keep score but it cannot be avoided. 1400 Israeli deaths fom the Hamas atrocity. 8,000 Palestinian deaths from the Israeli response. Prior to these events, since 2008, 251 Israeli deaths from the conflict, 5,590 Palestinian deaths. These disproportionate outcomes cannot be ignored.
But ignoring or denying them is a common response from people defending Israel’s position, probably because it is indefensible. But it goes further than that because it’s not just this time, it was the same in 2014 and 2009 and every time the Israeli state goes on a murderous rampage. It extends into every aspect of Israeli politics and is seriously delusional. For instance, a complete failure to accept that the activities of the ‘settlers’ in the West Bank are terrorism, exactly the same as Hamas.
I do wonder whether this is now a condition, a type of psychosis, that needs to be codified. I know there are many Israelis and Jewish people that do not suffer from it but there’s a hard core that is seriously affected and they are driven by the behaviour of Netanyahu and other zealots in the Knesset.
This continuing behaviour is incompatible with Israel continuing to be recognised as a functioning state. It has failed.
Israel was created by the Western powers after World War II as a homeland for the Jewish people after the Holocaust, the greatest ever crime against humanity. But the land for the new state was cleared in 1948 by the violent expulsion of at least 700,000 Palestinians who already lived there. There is no easy way to say this but that the British and Americans who were principally responsible, placed less value on the lives of Arabs than Jews. It is this racist crime that continues to echo strongly after 75 years and is why the UK and the USA keep compounding it by unconditional support for Israel. It’s like a murderer who thought they got away with the crime but new witnesses keep on turning up who also have to be murdered.
Israel’s ‘right to exist’ is the mantra that has dominated its conduct since 1948 and understandably because many Arab states are sworn to destroy it. But its greatest threat is itself and it is precious close to forfeiting its right to exist because it cannot comply with international law and reasonable standards of civilised behaviour, even in war.
Everything depends on how long Israel can sustain the support of the USA and even that must have its limits. I can see it withdrawing its supply of weapons and the time for that is now.
There have to be some standards in civilisation. We know that death cults such as Hamas and theocracies such as Iran have no respect for such ideas but if Israel want to continue to be part of the family of nations then it has to rein in its murderous revenge and abuse of power. It must stop the reckless killing of civilians.
Peter Reynolds 