This week we did our best this week to cover the historic case against Israel for genocide lodged by South Africa at the Hague.
That includes the presentation by an Irish lawyer saying that the onslaught is “unprecedented” even to humanitarian veterans of the killing fields in Cambodia.
And we have repeatedly documented a key part of the case: genocidal comments by Israeli officials.
The war on Gaza “is a struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness,” Prime Minister Netanyahu says. There are no such thing as “’uninvolved’ civilians in Gaza,” says Israel’s liberal Zionist president, Isaac Herzog. While leftist politician Yair Golan says that the Gazans can just “die from starvation, it’s totally legitimate,” Jonathan Ofir reports for us.
Other centrist politicians have called for the “relocation” of Gaza’s entire population. “Let’s spread them across the globe. There are 2.5 million people there. If each country takes in 20,000 individuals, that would involve 100 countries…it is better to be a refugee in Canada than in Gaza.”
Even Joe Biden has described this murderous intent. “It was pointed out to me — by Bibi — that ‘Well, you carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died.’”
We reported that savage statement. But American media have ignored that comment.
Here’s the New York Times coverage of the hearing at the Hague this week. It offered only one instance of genocidal commentary by Israeli officials– a two-word quote by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, “who said Israel would impose a complete siege on the territory because it was fighting ‘human animals.’”
There is no way the Times would cite just one comment if Russian officials had been as blatant as Israelis, Donald Johnson commented on our site. “An objective newspaper would try to present the strength of the case on both sides.”
James North detailed the Times whitewashing of the extremism of the Netanyahu government.
You think you are finally going to see a long report on the calls for ethnic cleansing from Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister.
No such luck.
The Times coverage of Gaza is so slanted you can’t parody it. The newspaper of record devoted a lengthy story to a lawsuit by Harvard students against their university calling it a ‘Bastion’ of Antisemitism.” Because of the harsh criticism of Israel.
And what is one of the prime pieces of evidence?
The case points to a screening at Harvard Divinity School last September of the film “Israelism,” which argues that American Jews raise their children with pro-Israel indoctrination. The screening caused [Divinity student Alexander] Kestenbaum to suffer “anxiety and gross discomfort,” the complaint said.
So: Harvard is antisemitic because someone screened “Israelism”.
Let’s be clear. Israelism is a documentary (see our review here) about the generational Jewish divide over Israel directed by two young Jews who are in the “movement of young American Jews battling the old guard to redefine Judaism’s relationship with Israel.” And that’s antisemitism?
This is absurd. Israel supporters have had such kid-glove treatment for so long they have lost all sense of reality and proportion. But the New York Times is cossetting them.
Thanks for reading,
Phil Weiss
The newspaper of record, indeed. Wonder how Judith Miller is doing. Millions of dead, injured and displaced Iraqis on a pack of lies that Ms Miller and her bosses at the NYT peddled. I don’t know how some people can sleep at night.
The film “Israelism” argues that American Jews raise their children with pro-Israel indoctrination. The screening caused [Divinity student Alexander] Kestenbaum to suffer “anxiety and gross discomfort,” the complaint said.
He was made uncomfortable by the statement that American Jews raise their children to be pro-Israel? Why? Was he raised like that? and now he thinks it was a bad thing?
“There are no such thing as “’uninvolved’ civilians in Gaza,” says Israel’s liberal Zionist president, Isaac Herzog.” Well, maybe Hamas thought, thinks, there are no uninvolved Jewish Israelis. They may be right. Even kindergarteners. Miko Peled says he knew the ranks of officers in the IDF before he knew the alphabet.
How Israeli forces trapped and killed ravers at the Nova Festival
Israeli officials allege that Hamas carried out a pre-mediated and carefully executed massacre of 364 Israeli civilians at the Nova music festival near Gaza on 7 October as part of the Palestinian resistance’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. They claim that Hamas and other Palestinians had hours to murder Israeli partygoers before the army reached the scene.
However, new details have emerged showing that Israel’s Border Police was deployed at the Nova site before Hamas stumbled on the festival, causing the eruption of a major battle.
While some ravers were indeed killed by the Palestinian resistance – whether by intent or in the chaos of battle – the evidence now suggests that the majority of civilian deaths were likely inflicted by Israeli forces themselves.
This was due to the overwhelming firepower employed by occupation forces – including from Apache attack helicopters – and because Tel Aviv issued the controversial Hannibal Directive to prevent Hamas from taking Israeli party-goers as captives.
Operation Philistine Horseman
At 6:30 am, just after sunrise on 7 October, fighters from the Hamas military wing, the Qassam Brigades, launched its military operation, firing a barrage of missiles toward Israel. Thousands of its fighters and those from other factions breached the Gaza border fence in multiple locations to attack surrounding Israeli military bases and take captives in settlements as leverage for a mass prisoner swap deal.
Though it would take the army hours to respond, units of the Border Police were quickly deployed. At 6:42 am, a mere 12 minutes after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was launched, the Southern District Commander of the Israeli Police, Amir Cohen, gave an order code-named “Philistine Horseman,” sending police officers and Border Police who were on alert to the sites of various battles.
This included members of the Yamam, and Tequila commando units that have no police duties but conduct military and counter-terrorism operations, including undercover assassinations in the Gaza Strip and occupied-West Bank.
According to a senior Israeli officer speaking with by the New York Times, the first formal reinforcements to southern Israel came from commandos that arrived by helicopter.
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/how-israeli-forces-trapped-and-killed-ravers-at-the-nova-festival
Yet again, a good chunk of the coverage NYT runs about the “rampant” antisemitism on campus (which never involves discussion of neonazis) is actually about antizionist Jews hurting the feelings of zionist Jews; and NYT hopes it can coast on its readers’ lack of curiosity to relay as little information about Israelism as possible. It causes “discomfort” for zionist Jews because it is a film with former zionist Jews talking about their indoctrination and experiences with their shul’s “education” about Israel and within Israel itself.
Watching Israelism was cathartic for me, especially after years of undoing the damage my zionist education did to me. I have tried to describe to gentiles what it’s like to have Israel specifically pushed at you so consistently as a young person, and how little actual “education” is involved in this and how it’s skewed, and I’ve found no better way to relay it than this doc.
But the real point here; indeed, with over 23,000 Palestinians dead and 100,000 injured or missing – all while its Prime Minister threatens further violence in the midst of hearings at The Hague – I find it incredible that even my rock-bottom expectations for US media treatment were too optimistic. Did NYT even do anything to retract or update their story about the woman in the “black dress” from October 7 – the one her family was very vocally contradicting on social media?