The Dream of an Anti-War America
Part 2: The Netanyahu Narrative
America was lied into needless war in the Middle East under George Bush and that is happening again right now under Joe Biden.
I do not believe we should allow our leaders to sacrifice the lives of American soldiers without truly existential threats to our safety and security. That is not what we face in the Middle East right now and we need to question the lies and deception used to justify Israel’s escalation in their war efforts. After Israel carried out escalatory strikes in the capitals of both Iran and Lebanon, Biden redeployed the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group which contains an aircraft carrier, a nuclear submarine, and fighter jet squadrons to join the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group which is already operating in the region.
That repositioning came alongside the Secretary of State making clear that the United States will go to war to protect Israel from retaliation;
The purpose of the deployment of these assets is…to make clear…we are fully prepared to defend Israel.
We are now standing on the precipice of largescale warfare in the Middle East and Netanyahu is trying to draw the United States into it. Israel has struggled militarily to fight against the meek Hamas terrorist group in Gaza but now is provoking the much stronger IRGC in Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon in a direct attempt to entrap full-scale US participation in the war on Israel’s behalf. Biden, by moving US troops into harm’s way, is enabling Netanyahu to sacrifice American lives for his war ambitions. Biden has already led three US servicemembers to their deaths through his “ironclad” support for Israel with absolutely no red lines whatsoever. Now by redeploying even more US troops directly into harms way, that number might shoot up very quickly. And just like George Bush, Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal lying America into what would be a devastating war that does not serve our interests. It’s unclear whether Biden is knowingly leading America to war and doesn’t care, or if Biden is playing checkers while Netanyahu is playing chess. Either way, it is absolutely imperative that the American people question whether we want to go to war for Israel.
There could be peace right now if only Netanyahu would accept it. After Biden laid out a 3 phase ceasefire plan, the Biden Administration repeatedly lied about the proposal by making the false claim that Israel agreed to it while Hamas has not. In reality, Israel and Hamas have agreed to different ceasefire proposals; “Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire in Gaza” while Netanyahu wants a temporary ceasefire with the war resuming after Israeli hostages are returned. In the proposal agreed to by Netanyahu, Israel would pause the bombing and siege, get some hostages back, maintain a constant military occupation of Gaza throughout the whole thing, then resume the war. Netanyahu has unequivocally refused to allow phase 2 and phase 3 of Biden’s ceasefire proposal to ever take place while Hamas has advocated for a permanent ceasefire to be adopted immediately. Instead of telling the truth or pressuring Netanyahu at all, the Biden administration has lied over and over about the need for Hamas to agree to Israel’s altered terms of the deal. And Netanyahu’s refusal of peace extends to their regional neighbors too; Iran alluded to being willing to restrict their retaliation against Israel over a ceasefire deal in Gaza with Hamas. There does not need to be a war if only Netanyahu would withdraw from Gaza and agree to peace.
Netanyahu does not want peace and has been against the peace process since he took office after encouraging the assassination of his pro-peace predecessor. There does not need to be a war at all. Israel must become a partner for peace for there to ever be peace. Israel has been opposed to peaceful coexistence throughout Netanyahu’s entire time in office. Israel has actually rejected all ceasefire offers which could have reasonably created peace and facilitated a safe return of all hostages.
Israel rescued 8 hostages held by Hamas through military action at great cost to the Israeli military and Palestinian civilians. The IDF also killed numerous Israeli hostages held by Hamas through airstrikes and by shooting them while they were walking unarmed waving a white flag. Alternatively, 105 hostages were returned by Hamas during the November ceasefire deal without killing anyone. If Biden cared at all about the safety and well-being of hostages held by Hamas, he’d be singularly focused on forcing Netanyahu to accept the return of hostages in exchange for peace. Instead Netanyahu has maintained a totally illegitimate war ambition of “total victory” as a means to continue his war indefinitely using the hostages as a tool of political rhetoric. Netanyahu is also responsible for a brutal indiscriminate bombing campaign in Gaza and the collective punishment of all Palestinians in Gaza through his siege. In addition, Israel has been increasing their illegal annexation of territory in the West Bank and is becoming increasingly draconian by arresting citizens for showing sympathy for Palestinians on social media. And now Israel is also attacking their regional neighbors with the explicit goal of drawing in the western world on their behalf;
“Israel expects France and Britain to publicly clarify to Iran that it is unacceptable for it to attack Israel and that if Iran attacks, the US-led coalition will join Israel not only in defense but also in an attack against significant targets in Iran”
To me, a leader who respects the lives and sacrifice of those serving in the military would not send them to fight in a unnecessary war to defend an apartheid state which is doing everything it can to provoke a regional war. Biden should not be risking American lives for Israel's war aims. There is a highly prevalent propaganda narrative dominating mainstream media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war; the Netanyahu narrative. Netanyahu’s propaganda narrative goes like this;
There was peace before October 7th and Hamas broke that peace with a totally unprovoked terrorist attack against Israeli civilians
Hamas committed the most heinous crimes of rape and torture possible on October 7th in order to inflict psychological damage against Israel. From beheading babies to putting babies in ovens, the evil Hamas terrorists committed some of the most vile, disgusting crimes in human history
Israel has no partner for peace among the Palestinians who are purely motivated by anti-Semitic rage intending to kill as many Jews as possible. If Hamas put down their guns, there would be peace. If Israel put down their guns, they would be the victims of genocide.
Israel has to continue their military offensive to get back the hostages captured by Hamas and held in the most brutal conditions imaginable.
Even bigger than that, Israel is in a self-defense war against existential threats in the region who are hellbent on the destruction of Israel. Israel is in a battle for civilization against barbarism. From the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the IRGC from Iran, Israel is just seeking to secure their own survival while up against a region of hostile Arab nations.
The Israeli Defense Force is the most moral military on Earth with an extreme focus on respecting international law and human rights. Hamas attacks civilians, but Israel would never do the same. All civilians killed by the IDF are a result of Hamas using their own people as human shields.
There is no famine in Gaza and the only reason people are hungry is because Hamas steals humanitarian aid.
Israel cannot end their military campaign without “total victory” because they would leave themselves unsafe while allowing Hamas terrorists to get away with October 7th. Only through military victory or Hamas totally surrendering could the war in Gaza end.
The entire Netanyahu narrative is nothing more than fabricated propaganda. The October 7th justification for Israel’s current military action is Netanyahu’s 9/11; a real attack used by dishonest leaders as political rhetoric to launch offensive and illegal military campaigns mostly against innocent civilians. Netanyahu’s totally unreasonable condition of “total victory” is equivalent to Bush’s totally unreasonable condition of defeating “every terrorist group of global reach.” Netanyahu’s perspective should be met with intense skepticism just like George Bush’s should’ve been. But it’s been very successful because if you repeat a lie often enough people start to believe it. Netanyahu has been allowed to present his views totally unchallenged to Congress, to NBC News, to CNN, to Fox News, to the Wall Street Journal, to Bill Maher, to Ben Shapiro, to Jordan Peterson, and to many more mainstream outlets. The narrative of Netanyahu is repeated time and time again by the mainstream media in America totally unchallenged as if it were actually true. Alternatively, if you google the Hamas statement explaining their motivation and explanation for October 7th, not a single one of those mainstream sources had a single article or anything at all to say about it. Actually, I’ve never seen Bill Maher, Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, CNN, Fox News, Newsmax, or nearly any mainstream media source in America ever even attempt to humanize and present the views of Palestinians to their audience. Obviously, if we’re gonna listen to one side of this war might as well listen to the other side also. So the Hamas narrative called “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” goes like this;
Palestinians have been fighting for their own self-determination for almost 100 years in the territory of both modern day Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territory. First they were subjugated under British Colonialism then in 1948 by Zionist occupation with the mass immigration of European Jews to Israel. The State of Israel was born unjustly with the first Nakba, or mass expulsion of Palestinians, and continues to be unjust to this day.
There was no peace prior to October 7th. Palestinians have been living under a brutal apartheid occupation enacted by the Israeli Defense Force alongside armed Israeli settlers. Palestinians have exhausted peaceful pleas for political reform through the Boycott Divestment Sanction movement as well as the Great March of Return. Peaceful reform was unsuccessful and met with violent crackdowns so the armed resistance attack of October 7th is a justified and legal act of last-resort.
Palestinians have an inalienable right to self-determination and self-defense. Hamas was legally entitled to armed resistance against the oppressive force illegally occupying Palestinian territory.
Hamas did not use rape as a weapon of war; those are fabrications of the IDF because the “Israeli official narrative had always sought to demonize the Palestinian resistance, while also legalizing its brutal aggression on Gaza.” Hamas encourages international investigations into October 7th to ascertain the validity of all claims made about that day.
October 7th was targeted against IDF military installations and Hamas took great lengths to avoid civilian casualties, but did run into armed settlers fighting alongside the IDF. Hamas was unaware of the Music festival when they launched the attack and could not have planned for the encounter or how individual militants would react in the heat of the moment. Regardless, Hamas did not possess weaponry capable of charring up cars which were fleeing the Nova Music Festival so how those victims passed should be investigated.
Israeli defenses were shockingly weak when the October 7th attack began and the IDF took an unreasonable amount of time to respond to it then enacted the Hannibal Directive and ended up killing a significant portion of their own citizens. An investigation into that is needed.
Hamas is not a terrorist organization. Just like Nelson Mandela and the ANC were labeled terrorists in Apartheid South Africa and America’s founders we terrorists according to the British Empire, Palestinians engaged in a legitimate armed-struggle for self-determination are labeled as terrorists by their oppressors too
Western nations like the United States are complicit in Israel’s illegal annexation and apartheid occupation by enabling Israel to evade one UN resolution after another. Hamas called on Western nations to start enforcing UN resolutions but instead they enabled Israel’s crimes against humanity committed against Palestinians.
Hamas only took hostages;
as a means of leverage to negotiate with Israel to release the thousands of Palestinians illegally kept in Israeli detention centers,
and to deter retaliatory escalation from the IDF in response to the October 7th self-defense attack, evidenced by the October 16th offer for both sides to release all hostages if the Israeli aggression were to stop.
Unlike Netanyahu, Palestinians are not allowed to present their views to the United States Congress. The modern GOP is openly bigoted against Palestinians and many Democrats are too. Even though the Uncommitted Movement exerted pressure on Kamala Harris to allow a Palestinian to speak at the DNC, she refused to allow even 5 minutes to hear their plight. Democrats like Kamala Harris successfully sent the message that their humanity and sympathy does not extend to Palestinians. In a truly sickening act of depravity, the DNC was themed around “joy” and “happy warriors” while attendees covered their ears on the way in and out to avoid hearing the Uncommitted Movement reading the names of dead Palestinians killed by Israel. Alternatively, in the end of July Netanyahu presented his narrative straight to the United States Congress and was met with 23 standing ovations and 39 total breaks for applause. Netanyahu spoke to Congress for just over 40 minutes with 10 whole minutes of pure applause. That Kim-Jong Un level of sycophantic adulation for Netanyahu in the United States Congress is thanks to America’s worst foreign election interference threat; the Israel Lobby. Even though over 100 Democrats chose not to attend the event, their empty seats were filled by lobbyists of the Israeli government.
Groups like AIPAC have flooded the Democratic primary with over $100 million dollars to oust critics of the government of Israel. In 2 of the most expensive primary races ever, AIPAC successfully funded primary challengers to replace members of the progressive left who have been critical of Israel’s war in Gaza. The massive influx of money into these races focuses on whatever political attack polls as most effective while avoiding discussing the topic of Israel. The result of Israel Lobby money funding dishonest advertising against those critical of Israel has been a purge of members of Congress willing to risk their political careers to tell the truth about what Israel is currently doing in Gaza, the West Bank, and against their regional neighbors. Instead, Israel Lobby manipulation of our political process purchased a gross glorification of Netanyahu when he visits with an unquestioned acceptance from our government of his viewpoint as the truth. Now many Democrats and nearly the entire Republican party have an “AIPAC babysitter” that works directly with members of Congress to design their foreign policy perspectives and rhetoric. Members of the United States government have been the victims of the Israel Lobby’s political manipulation for so long that they’ve become true believers, akin to members of a cult. But which narrative more closely reflects the reality on the ground?
The facts of the matter are;
The Israeli Knesset voted against a 2 state solution proving Israel is not a partner for peace,
The war did not start October 7th and there was no peace for Palestinians. The ICJ found Israel guilty of a 57 year illegal annexation and apartheid occupation of Palestinian territory confirming that fact that Israel is an apartheid state,
Israel uses Palestinians as human shields to inspect potentially booby-trapped tunnels as well as shooting Palestinians then tying them to the roof of a jeep as a human shield,
We know for a fact that the Israeli military lies about Hamas using Human Shields to justify targeted attacks on civilians.
If you mistakenly believe that Israel is not targeting civilians, please watch the numerous videos of children being dragged out of rubble caused by Israeli bombs,
Or watch Hind Rajab, her entire family, and paramedics trying to save her be targeted by the IDF,
And teenagers walking through rubble posing a threat to nobody also being targeted in a precision strike,
And the numerous IDF bombings of civilians in tent cities,
Tent cities created to shelter Palestinians displaced because the IDF leveled nearly all civilian infrastructure in Gaza,
And Israel also targets water treatment facilities as part of their use of starvation as a method of warfare,
Israeli Minister Smotrich is publicly advocating for the use of starvation as a method of warfare, which Israel is undeniably practicing already,
Netanyahu & Gallant have ICC arrest warrants being requested for the use of starvation as a method of warfare and indiscriminate bombing of Gaza,
A man-made famine is happening in Gaza caused by “Israel’s siege”
And the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to immediately halt its illegal military offensive based on its obligations under the Genocide Convention
So, the apartheid Government of Israel launched a genocidal campaign of indiscriminate bombing, collective punishment, and the use of starvation as a method of warfare in response to the October 7th Hamas attack. Hamas describes that attack as an act of self-defense against an outside occupying force which also seems to jive with the facts more than the proven false Israeli narrative that there was peace on October 6th. The indisputable fact of the matter is this; if you continue to support the apartheid government of Israel while they are engaged in genocidal war crimes against Palestinians, you cannot honestly also support Palestinian human rights and self-determination.
The United States must compel Israel to become a partner for peace because Netanyahu has made it abundantly clear that he opposes the peace process. Kamala Harris, through her disrespect for Palestinians at the DNC, lost my vote. I know it sounds far fetched but democrats need to acknowledge the reality of the situation, embrace the truth, and oppose war crimes even when Israel commits them. If Kamala Harris is able to come out and say ‘Look Israel is not the vibrant democracy which respects human rights like we thought it was and right now religious fundamentalists in that nation are committing genocidal war crimes so America can no longer be complicit,’ that's a message that will earn back my vote. Kamala needs to clarify a new approach different from Biden's by vowing to cut off offensive military weapons to Israel until they;
Commit to a 2 state solution
End their use of starvation as a weapon of war
End their indiscriminate bombing of Gaza
End their aggression against other nations in the region
Turn over Israeli war criminals to the ICC
Pay reparations to Palestinians as the ICJ ordered
And end their apartheid occupation of illegally annexed Palestinian territory
Biden blew up the Nordstream pipeline and no one said a word. Do Americans think he’s going to stop escalating while he’s still in office?
Screw you Biden.