{"id":44948,"date":"2023-12-06T15:06:54","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T23:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=44948"},"modified":"2023-12-06T15:06:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T23:06:54","slug":"the-obliteration-of-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/06\/the-obliteration-of-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"The Obliteration of Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views<\/a> with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

We are witnessing the obliteration of Gaza. The death toll has already surpassed 16,000 as Israel continues to pummel targets with American-made bombs and missiles. Even CNN is worried (from my email update this AM):<\/p>\n

Top UN officials are warning of an “apocalyptic” situation in Gaza with “no place safe to go” for civilians as the deepening humanitarian crisis sparks international concern<\/a>. Israel is expanding ground operations to the entire territory to “eliminate” Hamas and has told\u00a0Palestinians to flee large swaths of southern Gaza, where many had previously sought refuge. But the war-torn region is in the midst of a near-total internet blackout<\/a> as the last major telecommunications operator said services are completely cut off. This means many Palestinians are unable to communicate with one another or call for help while evacuating, and emergency workers can’t coordinate their responses.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Caitlin Johnstone has a telling article<\/a> in which she states an important truth: Israel couldn\u2019t be doing this without generous U.S. support. Israel is dropping the bombs, firing the missiles, and shooting the artillery rounds and bullets, but the U.S. is largely serving as the merchant of death for all this, though \u201cmerchant\u201d is the wrong word. The U.S. is giving all this deadly weaponry to Israel as \u201caid,\u201d even as there\u2019s much rhetorical gnashing of teeth in Washington about Israel\u2019s \u201cindiscriminate\u201d bombing and wanton killing of Palestinian innocents, including thousands of children. I say \u201crhetorical\u201d because as Johnstone notes, the U.S. government could curtail Israeli military action by turning off the spigot of arms flowing from U.S. arsenals and warehouses to Israel.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not going to happen. AIPAC has a hammerlock on Congress; those few members of Congress who\u2019ve called for a ceasefire in Gaza are already being targeted by the powerful pro-Israel lobby, with AIPAC promising to spend upwards of $100 million to unseat those politicians who aren\u2019t consumed by bloodlust against Gaza. The power of AIPAC is reinforced here by the MICC, the military-industrial-congressional complex that Ike warned us about in 1961, which stands to profit immensely from more war in the Middle East as well as Ukraine. The combination of AIPAC with the MICC is akin to Mechagodzilla, an almost unstoppable monster of immense power.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\"\"<\/picture>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
They create a desert and call it \u201cpeace\u201d:
\nGaza turned to rubble<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Godzilla in its various incarnations would be hard-pressed to duplicate the scenes of devastation we\u2019re seeing in Gaza. Israel is practicing its own version of the infamous statement<\/a> from America\u2019s war against Vietnam: \u201cIt became necessary to destroy the town to save it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Israeli version: We had to destroy Gaza to save it from Hamas.<\/p>\n

It made no sense in Vietnam, and it makes no sense today in Gaza. But this is not about making sense: it\u2019s about power and vengeance and profit.<\/p>\n

William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author\u2019s permission. We are witnessing the obliteration of Gaza. The death toll has already surpassed 16,000 as Israel continues to pummel targets with American-made bombs and missiles. Even CNN is worried (from my email update this AM): Top UN officials are warning of an “apocalyptic” situation in Gaza with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-44948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"AIPAC and the MICC as Mechagodzilla"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44948"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44970,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44948\/revisions\/44970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44948"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=44948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}