printMurder with majority approval is still murder, whomever the perpetrator. Whether it is committed by actors within or without The State; by the designated ‘good guys’ or by the ‘bad guys’; murder of innocents is still murder ~ilana
The razing of Gaza by Benjmain Netanyahu, abetted by Joe Biden and his Uniparty accomplices, in the course of which civilians are dying: This is murder with malice aforethought, a concept that includes ‘deaths resulting from actions that display a depraved indifference to life! ~ilana
UPDATED (11/9): STOP. WAKE THE FUCK UP. SAVE YOUR SOULS. The razing of Gaza and the ongoing murder and displacement of thousands of innocent civilians by the Israel Defense Forces, with US imprimatur—these are war crimes, mass murder, ethnic cleansing, sheer evil.
NEW COLUMN IS “Bibi Obliterates Memory Of Oct. 7 Martyrs; Creates New Martyrs In Gaza.” So far, three exceedingly courageous publications have published it: my home at The New American.
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
And, The Mises Institute (“Bibi Netanyahu May Find Himself In the Dock, In The Hague.”)
https://mises.org/power-market/bibi-netanyahu-may-find-himself-dock-hague
Note that this is a column penned by a systematic rightist, hence , I offer facts about Palestinian voting patterns and agency. I do this in order to dispel the Disneyfied foreign-policy narrative of the West, and in order to make this clear:
Whatever we think of people, as a group; ethical human-beings can never-ever endorse their wholesale murder. I think these facts strengthen the rightist antiwar message, as they are made from a place of reality, not hippie naiveté.
I thank my editors at TNA for standing by The Truth.
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity has always stood for the Truth.
That Truth is now visible from space.
I thank my podcast partner, David Vance, for sharing a moral commitment, and, well, having the proverbial male bits so few men have.
I am still hopeful there will be others.
Alas, little has changed since Iraq. This response to the razing of Gaza has elements of an Iraq redux, where you tell the unvarnished truth, https://www.ilanamercer.com/2004/11/liberation-has-a-body-count/, become persona non grata forever; and 15 years hence, you get to watch fools slowly feel their way to the truth as you and your ideological ilk had articulated, at the time it mattered, and against your own professional interests, https://www.ilanamercer.com/2015/05/iraq-liars-and-deniers-we-knew-then-what-we-know-now/ in dozens of essays, starting on September 19, 2002: https://www.ilanamercer.com/2002/09/why-so-many-americans-don-t-support-attacking-iraq .
Many are the good people who learn to trust you; the rest remain as dumb as fuck.
Excerpt from “BIBI OBLITERATES MEMORY OF OCT. 7 MARTYRS; CREATES NEW MARTYRS IN GAZA“:
https://thenewamerican.com/opinion/bibi-obliterates-memory-of-oct-7-martyrs-creates-new-martyrs-in-gaza/
&
It’s simple: If you know in advance that your actions will cause the death of thousands of civilians; attached to your criminal actions (actus reus) is a guilty mind (mens rea), which means malice aforethought, also known as intent, in Western jurisprudence and judicial philosophy.
The razing of Gaza and the ongoing murder of thousands of civilians by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), with western imprimatur, is a war crime. Strafing civilian populations and pulverizing entire neighborhoods to ostensibly “soften” the few embedded targets within—this violates natural law, international law, and Just War Theory.
It was true when Genghis Bush dropped daisy cutters and cluster bombs on Iraqi civilians, killing and displacing hundreds of thousands of them; it was true when allied forces firebombed Dresden and Hamburg, and it was true when Harry Truman dropped atomic bombs on Japanese civilians.
Not that it helped his victims, but Truman icily expressed some “regret” for “the [beastly] necessity of wiping out whole populations”: “I know that Japan is a terribly cruel and uncivilized nation in warfare,” he told an ardent supporter, “but I can’t bring myself to believe that because they are beasts, we should ourselves act in that same manner.”
We know ineluctably that Gaza is “a terribly cruel and uncivilized nation in warfare.” The sympathies expressed by Gazans toward their neighbors, victims of the October 7 slaughter, were meager and grudging, coerced by media, for the most. …
…. These uncomfortable facts notwithstanding, murder with majority approval is still murder, whomever the perpetrator. Whether it is committed by actors within or without the State; by the designated “good guys” or the “bad guys”; murder of innocents is still murder. …
…THE REST: “BIBI OBLITERATES MEMORY OF OCT. 7 MARTYRS; CREATES NEW MARTYRS IN GAZA” :
https://thenewamerican.com/opinion/bibi-obliterates-memory-of-oct-7-martyrs-creates-new-martyrs-in-gaza/
Great column, great podcast. Always like your conversations with David Vance.
The final word hasn’t been spoken until ilana speaks her mind. Another textbook lesson here: Never flinch from the truth; never elide inconvenient facts. Gather it all together and then apply first principles. I always learn something new from her.
To wit: The IDF just another “unthinking,” lazy , and corrupt standing Army? Well, I mean, like many Americans of my age (never mind what), I still thought of the IDF as Ari ben Canaan and Moshe Dayan (very popular with Vietnam-era conservatives) and Dan Shomron and Ariel Sharon (the Israeli Stonewall?). But spades are spades, and the IDF’s failure in the initial stages of the attack skew heavily toward lese-majeste.
Dreadful as this business is, do we really need to take a side, other than The Donald’s take on Ukraine: “I just want people to stop dying.” As ilana demonstrates, it’s terrible the carnage among Gazan citizens, but they have a history of troublemaking and voting for terrorists. If the Egyptians and the Jordanians don’t find them a particularly savory lot, why should we? And Israel? There was great sympathy on October 7th, but their revenge is straight out of the Churchill playbook–and he got it from Grant and Sherman. Can we condone such a response?
I take the America First–as opposed to American–position on this matter. I hate it for the victims on both sides. I think the treatment of Palestinians is criminal. But I also think Israel has a right to exist and to defend itself. From an America First perspective, the most alarming thing has been the huge stateside protest. I hadn’t realized how many barbarians are inside the gates. Jews in New York–New York!!–were told to shelter in place the other day. A people who have for years flourished, if not dominated The Big Apple, and now they’ve got to be cautious about going outside. Wokeness and open borders (or do I repeat myself?) are a toxic cocktail, no?
That’s about all I’ve got. A position. Otherwise, I say it’s not our fight and I hope we stay out of it.
But that train’s already left the station. A lot of money will be spent. Good chance more American lives will be lost. We’ll have some ‘splainin to do our Arab “allies,” the ones who buy so many Herc’s and F-16s. Israel will be lucky if they survive. The rest of us will be lucky if our leaders stop short of World War III.
I’ll bet you one thing, though: America’s about to take in a great multitude of Gazan refugees. The more the merrier. The sooner the better for the current regime, who are no doubt already trying to figure out how to get them as many mail-in ballots as they can for next November.
Thanks for doing what you can, ilana.
Juvy, I shall try publish this fine comment as one of your posts, time permitting, as you are, after all, a BAB author and A-Lister.