Why would anybody dare be critical of things such as this?
Credit today’s Haaretz.
The world’s greatest democracy when it comes to color and tribe blind equal rights under the law…..
“Death Penalty Bill Mandates Execution for Palestinians and Imprisonment for Israelis for Identical Offenses
Legal and security experts who took part in a Knesset panel on the legislation – including representatives of the Justice Ministry and the Defense Ministry – opposed the bill's wording. They warned that several of its provisions are unlawful and carry 'grave international implications'”
> “Upon this a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or feared than loved?
> It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with.”
The moralizers of our age seem to have forgotten Machiavelli's timeless lessons. Luckily for Israel, Bibi was paying attention in class.
Most of what you say comes from leftist media, and CNN is a leftist channel, but ignoring the genocide of Christians in Nigeria by the Boko Haram terrorist group is normal. Those people aren't human, but Gazans are human, and Sudanese aren't human, but Gazans are human. This is the logic of the Islamist left.
What is remarkable is how no one has commented just how much of this article was written by ChatGPT. One excerpt stands out in particular: "Yahya Sinwar and the Hamas leadership sought to halt the momentum of Israel–Saudi normalization and derail the wider regional realignment taking shape around the Abraham Accords. Their fear was not simply Israeli weakness but Israeli integration. Their objective was to break it."
Besides the obvious "not just/simply x, but y" that has come to dominate 50% of the writing on this website, iIt seems the LLM got confused here, as it should say "Israeli strength" for the sentence to make any sense at all. Why would Sinwar fear "Israeli weakness"? Lmao
“The United States cannot match the volume of China’s lending or its funding for ports and railways, but it does not need to. Instead, it can offer a combination of security guarantees, intelligence cooperation, defense technology, and alliances that is without rival.”
Perhaps the most delusional statement ever!
See Afghanistan and Ukraine for recent proof of that.
Afganistan had a civil war, it's different case. Ukraine never had any US security guarantees, Ukraine was not even a partner country or in the sphere of interests. Japan and S. Korea have binding security guarantees.
I found your piece more convincing in terms of strategic usefulness rather Israel being popular. Israel can only move towards normalising relations with regimes that are undemocratic precisely because it is so unpopular in the region.
Israel has always been unpopular in the region, regardless of what it does, or doesn't do. Basically, that ought to give it a free hand, though it restrains itself.
No,I am stupid,so don't use that childish insult to try & assert your non-existent superiority.Why do you scorn the notion of a ' political ideology',& assume it's a negative thing? Surely all sovereign states/ nations are based on a political ideology- it gives cohesion to the nation in question,as well as a framework of common values& aspirations.
Zionism was a nationalist movement for the self determination of the Jewish people,urged on by centuries of persecution & scapegating of Jews.Its foundation is in a long standing cultural and religious connection to Israel,so strongly tied to Judaism.The opportunity to finally reclaim this tiny sliver of land called Israel came when the last invading empire- the Ottoman- collapsed.Do you really think the Arabsshouldhave claimed ALL this region once theBritish mandate ended? After all,Jordan did get the lion's share- so are you going to vilify Jordan for doing so?
Don't you mean ' breathe'? Are you so uneducated that you can't distinguish nouns from verbs? Tsk tsk. Why are you so angry that the Jews have reclaimed their little homeland of Israel? Do you hate the Jewish people so much that you think they don't deserve to be self governing,after centuries of being scapegoated & persecuted by Jew bashers like you? Are you anti indigenous people regaining their ancestral land?
The message ? What is the message that has been submitted to the UN? A biased report from 3 anti Israel goons.Do your research,before you mouth of with your malicious opinions.
This was an interesting and thought provoking piece that made a lot of legit points in terms of realpolitik, as some call it. I'm most certainly glad I read it. I still believe however that the grave (and to my eyes, irreversible) self inflicted damage that Israel has done to itself with it's celebration open of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide have started a countdown clock ticking. Analogies to South Africa and--in an alternative universe of some kind, Nazi Germany--do in fact spring to mind. And I'm holding the United States, captured DC and all, to account here as well; they are clearly complicit.
Meanwhile, what is the pattern we see, beyond the racist psychopathy, when it comes to the "Greater Israel" project? Undeniable intentions to expand expand expand are what we see, in line with a fascist backbone that now makes up much of Israeli society. Ignoring this ever growing threat is akin to ignoring a cancer tumor, simply hoping it will go away, or never bother the rest of the body. It's unrealistic and dangerously delusional.
I don't doubt, as the writer has pointed out, that regional leaders have put their own wealth and welfare before the strategic reality painted above, but the fact of the matter is that this picture is clear for any that care to look, and that means the populations of the Middle East, even if they are disregarded by our and their "elites." What they (the leaders) will get in response will be social upheaval, rebellion, perhaps revolution. Why? Because they are simply so deeply in the wrong, no matter how much "money" might be made by cooperating with evident evil.
That's just my take, at any rate. I say again, this was a well written article that made legit points and was worth the read. I simply think the severity of the crime called genocide is being selectively ignored, along with it's consequences.
Former UNRWA Chief spokesman Chris Gunness Speech to the UN
Jan 24, 2026
Israel’s sustained and systematically orchestrated assault on the Gaza Strip now has a name: the Palestinian genocide. The newly published report by the UN’s Independent Commission of Inquiry is unequivocal. Israel is engaged in genocide against the Palestinian people. From now on, the name of the world’s newest genocide, the Palestinian genocide, must be hammered into the discourse…To do otherwise is genocide denial, an insult to the memory of the tens of thousands of Gazans who have been killed in what we now have a solid legal basis to call the Palestinian genocide.
The commission gathered 16,000 pieces of evidence covering the period from 7 October 2023 to 31 July 2025. It reached its landmark conclusion by investigating four of the five genocidal acts defined in the 1948 Genocide Convention. Israel was determined to have engaged in all four of these genocidal acts as a matter of state policy.
On the first act—killing members of the group—the commission concluded that over 60,000 were killed, including nearly 10,000 women and over 18,000 children. On average, one child is killed every hour in Gaza. As of May 2025, Israeli intelligence officials listed 8,900 militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as dead or possibly dead. Given that by this date 53,000 Palestinians had been killed, Israel was making a public admission that 83% of its victims were civilians. Hundreds of journalists have been deliberately targeted. Thirteen every month on average have been killed…Gaza has become the deadliest place in the world for aid workers. 540 have been killed, including 373 UN staff…and 167 NGO workers.
I turn to the second category of acts…causing serious bodily or mental harm. As of July 30, 2025, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the number of people injured in Gaza stood at 146,269. UNICEF says the total of children injured between 7 October 2023 and March 2025 is over 34,000. …Gaza is home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history, many deliberately targeted. The commission found that Israel’s use of lethal weapons had resulted in long-term, life-changing, debilitating injuries, including loss of limb, traumatic brain injuries, and damaged internal organs…
According to the UN Commission, 1.9 million people have been displaced, most on average at least six times, some as many as 19 times…
I now turn to the third category of genocidal acts under the genocide convention: deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. Almost immediately after the 7 October attack, the Israeli authorities announced a total siege on Gaza. In December 2023, the UN described the humanitarian situation as apocalyptic. The number of bombs dropped on Gaza is extraordinary, even in comparison with major world conflicts. One military source told the commission, “Israel was dropping on Gaza in less than a week what the United States dropped on Afghanistan in a year…”
Israel has systematically destroyed Gaza’s farmland…demolished greenhouses. Bulldozers have toppled orchards, plowed out crops, and crushed the soil. Israeli planes have sprayed herbicides over the fields. Before October 2023, about 40% of Gaza’s land was farmed. Last month, the UN reported that just 1.5% of Gaza’s agricultural land now remains accessible and undamaged…
Perhaps the most shocking act in this third category of genocidal crime is deliberate starvation, as it involves such widescale complicity by the Israeli bureaucracy…
The World Food Program estimates that at least 15,500 metric tons of food per week is needed to meet just life-saving needs in Gaza. Between 1 and 15 September, Israel allowed the UN-led aid system to take in only 40% of that…Israel has destroyed over 85% of clean water facilities. Households survive on only 3 to 5 liters per person per day, well below survival thresholds…
As Gaza starves, just meters away, parked outside the starvation zone on the other side of the fence which Israel built around Gaza, are thousands of trucks full of food. Not far away are the thriving restaurants and packed supermarkets of southern Israel. UNRWA estimates that there is enough food parked outside Gaza to feed the entire population for three months. Israel refuses to let them in…
I turn to the final category of genocidal crimes investigated by the UN Commission: imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. Attacks on health care facilities, including those offering sexual and reproductive health care services, have affected about 545,000 women and girls in Gaza who are of reproductive age. Direct attacks against the main maternity wards in Shifa Hospital and the Al-Nasr medical complex in Khan Younis rendered them inoperative for long periods of time. Facilities specifically designated as sexual and reproductive health care centers have been directly targeted or forced to end operations…
Moving on to Israel’s genocidal intent, the commission established this beyond all reasonable doubt. Many senior Israeli officials are quoted by the commission, including the president, the prime minister, and the defense minister at the time of the October 2023 attack, boasting of their intentions to destroy the Palestinians in whole or in part. They incited and they gave orders for genocide proudly and on the record. Numerous Israeli soldiers dutifully obeyed, triumphantly posting on social media as they destroyed whole apartment blocks, looted Palestinian homes, and gleefully violated international humanitarian law. The Israeli media spread the poison of dehumanization, enabling, indeed popularizing genocide if opinion polls are to be believed.
But the recently published comments by Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, have revealed something even more disturbing: the commercialization of genocide. Mr. Smotrich has said on the record in a public forum, in unofficial translation: “There is a business plan, a real estate bonanza. It really pays off. We have started negotiations with the Americans. We have paid a lot of money for this war. But we need to decide how we make back a percentage on the land marketing. We’ve done the demolition phase, which is the first phase of urban renewal.” As Israel’s vision of a settler-based Riviera in Gaza comes into focus, we are seeing the commercialization not just of genocide, but of war crimes, crimes against humanity, apartheid, aggression, and ethnic cleansing. And with Israel’s publicly stated intention of massively expanding illegal Jewish settlements and taking complete control of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, we may be seeing the commercialization of illegal annexation.
The conclusion that Israel is committing genocide reinforces pre-existing third-state obligations to end the Palestinian genocide and punish its perpetrators. As the UN Commission concluded, the prohibition on genocide is a peremptory norm of international law, a legal obligation that is accepted and recognized by the international community of states from which no derogation is permitted. In other words, all UN member states have an obligation to prevent and also to punish genocide. The only question is how.
Turkey led by example, imposing an arms and trade embargo on Israel. Others too are getting on the right side of international law. If Mr. Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, arrive in the territory of any of the 123 member states of the International Criminal Court or overfly their airspace, they must be arrested and handed over to The Hague in accordance with ICC arrest warrants and in conformity with treaty obligations. Sanctions must also be imposed in support of the International Court of Justice and the General Assembly’s overwhelming demand that Israel end its illegal presence in Palestine, the deadline for which passed just days ago.
To be clear, there is now a double imperative, a twin justification to impose sanctions on Israel. Firstly, to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine and secondly to prevent and punish genocide. To this end, plans are a foot in the General Assembly to impose a full range of punitive sanctions, trade, military, diplomatic, cultural, sporting, academic, and more. This is not a choice for member states. It is a legal obligation.
And in the face of government inaction, the people are mobilizing, not just courageous students. Dock workers across Europe are pointing the way forward, threatening to shut down the European shipping industry. Global direct action, campaigns of civil disobedience and industrial disruption will escalate if governments continue with their illegal support for the ongoing Palestinian genocide.
Ladies and gentlemen, the UN Commission report is an important legal milestone on the Palestinians long road to justice, freedom, self-determination, dignity, and peace. It gives those who have long argued that Israel is committing genocide a solid basis in fact and legal analysis. We must not delay action, as some have argued, until the International Court of Justice makes its determination on genocide. That could take years. Meanwhile, there is an obligation to end genocide and to punish its perpetrators.
The greatest cruelties in the annals of man’s inhumanity to man are given names. The Warsaw Ghetto, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Rwanda genocide, to name but three. And though uniquely different, we now have the Palestinian genocide.
Henceforth, it must become an undeniable and constantly referenced touchstone in the global discourse. It must become a rallying point for solidarity with the Palestinian people and a springboard for robust international action.
Have you done any research on who exactly these 3 Commissioners were?...and how,suspiciously,they all resigned very quickly after they submitted their so called "unbiased" findings?Make sure your lazy mind & sloppy ethics don't hinder your understanding .
Attack the messenger not the message, eh? Par for the course with your ilk. What, did Epstein have something on them, by chance? Oh, noooooooooo, mentioning Epstein is antisemitic, just like talking about war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. See how this works?
Screw you, bad faith actor. Israel is an illegitimate state, zionism is a criminal ideology, and the IDF is a criminal organization, period.
Why is criticism of Epstein considered anti semitic? That's like saying criticism of Sinwar is anti Gazan people,or criticism of Trump is denigrating all Americans Get a grip. Your attempts at any logical discourse is so coloured by hysterical,irrational hatred and a lynching mindset that you lose any credibility.
Ask those saying such, not I. I simply noted it has been said. BTW, remember when criticism of Soros was also called antisemitic in congress? I do. It was Jerry Nadler that did that one, and it was amazing.
And you're missing a key thing here. It might not be healthy (indeed I think it not), but those who are all about "race," or whatever collective it is they think matters most, project onto the world presumptions that support this. Thus the black or white racist in the United States sees "racism" everywhere. Sometimes there's elements of truth, or support, for what they experience, but the key problem is that it's projected in an overly broad and thus irrational fashion.
An example closer to home that you may recall. There were these two guys, "Jews" from Israel, on vacation in the United States. This was in Florida. A third guy, American but evidently crazy zionist who was clearly "Jewish," shot at them because, as he later told the police, he thought them Palestinian. Here's the kicker; first thing those two guys did after getting to hospital was tweet that they had been shot at by a Palestinian because they were Jewish.
You see how crazy all this shit can get? And that craziness is fed, very much, by the dynamics and disfunction happening today in that rabid US military base we call Israel. The supremacy, the us/them, the presumptions, it's all "baked in."
History didn't start on Oct 7th, you willfully blind and ignorant bad faith retard. Nor did the actions of Hamas, the leaders of whom were indeed also charged by the ICC, justify the actions ongoing to this day by criminal Israel.
Of course it didn't, you idiot.Consider the 1948 war & the following wars with Israel by the pro nazi Arab states? The vicious attacks on long standing Jewish communities by marauding armed Arab gangs in the British mandate of the Palestine REGION pre Israel nationhood?One of Hamas's predecessors the grand mufti of Jerusalem,who encouraged Hitler's " final solution" & recruited muslims for the Nazi forces? The suicide bombers pouring into Israel trained by the PLO,Fatah & Hamas?Oh yeah,blame it all on the Jews,naziboy...
Sure zionist. The entire world is lying. The body counts are lying. The internet vids with your insane criminal IDF are all fake. The speeches by Israeli leaders are all figments of my imagination. The translations are totally wrong, each and every time. The civilian death figures given by the IDF are all wrong. Sure.
Take your denial and defense of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, and stick it up your ass, modern day nazi puke. Keep on inciting actual antisemitism, I guess. You do you.
Oh, and you conflate zionism with Judiasm too, I see. Par for the course. You pukes just can't help yourself with those word games, can you. Jeffery Sachs among many beg to differ. Bonehead.
Yell me,what exactly is anti zionism all about? You can quote from your favourite manual " Mein Kampf" if you like.Or perhaps that biased Pappe? Or the Pol Pot & Putin apologist Chomsky? Maybe refer to some of these fake " Palestinian journalists",or consult with Hamas infiltrated UNWRA?
Are you really that stupid? Zionism is a political ideology created in the late 19th and early 20th century. Judiasm is a 2000+ year old religion. Big difference. As far as your demand for a definition, it is simply objecting to said ideology and the criminal state which it supports. You know, like Einstein did. You hate him to? And I mentioned Jeffery Sachs for good reason; you ought consider his views on the matter.
Such a precise and accurate analysis of realignment taking place around the Tel-Aviv axis. I’m so glad to see these ‘spiritually Israeli’ states finally being recognised for their cooperation with the apartheid state. Thanks for this refreshing take, well worth a read.
Israel did not "carpet bomb" anything. They could have, but didn't. Had they actually done that, the Gaza war would have ended two years ago with many more Palestinian deaths and fewer dead Israeli soldiers. But they didn't. Public opinion is indeed against Israel more than it would be if it weren't for so many disingenuous propagandists like you.
Repeating lies doesn't make them true. I think anyone who reads this substack will see your dishonesty (or profound ignorance). It is Hamas that wants civilian death and destruction - it's their entire war plan, just as Israel wants to limit that damage as much as possible. Your last paragraph is particularly pathetic.
Bloomberg concludes that about 40% of all buildings in the Gaza Strip are still intact. That’s not the result of carpet bombing like in WW2, which was meant to destroy whole downtowns without caring about military targets. That’s the result of precise strikes against terror infrastructure.
Carpet bombing, a WW2 term, refers to massive drops of bombs to saturate an area.
Any images of Gaza show only buildings destroyed, with no bomb craters in roads, empty lots or fields as would happen with carpet bombing.
This shows Israel used precision bombing, not carpet bombing, to hit specific buildings. This is corroborated by the large numbers of JDAM and SPICE bomb guidance kits used, which would have been unnecessary in a carpet bombing campaign.
Israeli military intelligence demonstrated its prowess in the campaigns against Hezbollah, Yemen and Iran, so it's highly likely that the buildings hit were credible military targets. This is in full conformance with Article 51 of the Geneva Conventions, which says only that any harm to civilians should not exceed the expected military advantage of the operation.
The only barbarism was exhibited by Palestinian terrorists and civilians on Oct 7, who murdered or kidnapped 100% of the Israeli civilians they found. Had Israel comported itself that way, there could have been a genocide in Gaza.
To its great credit, the IDF was both morally and militarily far superior to its adversaries. May it always be so!
The negativity of US media on Israel is remarkable.
Why would anybody dare be critical of things such as this?
Credit today’s Haaretz.
The world’s greatest democracy when it comes to color and tribe blind equal rights under the law…..
“Death Penalty Bill Mandates Execution for Palestinians and Imprisonment for Israelis for Identical Offenses
Legal and security experts who took part in a Knesset panel on the legislation – including representatives of the Justice Ministry and the Defense Ministry – opposed the bill's wording. They warned that several of its provisions are unlawful and carry 'grave international implications'”
> “Upon this a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or feared than loved?
> It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with.”
The moralizers of our age seem to have forgotten Machiavelli's timeless lessons. Luckily for Israel, Bibi was paying attention in class.
Most of what you say comes from leftist media, and CNN is a leftist channel, but ignoring the genocide of Christians in Nigeria by the Boko Haram terrorist group is normal. Those people aren't human, but Gazans are human, and Sudanese aren't human, but Gazans are human. This is the logic of the Islamist left.
What is remarkable is how no one has commented just how much of this article was written by ChatGPT. One excerpt stands out in particular: "Yahya Sinwar and the Hamas leadership sought to halt the momentum of Israel–Saudi normalization and derail the wider regional realignment taking shape around the Abraham Accords. Their fear was not simply Israeli weakness but Israeli integration. Their objective was to break it."
Besides the obvious "not just/simply x, but y" that has come to dominate 50% of the writing on this website, iIt seems the LLM got confused here, as it should say "Israeli strength" for the sentence to make any sense at all. Why would Sinwar fear "Israeli weakness"? Lmao
“The United States cannot match the volume of China’s lending or its funding for ports and railways, but it does not need to. Instead, it can offer a combination of security guarantees, intelligence cooperation, defense technology, and alliances that is without rival.”
Perhaps the most delusional statement ever!
See Afghanistan and Ukraine for recent proof of that.
Afganistan had a civil war, it's different case. Ukraine never had any US security guarantees, Ukraine was not even a partner country or in the sphere of interests. Japan and S. Korea have binding security guarantees.
I found your piece more convincing in terms of strategic usefulness rather Israel being popular. Israel can only move towards normalising relations with regimes that are undemocratic precisely because it is so unpopular in the region.
Israel has always been unpopular in the region, regardless of what it does, or doesn't do. Basically, that ought to give it a free hand, though it restrains itself.
yes now everyone knows to hate you sick baby killers
palestine will be free
iran will have its water desalination
and u will go to hell
No,I am stupid,so don't use that childish insult to try & assert your non-existent superiority.Why do you scorn the notion of a ' political ideology',& assume it's a negative thing? Surely all sovereign states/ nations are based on a political ideology- it gives cohesion to the nation in question,as well as a framework of common values& aspirations.
Zionism was a nationalist movement for the self determination of the Jewish people,urged on by centuries of persecution & scapegating of Jews.Its foundation is in a long standing cultural and religious connection to Israel,so strongly tied to Judaism.The opportunity to finally reclaim this tiny sliver of land called Israel came when the last invading empire- the Ottoman- collapsed.Do you really think the Arabsshouldhave claimed ALL this region once theBritish mandate ended? After all,Jordan did get the lion's share- so are you going to vilify Jordan for doing so?
Don't you mean ' breathe'? Are you so uneducated that you can't distinguish nouns from verbs? Tsk tsk. Why are you so angry that the Jews have reclaimed their little homeland of Israel? Do you hate the Jewish people so much that you think they don't deserve to be self governing,after centuries of being scapegoated & persecuted by Jew bashers like you? Are you anti indigenous people regaining their ancestral land?
The message ? What is the message that has been submitted to the UN? A biased report from 3 anti Israel goons.Do your research,before you mouth of with your malicious opinions.
This was an interesting and thought provoking piece that made a lot of legit points in terms of realpolitik, as some call it. I'm most certainly glad I read it. I still believe however that the grave (and to my eyes, irreversible) self inflicted damage that Israel has done to itself with it's celebration open of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide have started a countdown clock ticking. Analogies to South Africa and--in an alternative universe of some kind, Nazi Germany--do in fact spring to mind. And I'm holding the United States, captured DC and all, to account here as well; they are clearly complicit.
Meanwhile, what is the pattern we see, beyond the racist psychopathy, when it comes to the "Greater Israel" project? Undeniable intentions to expand expand expand are what we see, in line with a fascist backbone that now makes up much of Israeli society. Ignoring this ever growing threat is akin to ignoring a cancer tumor, simply hoping it will go away, or never bother the rest of the body. It's unrealistic and dangerously delusional.
I don't doubt, as the writer has pointed out, that regional leaders have put their own wealth and welfare before the strategic reality painted above, but the fact of the matter is that this picture is clear for any that care to look, and that means the populations of the Middle East, even if they are disregarded by our and their "elites." What they (the leaders) will get in response will be social upheaval, rebellion, perhaps revolution. Why? Because they are simply so deeply in the wrong, no matter how much "money" might be made by cooperating with evident evil.
That's just my take, at any rate. I say again, this was a well written article that made legit points and was worth the read. I simply think the severity of the crime called genocide is being selectively ignored, along with it's consequences.
I wish you well on this day.
What “ war crimes”? It was Hamas who declared war on Oct 7,ffs
Former UNRWA Chief spokesman Chris Gunness Speech to the UN
Jan 24, 2026
Israel’s sustained and systematically orchestrated assault on the Gaza Strip now has a name: the Palestinian genocide. The newly published report by the UN’s Independent Commission of Inquiry is unequivocal. Israel is engaged in genocide against the Palestinian people. From now on, the name of the world’s newest genocide, the Palestinian genocide, must be hammered into the discourse…To do otherwise is genocide denial, an insult to the memory of the tens of thousands of Gazans who have been killed in what we now have a solid legal basis to call the Palestinian genocide.
The commission gathered 16,000 pieces of evidence covering the period from 7 October 2023 to 31 July 2025. It reached its landmark conclusion by investigating four of the five genocidal acts defined in the 1948 Genocide Convention. Israel was determined to have engaged in all four of these genocidal acts as a matter of state policy.
On the first act—killing members of the group—the commission concluded that over 60,000 were killed, including nearly 10,000 women and over 18,000 children. On average, one child is killed every hour in Gaza. As of May 2025, Israeli intelligence officials listed 8,900 militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as dead or possibly dead. Given that by this date 53,000 Palestinians had been killed, Israel was making a public admission that 83% of its victims were civilians. Hundreds of journalists have been deliberately targeted. Thirteen every month on average have been killed…Gaza has become the deadliest place in the world for aid workers. 540 have been killed, including 373 UN staff…and 167 NGO workers.
I turn to the second category of acts…causing serious bodily or mental harm. As of July 30, 2025, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the number of people injured in Gaza stood at 146,269. UNICEF says the total of children injured between 7 October 2023 and March 2025 is over 34,000. …Gaza is home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history, many deliberately targeted. The commission found that Israel’s use of lethal weapons had resulted in long-term, life-changing, debilitating injuries, including loss of limb, traumatic brain injuries, and damaged internal organs…
According to the UN Commission, 1.9 million people have been displaced, most on average at least six times, some as many as 19 times…
I now turn to the third category of genocidal acts under the genocide convention: deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. Almost immediately after the 7 October attack, the Israeli authorities announced a total siege on Gaza. In December 2023, the UN described the humanitarian situation as apocalyptic. The number of bombs dropped on Gaza is extraordinary, even in comparison with major world conflicts. One military source told the commission, “Israel was dropping on Gaza in less than a week what the United States dropped on Afghanistan in a year…”
Israel has systematically destroyed Gaza’s farmland…demolished greenhouses. Bulldozers have toppled orchards, plowed out crops, and crushed the soil. Israeli planes have sprayed herbicides over the fields. Before October 2023, about 40% of Gaza’s land was farmed. Last month, the UN reported that just 1.5% of Gaza’s agricultural land now remains accessible and undamaged…
Perhaps the most shocking act in this third category of genocidal crime is deliberate starvation, as it involves such widescale complicity by the Israeli bureaucracy…
The World Food Program estimates that at least 15,500 metric tons of food per week is needed to meet just life-saving needs in Gaza. Between 1 and 15 September, Israel allowed the UN-led aid system to take in only 40% of that…Israel has destroyed over 85% of clean water facilities. Households survive on only 3 to 5 liters per person per day, well below survival thresholds…
As Gaza starves, just meters away, parked outside the starvation zone on the other side of the fence which Israel built around Gaza, are thousands of trucks full of food. Not far away are the thriving restaurants and packed supermarkets of southern Israel. UNRWA estimates that there is enough food parked outside Gaza to feed the entire population for three months. Israel refuses to let them in…
I turn to the final category of genocidal crimes investigated by the UN Commission: imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. Attacks on health care facilities, including those offering sexual and reproductive health care services, have affected about 545,000 women and girls in Gaza who are of reproductive age. Direct attacks against the main maternity wards in Shifa Hospital and the Al-Nasr medical complex in Khan Younis rendered them inoperative for long periods of time. Facilities specifically designated as sexual and reproductive health care centers have been directly targeted or forced to end operations…
Moving on to Israel’s genocidal intent, the commission established this beyond all reasonable doubt. Many senior Israeli officials are quoted by the commission, including the president, the prime minister, and the defense minister at the time of the October 2023 attack, boasting of their intentions to destroy the Palestinians in whole or in part. They incited and they gave orders for genocide proudly and on the record. Numerous Israeli soldiers dutifully obeyed, triumphantly posting on social media as they destroyed whole apartment blocks, looted Palestinian homes, and gleefully violated international humanitarian law. The Israeli media spread the poison of dehumanization, enabling, indeed popularizing genocide if opinion polls are to be believed.
But the recently published comments by Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, have revealed something even more disturbing: the commercialization of genocide. Mr. Smotrich has said on the record in a public forum, in unofficial translation: “There is a business plan, a real estate bonanza. It really pays off. We have started negotiations with the Americans. We have paid a lot of money for this war. But we need to decide how we make back a percentage on the land marketing. We’ve done the demolition phase, which is the first phase of urban renewal.” As Israel’s vision of a settler-based Riviera in Gaza comes into focus, we are seeing the commercialization not just of genocide, but of war crimes, crimes against humanity, apartheid, aggression, and ethnic cleansing. And with Israel’s publicly stated intention of massively expanding illegal Jewish settlements and taking complete control of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, we may be seeing the commercialization of illegal annexation.
The conclusion that Israel is committing genocide reinforces pre-existing third-state obligations to end the Palestinian genocide and punish its perpetrators. As the UN Commission concluded, the prohibition on genocide is a peremptory norm of international law, a legal obligation that is accepted and recognized by the international community of states from which no derogation is permitted. In other words, all UN member states have an obligation to prevent and also to punish genocide. The only question is how.
Turkey led by example, imposing an arms and trade embargo on Israel. Others too are getting on the right side of international law. If Mr. Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, arrive in the territory of any of the 123 member states of the International Criminal Court or overfly their airspace, they must be arrested and handed over to The Hague in accordance with ICC arrest warrants and in conformity with treaty obligations. Sanctions must also be imposed in support of the International Court of Justice and the General Assembly’s overwhelming demand that Israel end its illegal presence in Palestine, the deadline for which passed just days ago.
To be clear, there is now a double imperative, a twin justification to impose sanctions on Israel. Firstly, to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine and secondly to prevent and punish genocide. To this end, plans are a foot in the General Assembly to impose a full range of punitive sanctions, trade, military, diplomatic, cultural, sporting, academic, and more. This is not a choice for member states. It is a legal obligation.
And in the face of government inaction, the people are mobilizing, not just courageous students. Dock workers across Europe are pointing the way forward, threatening to shut down the European shipping industry. Global direct action, campaigns of civil disobedience and industrial disruption will escalate if governments continue with their illegal support for the ongoing Palestinian genocide.
Ladies and gentlemen, the UN Commission report is an important legal milestone on the Palestinians long road to justice, freedom, self-determination, dignity, and peace. It gives those who have long argued that Israel is committing genocide a solid basis in fact and legal analysis. We must not delay action, as some have argued, until the International Court of Justice makes its determination on genocide. That could take years. Meanwhile, there is an obligation to end genocide and to punish its perpetrators.
The greatest cruelties in the annals of man’s inhumanity to man are given names. The Warsaw Ghetto, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Rwanda genocide, to name but three. And though uniquely different, we now have the Palestinian genocide.
Henceforth, it must become an undeniable and constantly referenced touchstone in the global discourse. It must become a rallying point for solidarity with the Palestinian people and a springboard for robust international action.
Thank you.
Have you done any research on who exactly these 3 Commissioners were?...and how,suspiciously,they all resigned very quickly after they submitted their so called "unbiased" findings?Make sure your lazy mind & sloppy ethics don't hinder your understanding .
Attack the messenger not the message, eh? Par for the course with your ilk. What, did Epstein have something on them, by chance? Oh, noooooooooo, mentioning Epstein is antisemitic, just like talking about war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. See how this works?
Screw you, bad faith actor. Israel is an illegitimate state, zionism is a criminal ideology, and the IDF is a criminal organization, period.
Why is criticism of Epstein considered anti semitic? That's like saying criticism of Sinwar is anti Gazan people,or criticism of Trump is denigrating all Americans Get a grip. Your attempts at any logical discourse is so coloured by hysterical,irrational hatred and a lynching mindset that you lose any credibility.
Ask those saying such, not I. I simply noted it has been said. BTW, remember when criticism of Soros was also called antisemitic in congress? I do. It was Jerry Nadler that did that one, and it was amazing.
And you're missing a key thing here. It might not be healthy (indeed I think it not), but those who are all about "race," or whatever collective it is they think matters most, project onto the world presumptions that support this. Thus the black or white racist in the United States sees "racism" everywhere. Sometimes there's elements of truth, or support, for what they experience, but the key problem is that it's projected in an overly broad and thus irrational fashion.
An example closer to home that you may recall. There were these two guys, "Jews" from Israel, on vacation in the United States. This was in Florida. A third guy, American but evidently crazy zionist who was clearly "Jewish," shot at them because, as he later told the police, he thought them Palestinian. Here's the kicker; first thing those two guys did after getting to hospital was tweet that they had been shot at by a Palestinian because they were Jewish.
You see how crazy all this shit can get? And that craziness is fed, very much, by the dynamics and disfunction happening today in that rabid US military base we call Israel. The supremacy, the us/them, the presumptions, it's all "baked in."
History didn't start on Oct 7th, you willfully blind and ignorant bad faith retard. Nor did the actions of Hamas, the leaders of whom were indeed also charged by the ICC, justify the actions ongoing to this day by criminal Israel.
Of course it didn't, you idiot.Consider the 1948 war & the following wars with Israel by the pro nazi Arab states? The vicious attacks on long standing Jewish communities by marauding armed Arab gangs in the British mandate of the Palestine REGION pre Israel nationhood?One of Hamas's predecessors the grand mufti of Jerusalem,who encouraged Hitler's " final solution" & recruited muslims for the Nazi forces? The suicide bombers pouring into Israel trained by the PLO,Fatah & Hamas?Oh yeah,blame it all on the Jews,naziboy...
Sure zionist. The entire world is lying. The body counts are lying. The internet vids with your insane criminal IDF are all fake. The speeches by Israeli leaders are all figments of my imagination. The translations are totally wrong, each and every time. The civilian death figures given by the IDF are all wrong. Sure.
Take your denial and defense of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, and stick it up your ass, modern day nazi puke. Keep on inciting actual antisemitism, I guess. You do you.
Oh, and you conflate zionism with Judiasm too, I see. Par for the course. You pukes just can't help yourself with those word games, can you. Jeffery Sachs among many beg to differ. Bonehead.
Yell me,what exactly is anti zionism all about? You can quote from your favourite manual " Mein Kampf" if you like.Or perhaps that biased Pappe? Or the Pol Pot & Putin apologist Chomsky? Maybe refer to some of these fake " Palestinian journalists",or consult with Hamas infiltrated UNWRA?
Are you really that stupid? Zionism is a political ideology created in the late 19th and early 20th century. Judiasm is a 2000+ year old religion. Big difference. As far as your demand for a definition, it is simply objecting to said ideology and the criminal state which it supports. You know, like Einstein did. You hate him to? And I mentioned Jeffery Sachs for good reason; you ought consider his views on the matter.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-189306451?selection=a9570683-ee01-445e-8195-33bd09450415#:~:text=In%20the%20rabbinic%20tradition%2C%20there%20was%20no%20call%20on%20Jews%20to%20return%20to%20the%20Holy%20Land%20following%20the%20exile%20by%20the%20Romans
Fuck Israel
Fuck off moron.
I simply can’t and don’t agree with your conclusion.
Where?
Such a precise and accurate analysis of realignment taking place around the Tel-Aviv axis. I’m so glad to see these ‘spiritually Israeli’ states finally being recognised for their cooperation with the apartheid state. Thanks for this refreshing take, well worth a read.
Sounds like $8b of yearly savings.
Israel did not "carpet bomb" anything. They could have, but didn't. Had they actually done that, the Gaza war would have ended two years ago with many more Palestinian deaths and fewer dead Israeli soldiers. But they didn't. Public opinion is indeed against Israel more than it would be if it weren't for so many disingenuous propagandists like you.
ur a weak genocidal baby killer retard
palestine will be free
hop in the ovens
Interesting that antisemitic bots always have bad orthography
that's because if they aren't bots, they're ignorant morons, and if they are bots, they're designed by ignorant morons.
You think it was a bot? I was taking comfort in what moronic enemies we are up against.
Repeating lies doesn't make them true. I think anyone who reads this substack will see your dishonesty (or profound ignorance). It is Hamas that wants civilian death and destruction - it's their entire war plan, just as Israel wants to limit that damage as much as possible. Your last paragraph is particularly pathetic.
I would recommend you this article: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-gaza-damage-assessment/
Bloomberg concludes that about 40% of all buildings in the Gaza Strip are still intact. That’s not the result of carpet bombing like in WW2, which was meant to destroy whole downtowns without caring about military targets. That’s the result of precise strikes against terror infrastructure.
Carpet bombing, a WW2 term, refers to massive drops of bombs to saturate an area.
Any images of Gaza show only buildings destroyed, with no bomb craters in roads, empty lots or fields as would happen with carpet bombing.
This shows Israel used precision bombing, not carpet bombing, to hit specific buildings. This is corroborated by the large numbers of JDAM and SPICE bomb guidance kits used, which would have been unnecessary in a carpet bombing campaign.
Israeli military intelligence demonstrated its prowess in the campaigns against Hezbollah, Yemen and Iran, so it's highly likely that the buildings hit were credible military targets. This is in full conformance with Article 51 of the Geneva Conventions, which says only that any harm to civilians should not exceed the expected military advantage of the operation.
The only barbarism was exhibited by Palestinian terrorists and civilians on Oct 7, who murdered or kidnapped 100% of the Israeli civilians they found. Had Israel comported itself that way, there could have been a genocide in Gaza.
To its great credit, the IDF was both morally and militarily far superior to its adversaries. May it always be so!
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