Let My People Go... Absolutely Mental

Israel, The West, & The Crime of the Century

Bibi Netanyahu as Moses in the bullrushes (AI)

AT the start of the Israel-Hamas War I was dubious about the tacit consensus that the Israeli assault would wrap up in December. But even I didn’t think it’d be December 2024. Statements from Israeli officials indicate precisely this. 

Where will Tel Aviv’s strategy leave us? Given that eight thousand people have been killed each month since Hamas’ October 7th attacks and conditions are worsening, I reckon we’re looking at a hundred thousand dead by Christmas… if things go “right”. 

Israel’s attack is already comparable in scale to the 2003 war on Iraq but, remarkably, carried out on a population we have ourselves imprisoned, and augmented by a plan to displace pretty much everyone - two million people - from Gaza, so they’re forced to live in tent cities across the Sinai desert. Israel officially denies this is its endgame but planning documents and widespread statements suggest otherwise. Its bombing campaign is comparable in every way to the most extreme cases from World War II and Vietnam, apart from duration, but with the whole area denied all electricity, food, fuel and water in a way that simply wasn’t possible in the war against Hitler.  

Benjamin Netanyahu may think he’s Moses but he’s more like a new pharaoh. Less “Let my people go” and more “Let my people go absolutely mental”.

Oh, I’ve just realised how quirky and likeable his name is: Netanyahoo. Like Webandhotmail or Onlineandbing.

As usual, I ask you to forgive my occasional lapse in tone. I’ve lived in constant gaping-mouthed horror at the steadily worsening breakdown of international order since the mid-1990s, and the only way I‘ve not burnt out is by maintaining a horrible sense of humour. When our nuclear end does come, I shall face it like everyone else - with zero dignity - but until then I’m doing well at not teetering into despair. 

I have been watching a lot of Channel 4 News in Britain. Individual journalists have at least tried to be objective and have done some good reporting. However, when organisations like FAIR, Media Lens, and the Glasgow Media Group systematically use quantitative analysis, we see that the media is not a neutral player.

A FAIR study last year found that major American network news aired 105 segments on Gaza but only included the word “ceasefire” or “de-escalate” eight times.

Fox News actually mentioned “ceasefire” twice as often but only to ridicule people who wanted one. Somebody should give Fox News the Nobel Peace Prize - hey, if it’s good enough for Barack Obama and Henry Kissinger.

On that note, news anchors have regularly insisted at the start of interviews that Palestinians condemn Hamas, in at least one case just hours after the interviewee’s family had been wiped out by Israel. In January 2024, on Rupert Murdoch’s Talk TV, Julia Hartley-Brewer smeared a Palestinian MP: "Maybe you're not used to women talking!" she snorted. The MP was calm albeit visibly uncomfortable. She goes on to end her segment again saying: “Sorry to have been a woman speaking to you”. Looked like he was pretty used to it, Julia.

The Intercept reports that all of CNN’s reporting on Israel/ Palestine is funnelled through an office in Jerusalem which is subject to regulation by Israeli military censors.

One of the very most thorough and gentlest antiwar media analysts, Alan Macleod, was suspended without warning or explanation from Twitter as I was writing this article.

Another brilliant colleague, Professor David Miller, has his appeal date this month - he was fired by University of Bristol following allegations of antisemitism. He was cleared but remains sacked, which really gives you faith in the system, doesn't it?  It’s job security on par with telling someone they're free to go while electro-tagging them to the dole queue.

I can genuinely see why people might want to sympathise with Israel - it suffered a spectacular, sadistic and sudden attack that was worse than anything it had inflicted on its enemy for at least a decade. I can also see why people might sympathise with Palestine - they’ve been attacked and abused far worse over a much longer period of time. But, then, Israel was formed from its own horror… and so on. Frankly, you can’t really compare the various types of suffering and provocations and we should stop trying. At the end of the day, we must focus on the outcomes - both peoples need security. 

As John Mearsheimer opined, though, the appropriate response to October 7th would have been for Israel to treat this as a police action, like the West should have responded to 9/11. It is Israel - along with its Western backers - which is the country in a position to de-escalate. In Palestine, there just aren’t enough white flags to stop the killing.

So, how about we support Israelis by providing sympathetic coverage of the Israeli protests against Netanyahu? A major reason for him to escalate is because it’s the only way he can stay in power… and if he loses office, he’s going to prison for corruption. Only 15% of the public want him to stay after the war, so let’s accelerate that process. Sure, his replacement might not be much better but he will certainly be a bit better. Rather than seeing Israel v Palestine let’s start calling it The World versus the Psychopaths.

Israel has adopted that old adage: “When faced with a problem, make it bigger".

But Israel can’t solve the problem by making it bigger. Further settlements and killings in the West Bank, battleships in the Red Sea with the Yemeni government/ Ansar Allah (dubbed “the Houthi”) and Hezbollah in Lebanon, that insane Sinai desert endgame… it can only draw other countries in. 

We all want a just peace, except Netanyahu’s chums who want just a piece of every country in the region. Bad-dum tssss. God, this is like Jo Koy at the Golden Globes.

Even David Cameron says Gaza should have its water turned back on. Thanks, Dave - though let’s hope those Gazan buggers don’t fill up their water pistols then attack!

The least worst option right now is to support the devastating, detailed South African indictment of “genocide”, as brave politicians in Israel are starting to do. Let’s get the diplomats in and start talking about just and realistic internationally-brokered outcomes, which must surely include an end to the Netanyahu government, an end to expansionist settlements in the West Bank, the fixed promise of a Palestinian state, and most urgently an end to collective punishment. 

A state-on-state war simply can’t be staved off for months on end during such volatile conditions. And if Israel ends up at war with Iran, we’re dead.

Vivian Silver - the Israeli woman who, in retirement, transported Gazan patients to hospital while living right on the border - remained a voice for kindness even as Hamas invaded her home and ended her life. After a career building peace organisations, she said: 

“I’ve learned a lot, the hard way, about Arab-Jewish partnership, and I know that when it succeeds, it succeeds because every side understands that the justice it seeks depends heavily on the justice of the other side… not from struggling against one another.”

Following some light-hearted remarks while hiding behind a cupboard, Vivian’s final words were to her son via text: “it’s time to stop joking and say goodbye” - then, “I feel you”.   

I feel you, too, Vivian.

Your sort of peace-making isn’t easy and doesn’t seem possible right now. But it has to be.

I’ll be here all week! Probably not all year.