Opinion | Are we a failed species? Just ask dead and dying Palestinians
By Philip Yeung
While most of the world is giddily embracing the new year, Gazans are facing extinction. At least the war in Ukraine is not an asymmetric fight or a one-sided killing spree. In Gaza, nothing is off-limits. One of its last functioning hospitals is forced to shut after its injured director has been thrown into Israel's most notorious prison. This man has kept it running for 80 days despite devastating attacks. Nearly 1,100 healthcare workers have been killed since the Hamas massacre, with 300 others tortured, detained without charge or trial and subjected to sexual violence.
Israel is a feared Nazi-like genocidal copycat. And yet, the US keeps lethal weapons flowing for the slaughter of innocent women and children. There is no rule-based international order. Only an American order dictated by its economic and military might. UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire are like pissing in the wind. Netanyahu, under trial for corruption, needs war to prolong his political life. Now just a pile of rubble, Gaza has been made unfit for human habitation. Trump may seal the fate of Gazans once and for all.
Israel enjoys total impunity for killing an estimated hundred thousand civilians. The warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for the arrest of Netanyahu for his war crimes is not executable. The ICC is just a toothless tiger. No wonder some historians are calling this "the end of history". Netanyahu has taken US politicians hostage—turning them into his shameless cheerleaders.
Yet, America continues to impose sanctions on Xinjiang cotton, claiming it was tainted by so-called forced labor when independent auditors ruled otherwise. Why are we even talking about Xinjiang cotton when a million Gazans are facing famine, disease and slaughter? This is no time for silly geopolitical games. Who sanctions America for Guantanamo?
Israel claims that its dark deeds are necessary for self-defense. How then do you justify aerial attacks on water supply infrastructure in Gaza, including its wastewater treatment plant? And what about the blowing up of a reservoir or the attack on aid convoys? Surely, no terrorists are hiding there. Water, food, medical supplies, electricity and fuel are all used as weapons. There are 670,000 recorded cases of acute water-induced diarrhea, and over 132,000 cases of hepatis-related jaundice. Dehydration and malnutrition have made survivable childhood diseases life-threatening. Israel has crossed the final red lines when its bloodthirsty soldiers engage in the competitive killing of civilians.
Every international human rights agency, from Amnesty International, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and Medecins Sans Frontiers, to UN aid agencies has delivered an unanswerable verdict: Israel has committed and is committing genocide against Palestinians. Proof of genocidal intent came from Yoav Gallant, Israel's former minister of defense when he ordered a total siege of Gaza: "There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel."
But untouchable Netanyahu won't budge an inch. He won't stop until the last Gazan has either been killed or displaced. He dismissed any accusation of Israeli wrongdoing as antisemitism.
America has lost its moral compass and the license to lecture others. No longer a champion of human rights, it still tells the world that "All men are born free and equal". Tell that to babies without limbs, orphans without food, amputees without anesthesia and pregnant women without hospital care.
It is God's worst curse to be a neighbor to Israel. Just ask Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran and Yemen. Israel has an insatiable appetite for annexation. It will never accept a two-state solution because it means having to respect boundaries and curbing its territorial conquests. It behaves like the undisputed master in this war-torn region.
Nearly a million Gazans are facing famine. Over the summer, volunteer doctors and medics put the civilians killed by Israeli bombs and bullets at 92,000. That number now surely exceeds 120,000, or a hundred times the number killed by Hamas' attack in Israel. Civilian fatalities are such a daily routine that they are no longer newsworthy. Israel first thirsted for revenge. Then it goes for extermination. Now the world is beginning to understand why they were so hated in Europe. Palestinians are the new persecuted "Jews" in their own flattened homeland.
Gaza has exposed the double standards of American politicians. Their song and dance about human rights is just a game of one-upmanship. Any other country that did what Israel has done would have faced the fury of US weapons and sanctions. Instead, its convicted war criminal received a hero's welcome in the US Congress. Now you know why Iran wants a nuclear bomb for self-protection.
Peace won't come to Palestine until Netanyahu is convicted and deposed. But don't bet on it. Trump, a criminal with multiple convictions, is swaggering all the way back to the White House, more dangerous than before. Trump's obscene victory and Netanyahu's godless butchery are turning us into atheists. If there is a God, He cannot be living in America or Israel. God's "chosen people" have turned us into a failed species. Time to give Confucius a try. At least, according to Elon Musk, the Chinese are unaggressive by nature. They give the world Belt and Road, while Israel and America give us bombs, bullets and bloodshed.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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