The attack on Israel by Palestinian fighters on the week-end of October 7, during Israel’s Yom Kippur celebrations, far from rousing overwhelming sympathy for Israel, is serving to reveal a long process whereby Israel and its major funder, the US have been losing friends all over the world.
Previously, those opposed to Israeli’s occupation of Palestinian homelands were unable to express themselves through captured television and print media. For instance, the New York Times and Washington Post as well as the London Times are owned by Jewish interests.
Social media has destroyed that monopoly. Other voices are now being heard, loudly and clearly.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to heed the wise words of the prophet Jeremiah.
“They have healed the wound of my people lightly, and they cry, peace, peace when there is no justice.” Jeremiah 8.11
With all the gold in the world, and the mighty US at his beck and call, Netanyahu fails to understand why the world is losing sympathy with his cause.
The attack, by over 1 000 fighters, who flew into Israeli territory on gliders and drone-propelled flying objects, exhibited sophistication and planning skills which Israeli and US intelligence had denied them.
It also revealed an arrogance, common among occupiers everywhere, to their detriment.
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Caught off guard!
Retired US Central Intelligence Agent (CIA) operative Scott Ritter, in a 55-page report (October 9, 23) argues that both US and Israeli intelligence agents created a “concept” which says that any reasonable man in Palestinian situation, seeing Israeli’s superiority, would be foolish to dare engage them in an all-out confrontation.
The stupidity of this assumption is precisely what the prophet Jeremiah pointed out. Oppressed people, despite the superiority in arms by the occupier, may decide to adopt John Brown’s theology of “strike a blow for justice and die.”
Jeremiah points out that where there is no justice, there cannot be peace.
Netanyahu’s history has been to destroy Arab villages and build Israeli compounds in their place. What happens to displaced Palestinians is none of his business. Since 2014, 150 000 Palestinians have been killed, 33 000 of them children. (Source, European Parliament).
The foolish idea that oppressed peoples prefer peace with suffering needs emphasis. US national security advisor Jake Sullivan, only last week emphasized this point. “The Middle east is quieter than it has been for decades. The time I spend on Middle East affairs is significantly reduced.”
The foundation of this error led to normalisation of an oppressive Israeli-Palestine relationship. “Israel openly bragged about the role played by their new Operation Guardian” an artificial intelligence spy system. (Ritter page 13).
Another former CIA agent, Larry Johnston, speculated that both the Israelis and the US intelligence agents did spot some “activity” but because of their arrogant attitude and contempt for Palestinian capabilities, they “allowed” these signals to pass in the hope of destroying Gaza and the Palestinian authority and seizing some Arab lands.
Pro-Palestinian support
Here is a report from an outlier News 7 station. “Flares were thrown, anti-Semitic slurs chanted, and an Israeli flag burned during an illegal pro-Palestinian rally on Monday night at Sydney opera House, Australia.” October 8).
US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib could not be silenced. She regarded the Palestinian fighters’ incursion into Israel as ‘resistance to oppression.” (October 8).
In the past, any sympathetic voices for Palestinians had very few news media outlets. Today social media outlets abound and pro-Palestinian voices can no longer be silenced. Replying on X and Facebook, Tlaib said the heart of the matter is that “as long as the US provides billions in unconditional funding to support the Israeli apartheid government, the heart-breaking cycle of violence will continue.”
In the old days, journalists were told to toe the line and use certain words in their reportage.
The attack is “a terrorist attack and unprovoked,” US secretary of state Anthony Blinken as well as the US president joe Biden toe the line.
But with social media now available for outliers, official viewpoints are being challenged.
“To call this unprovoked is to ignore the daily violence and constant Israeli violence and war crimes against Palestinians.” Says Yussef Munnayer, a Palestinian American.
To everybody’s surprise, the Jewish state no longer enjoys unified US Jewish support. The pogroms going on against Palestinians are showcase of social media every day. As we speak, Gaza is being bombed, families are dragged out of their houses in retaliation, and houses and schools destroyed.
This assumes that every Palestinian, including children are terrorists to be dealt with, by indiscriminate beatings and shootings.
Two American Jewish groups stand out. One calls itself, Not in My Name. Another, IFNOT NOW issued a statement about “unfolding horrors with heartbreak and dread for our loved ones.” Palestinians have loved ones too, and these suffer as much as anybody else.
This body refused to single out Palestinians as the guilty party without being inclusive of Israeli’s horrifying treatment of Palestinians.
The statement walks the middle road.
“We condemn the killing of innocent civilians and mourn the loss of Palestine and Israeli life. "Their blood is on the hands of the Israeli government, the US government which funds and excuses their recklessness, and every international leader who continues to turn a blind eye to decades of Palestinian oppression.”
US loses face
The advent of social media and YouTube podcasts has undermined government and political control over the broadcasting world.
The US has been experiencing severe winds of change since the advent of this new social phenomena.
US pretense to be an impartial arbiter in world affairs, and advocate of liberty and freedom and the rule of law is being exposed on a daily basis. Nowhere is this clearer than in its perfidious dealings with the Muslim world.
* Ken Mufuka is a Zimbabwean patriot. He writes from the US.
