As I write this post, a reported 19,400 Palestinians, most of them children and women, have been shot, bombed, burned, crushed or bulldozed to death in Gaza by Israeli defense forces. By the time I post this later today I have every reason to believe that number will exceed 20,000. And I have every reason to believe that number will increase exponentially considering there are, or were, two million Palestinians cramped into seventeen square miles. Israel has stated that its invasion of Gaza is existential- if they don’t annihilate Hamas, Hamas will annihilate them. The invasion, they say, is to save itself from extinction. Let’s examine this more closely.

From the inception of the modern Zionist nation of Israel in 1948, when 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their land, there has been ongoing violent conflict. The death toll of Palestinians has outstripped that of the Israelis many times over. The event that triggered the most recent and deadliest conflict (I’m reluctant to call it a war because of the stark asymmetry) was an attack by Hamas terrorists on 10/7/23. It was brutal and barbaric by any decent person’s standards. An estimated 1,200 Israeli civilians were murdered by Hamas terrorists, some dragged out of their homes and hundreds slaughtered at a music concert, in addition to hundreds taken hostage. Why did this happen? Can such barbarity occur within a vacuum? Were there, perhaps, precipitating causes and conditions?

Since 1948, when Israel was declared a sovereign state, the country has been expanding like a voracious amoeba. After the 1967 Six Day War, Israel captured the Sinai, Gaza, West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, doubling its original area. More than 700,000 settlers, roughly 10 percent of Israel’s total population, now live in 150 settlements and 128 outposts throughout the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Nearly all of them are on privately owned Palestinian land. The settlers move in, killing and displacing Palestinians, pushing them out of their homes and stealing their land, all with a wink and a nod from the Israeli government. Gaza city has been blocked by Israel, long before the October attack, controlling the flow of both people and goods. The city has been referred to as an open air prison. Many believe pushback against the settlers was inevitable.

There is a Latin term- Casus Belli. It means a pretext by which one country justifies the attack on another. Israel was warned by Egyptian intelligence of the terrorist attack three days prior. Incredibly, Israel’s own intelligence knew the attack was being planned over a year in advance. It was ignored.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed to turn Gaza into, “A deserted island.” I suspect this has been his goal, long before the Hamas attack.

And so to all the handwringers who caution Israel to be more discriminate and precise in their bombing of Gaza in order to reduce civilian casualties, they are being precise. At this point anyone who can’t see Israel’s true intentions is wearing blinders. The goal is not to ferret out Hamas, and oh, sorry about the civilians. They’re bombing schools and hospitals, not because they are inept bombers. Unicef has declared no place in Gaza is safe for children.

Israel’s goal is clear. Purge Gaza of all Palestinians through death or displacement, render Gaza into rubble, the “Deserted island” Netanyahu has described, bulldoze it flat and subdivide the land for the settlers, who are parasitic on American tax dollars.

We Americans have been told ad nauseam bordering on brain washing that our’s and Israel’s interests are inextricably linked. Reasonable people can disagree on many things, we are told- why, it doesn’t even warrant discussion- what’s good for Israel is good for the United States. We all know, as we’ve been told endlessly, that Israel is our closest friend. Really? Since WWII we have provided more foreign aid to Israel than to any other country. 3.3 billion in 2022, with 99.7 percent going to their military.

I haven’t checked the Gaza civilian body count yet as I finish this post. I’m afraid to look. My parting words?

The blood on Israel’s hands stains ours once removed. It’s time. It’s time to reassess our relationship with the Zionist state. And as for being friends? Men and nations are judged by the friends they keep. And what the hell have they ever done for us?

There. I’ve said it.