It’s safe to say the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel was an outrageous terrorist attack because it WAS. It was carried out against civilians as it was intended to do and anyone with a shred of decency has denounced Hamas and supported destroying it. Just how Israel has gone about doing so however became controversial. It still is. Now we see the old adage about politics making for strange bedfellows playing out in relation to the mess Israel has made of rooting out Hamas leaders in Gaza.
Look, I don’t care if Israel kills every last member of Hamas. In a way I admit thinking sometimes that’s too good for them. Like Trump I want them to suffer for years, alone in a tiny prison cell hearing taunts until they draw their last breath. Still, we shouldn’t overlook how Hamas came into power, and over years amassed the resources needed and ability to plan the Oct. 7 attack.
THAT was due to Israeli Prime Minister installing them, and helping to ensure they were funded even as they kept lobbing attacks over the fence into Israel. He was even warned a YEAR before Oct. 7 of the detailed plans for the attack and blew it off. His own intelligence services had people observing the terrorists practicing in the weeks before the attack and attempts to pass it up the chain were rebuffed. I will always believe Netanyahu DID get word, and that’s why he transferred a bunch of troops from the base next to where the attack happened over to the West Bank. Oh, and the old adage about no combat plan surviving first contact with the enemy didn’t apply here – the actual attack unfolded almost exactly the way Hamas had planned. The very plan Israel’s intelligence services had obtained a YEAR before that attack!
After all this time and all of Israel’s actions, Hamas hasn’t been wiped out, and there are still hostages and bodies haven’t been returned to loved ones for a proper burial. Israel’s vaunted IDF, and Mossad with its (overhyped) near mythic capabilities hasn’t been able to get the job done. Because Netanyahu has insisted on a blunt tool approach instead of precise operations using spec ops forces.
One can debate whether using terms like Genocide or Ethnic Cleansing is appropriate it’s tragic things got to a point where it’s even being talked about. From where I sit it IS fair to talk about things and those terms be part of the discussion. Israel’s tactics have wrecked its moral authority in the eyes of the world but here in the United States AIPAC simply won’t tolerate ANY criticism of Israel. Their problem with MTG is she doesn’t care what they say or try to do!
I see the average person in Gaza the way I came to view the average person in Vietnam. Indifferent to whatever government that existed and just wanting to be left alone to try and scratch out a living. It was a given no matter who was in charge would be corrupt. A case can be made Netanyahu and his Party that has propped him up to keep him from facing trial (not that our own country should be too haughty given Trump and the GOP using our system to do the same) are corrupt like the govt. of Vietnam we tried to prop up.
What’s different here is Ho Chi Minh wanted a unified Vietnam and didn’t care how many North or South Vietnamese had to suffer to achieve that end. Netanyahu is also indifferent to the suffering of both Palestinians AND Israeli’s who’ve had to endure all the attacks be it rockets fired into Israel proper or constant possibility of some goober walking into a cafe wearing a suicide bomber vest. He believes every square inch of Israeli soil is Jewish territory and that no Palestinians should be allowed. He wants every single one of them GONE. If stoking fear and hatred among Jews by tacitly allowing (if not funding) attacks and terrorism is what it takes Bibi doesn’t much care. I do actually believe he’d prefer Palestinians just leave but if they won’t he’ll drive them out. However many he has to kill or starve to death to get the rest to leave doesn’t matter. He just wants them out.
If this seems like what’s called Ethnic Cleansing I’ve yet to see a credible case that it’s not. Some have called it flat-out genocide which brings us to this new round of batshit insanity I raised in the title. As 2pargraphs explains MTG, with Bratty Matty Gaetz chiming in with his support is doing more than talk as she accuses Israel of genocide. She also introduced a bill to cut aid to Israel. It went down in flames but boy has it led to some weird dialogue. Let’s backtrack a bit. From the linked article:
U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was the first Republican member of Congress to use the term genocide to describe the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. In July, Greene wrote on social media: “It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct. 7 in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza.”
Incredible as it seems she wasn’t all talk. She did actually propose taking back $500 in military funding from Israel. The proposal went down in flames in the House with only six members voting for it. Here’s where it starts to get pretty weird. Remember ‘The Squad’? My how the GOP loved to try and paint them as being the puppet masters of the Democratic Party. We haven’t heard much about them for a long time. What matters for this discussion is that only TWO of them voted for MTG’s bill:
Note: Greene proposed a bill in July to claw back the $500 million of U.S. military funding that Congress approved as part of its annual defense support for Israel. Only six members voted in favor of the bill including Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D‑MN), one-half of “The Squad.” (The other two Squad members — Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — voted against Greene’s bill.)
Interesting, but that’s not the weird part. The American Israeli Political Action Committee, known to us all as AIPAC weighed in on MTG’s bill. They of course opposed it as you’d expect. However suggesting she’s now part of ‘The Squad’ is the weird twist. First, as noted only half the group even voted for MTG’s bill. Second, to suggest she’d EVER want to be part of an actual alliance with four very liberal Democrats (or they’d want her in their group) is laughable. Like any politician Greene will take votes she needs from whomever is willing to cast them. However Trump would have to become a combination of the best of the qualities of Lincoln, FDR, JFK and RFK SENIOR before MTG would change and align herself with the values of The Squad.
Still, an incredulous tweet from AIPAC suggests that’s just what has taken place. Maybe someday I’ll learn how to embed a picture of a tweet into a post, but for now all I can do is present the text of the tweet they made last week:
@RepMTG has gone full Squad. Same message, same legislation, same anti-Israel vision. The horrible war is only happening because Hamas refuses to free the hostages & surrender power. Yet, MTG and her friends in the Squad won’t take any action to pressure Hamas to end it. Why?
They were responding to a tweet from MTG criticizing Israel over the impact of its actions on innocent civilians in Gaza, asking Americans to ask themselves ‘how we would feel if WE were the ones causing all that suffering?’ It’s a long, long tweet but damn if she doesn’t make some good points and even in a coherent, easy to understand way. (told you this sh*t is cray) I should make note that if you click on the link to my first link, the 2paragraphs article you can see the full thing – AIPAC, Green’s original tweet and a section adding ‘reader context.” It pointedly states (accurately) that MTG has condemned Hamas for the Oct. 7 attacks. It goes on to specifically say she’s made a distinction between actions taken against Hamas and the civilian population of Gaza. It concludes “Does Hamas deserve it? Yes. Do innocent people and children deserve it? No.”
So we now have AIPAC and MTG having a Xitter food fight. AIPAC won’t allow any criticism of Israel from anybody. Like the NRA they refuse to give an inch and don’t think twice about going after any politician who does. Green of course doesn’t have to worry about them. Or didn’t until she started toying with the idea of moving up to the Senate or maybe Governor’s mansion. That I think might have gotten what once were only would-be challengers to consider taking her on in the primary but that’s a separate topic. What matters is that AIPAC is out for MTG’s political butt and she’s pushing back, giving as good as she gets from them:
Greene replied to AIPAC: “Instead of lying about me, have all your foreign agents at AIPAC registered under FARA yet? Not only are you a bunch of liars, you are breaking the law.” (Greene has consistently held that AIPAC represents Israel directly and should register as a foreign lobbyist.)
I think the ugly is just getting started in this fight. In the meantime the only other GOP Congress Critter (Thomas Massie) is publicly backing MTG. So is Matt Gaetz. Anyone familiar with my writing knows how critical I am of Israel. Admittedly there’s a personal aspect to it regarding the taunts and contempt by fellow Marines had to endure from the IDF in Beirut three decades ago. I will never, ever forgive their lack of gratitude for coming in to clean up the mess THEY made. But when it comes to Gaza it never should have happened.
I will always believe at the very least Netanyahu stood down and let it happen, and perhaps even carefully engineered it knowing it would accomplish two things. First, keep him in power and out of court where a trial would lead to him heading to prison. Second, as I said anyone who doesn’t believe he views every Palestinian in Israel as a parasite (despite how many thousands of years their ancestors like his have lived there) to be wiped out is kidding themselves.
I find it both startling and disconcerting to find MTG of all people (with Gaetz and Massie singing backup) leading the charge of accusing Israel of genocide and AIPAC of not just aiding and abetting but perhaps even breaking U.S. law to do so. That’s why I find myself today asking if the world really has gone mad? Like Through the Looking Glass to the Outer Limits of the Twilight Zone out there at the edge of the universe.
For all my hyperbole there’s a cold, hard tragic fact. People are suffering and dying in Gaza and it doesn’t have to be happening. Israel has spec ops military troops capable of rooting out Hamas as it hides in high-number groups of civilians. Yes, Israel would lose people using such an approach. I can’t say I blame them for wanting to limit such casualties but the real issue is Israel’s strategy and tactics have been designed to eradicate Palestinians from Gaza.
MTG is the one who seems to be screaming the loudest about it. I for one would prefer a different poster child than the Jewish Space Laser Lady. As for AIPAC since her legislation went down in flames with no one noticing they should have left well enough alone. We’ve been mired in the hot, doldrum days of summer but AIPAC might have, because like Trump they can’t bring themselves to exercise some common sense ‘just STFU and move on’ breathed life into MTG’s accusations. Time will tell.
Strange bedfellows indeed. Hard to ignore the moral core of MTG’s argument but the House has done it, morality and US politics not fitting well in the same bed these days. Well written piece