Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza, undertaken to create a dystopian apocalypse of a wasteland devoid of human life, is becoming a reality with the support of Western arms and ammunition. At every stage of what B’Tselem, an Israeli NGO, describes as Israeli “war crimes,” Western countries blamed Hamas for its terrorism on October 7 and promoted Israel’s right to self-defence. With winks, nods and arms from Western countries, Israel has blocked the supply of food, fuel, water and medicines and rained bombs on Gazans. Most of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed. To date 54,381 Palestinians, mostly women and children, are known to have been slaughtered.  

Amnesty International has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. As far back as 26 March 2024 Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, reported that: “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide… has been met.”  Israel hates the UN because it defends Occupied Palestine and has condemned the report.

As recently as 29 May, Professor John Mearsheimer, Professor of International Relations at the University of Chicago, and one of the world’s leading international relations experts of moderate views, said in an article on Substack about his appearance on ‘Judging Freedom,’ a programme aired on YouTube: “We spent much of the time, however, criticising Israel’s barbaric behaviour in Gaza as well as our country’s complicity in this genocide. I might add that almost every other guest…lambasted and castigated Israel for their role in what is the greatest crime of the 21^st century.” Mearsheimer further explained that: “The show’s outsized role is due largely to the fact that mainstream media outlets soft-pedal what Israel is doing in Gaza, which is a polite way of saying they coverup the genocide.”

Worldwide protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, particularly in Western countries, and aimed at their governments to cease the supply of arms, and what appeared to be the peremptory fiat of President Trump’s representative just before his swearing in, forced Israel to agree to a ceasefire which took place between 19 January and 18 March. It provided for an exchange of prisoners, the end of Israel’s war and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Then, after some exchanges of prisoners, and the resumption of the supply of food, fuel, ammunition and water, Israel resumed the war and the starvation tactics. The Israeli right wing, which controls the Israeli government, is determined to ethnically cleanse Gaza for Israeli settlement and, in order to achieve this, threatens Prime Minister Netanyahu’s with bringing down the Government, which places his political future and freedom in jeopardy as he is facing corruption charges. The ferocious bombing and starvation campaign resumed on 18 March, as predicted by many observers of Israel.

As starvation became more pronounced and the photographs of starving children became impossible for a few elements of the Western press to ignore, Western countries began to scramble, not to stop the war, but to escape blame. If they really wanted to stop Israel, they would cease the supply of arms. But they merely threatened to disrupt trade negotiations or trade activity.  The UK, France and Canada expressed “horror” and threatened to take “concrete actions” if Israel did not stop its renewed offensive and lift aid restrictions.”  German Chancellor Metz, in an unusually bold statement, having regard to Germany’s unwavering dedication to Israel, said: “To harm the civilian population to such an extent can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism.” It is only at the Madrid + conference of twenty Arab and EU countries that Spain called for a ban on arms supplies to Israel. Israeli newspapers speculate openly that no serious action will likely be taken against by these countries. These tepid noises from the West have been met by Netanyahu’s loud responses that the war will continue until Hamas is completely defeated. He knows that thumbing his nose at the West will incur no consequences.

Gaza is already a completely destroyed entity. Its two million people are being driven to an even more tiny southern enclave, while efforts to murder or to cleanse them completely from Gaza continue. In the meantime, as Jeremy Scahill reports, the US which, in a deal with Hamas for the release of Edan Alexander, the US-Israeli citizen held by Hamas, promised to obtain a resumption of supplies and a permanent ceasefire, reneged on its undertaking. A trickle of supplies, distributed only in the south of Gaza, to lure everyone to that area, and distributed by a US/Israeli entity, has virtually collapsed after being overrun amidst violence. According to Scahill, a new US/Hamas negotiated proposal involving a ceasefire, supplies of essentials, the release of the hostages and a permanent end to the war, was scrapped by the US after Israeli objections. He suggests that the new proposal announced by Steve Witcoff, Trump’s representative, was advanced after having been discussed with Israel. Details have not been announced but it proposes a temporary ceasefire, resumption of supplies, an exchange of prisoners, but not an end to the war. This is a basic Hamas requirement. Israel clearly wants a free hand to realise its dystopian, apocalyptic vision for Gaza, described above.