Another day, another war crime. I’ve lost count of how many at this point, but for those keeping score, thus far the proud defenders of apartheid have bombed schools, hospitals, mosques, apartments, the largest bakery in Gaza, and now the oldest active church in Gaza. What better way to neutralize “Islamic militants” than by air-striking a 1,600-year-old church.
Yesterday the Israeli occupation forces dropped bombs on a church older than any modern civilization, and 20 times older than the state of Israel itself, targeting a Greek Orthodox church where hundreds of Palestinians, Christians and Muslims alike, were sheltering. The Israeli military, drunk off the bloodlust of bombing hospitals and schools, chose to target the Saint Porphyrios Greek Orthodox Church, resulting in countless more casualties and dozens more injured. But don’t rely on any western media outlet to give you this information straight. Even the link I shared above claims the church was “hit by an explosion” late yesterday. The number of articles I’ve read that outright refuse to place blame where it rightfully belongs is incredibly revealing. It’s just a matter of time before the half-baked think pieces claim that “actually, it was a misfired rocket from Hamas or Islamic Jihad or the Looney Tunes.” Anything to avoid stating the obvious.
Israel and its occupation forces are carpet-bombing kids. I don’t know how else to explain the depths of depravity on display. To watch any on-the-ground Gazan journalist’s work right now is to witness the mental, psychological, and indeed physical deterioration of a human from lack of food and water while attempting to survive endless airstrikes and atrocities. The United Nations calculates that in just 12 days, the maniacs governing the apartheid state have destroyed 25% of the houses in Gaza and made more than half a million people homeless. If you can't stand up and speak out against this state-sponsored ethnic cleansing then, respectfully, what can you stand for? What are you even doing on this planet?
The Gaza Health Ministry has been begging anyone in the blockaded territory with fuel to spare to share it after a fifth major hospital closed this week. The Health Ministry spokesman Medhat Abbas said doctors are resorting to desperate measures to continue caring for patients in the midst of the inhumane blockade by the apartheid regime. Some of these desperate measures include treating bacterial wound infections with vinegar bought from a corner store, or operating on patients in critical condition without the luxury of anesthesia. It doesn’t always have to be an Israeli airstrike, truly there’s more than one way to destroy a hospital.
This week, the Israeli police chief, Kobi Shabtai, has said there would be “zero tolerance” for any Israeli protests in support of Gaza, going so far as to threaten to send anti-war demonstrators to the besieged Palestinian region. The same region that Israel has been bombarding daily for almost two weeks. This is a man so committed to continuing genocide that he would gladly sacrifice his own countrymen if they dare disapprove of the violence, and he’s no anomaly. John Fetterman, the senator with poor fashion sense representing the below-average state of Pennsylvania (sorry folks), thought it appropriate to call for continued ethnic cleansing, stating plainly, “Now is not the time to talk about a ceasefire.” Imagine being so lost in genocidal fantasy that you think air-striking more kids is the solution. The US state department even issued a travel advisory to Americans abroad, advising them to “exercise increased caution" due to "increased tensions in various locations around the world." I guess this is some kind of coded language for, “we sided with the genocidal oppressors, so y’all be safe out there.”
Now America’s dusty genocidal leader (Genocide Joseph?) took to the cameras yesterday to toot his own horn and beg for more money to aid the apartheid regime. Biden and his administration are requesting $105 Billion (that’s Billion, with a B) from congress as part of a package that will include aid and resources for both Ukraine and Israel. During his recent trip to express his support for Israel in person, Biden bargained for humanitarian aid to begin trickling into Gaza. Biden said that Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (another moronic despot) has agreed to allow 20 trucks of humanitarian assistance through the Rafah Crossing into Gaza. 20 trucks is truly a drop in an ocean of the humanitarian assistance needed in an area that’s been sealed off from the rest of the world for 16 years. You read that correctly. The water and electricity may have been cut off just recently, but make no mistake, the blockade of Gaza and the collective punishment of Palestinians is nothing new. 20 trucks or indeed 200 trucks or 2,000 trucks of humanitarian aid will do little for the thousands already dead and the many thousands more wounded.
Precious food, water, and medical supplies could soon start arriving at the Gaza border with Egypt, just as soon as the roads leading up to the border are patched up. It appears the route seems to have sustained some damage from the endless bombing campaign of the Israeli apartheid regime, which extends as far south as the gate separating Gaza from Egypt. Yet somehow, after encouraging and funding the ongoing ethnic cleansing, Biden stepped away from the region patting himself on his fossilized back for his benevolence and ability to establish a “compromise”. Hell of a deal Joe, the Palestinians get a bit of food and water and the Israelis get to continue their ethnic cleansing campaign unimpeded. Everybody wins!
Sadly, the satirical outlet The Onion continues to provide the only honest accounting of how the western world is responding to the genocide unfolding in Gaza. Their latest headline, “Biden Urges Americans Not To Let Dangerous Online Rhetoric Humanize Palestinians” is an accurate encapsulation of what’s happened over the past 12 days. This daily publication that you’re reading, this simple newsletter, is a perfect example of the “dangerous online rhetoric” that is attempting to humanize the innocent people of Palestine. Those in power are expecting you to grow weary of hearing the horror stories and eventually stop paying attention. My advice: find a protest nearby, and if there isn’t one already, organize one in your local community. Now is the time to stand up and speak out against genocide, against occupation, and against the injustice being perpetrated with your tax dollars.