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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/21/the-palestinian-resistance-is-winning-the-movement-must-expose-and-defeat-netanyahus-final-solution-to-the-palestinian-question/">counterpunch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The Palestinian Resistance is Winning:
the Movement Must Expose and Defeat Netanyahu’s “Final Solution” to the
Palestinian Question</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Eric Mann</div>
<div class="gmail-meta-data">
<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">February 21, 2024<br></div>
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<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing worldwide
condemnation, desperately tells his isolated supporters that Israel
needs “absolute victory.” On Christmas Day 2023, the Wall Street Journal
gave the Prime Minister a worldwide platform to assert his
manifesto—“Our Three Prerequisites for Peace: We Must Destroy Hamas,
Demilitarize Gaza, and De-radicalize the Whole of Palestinian Society.”
Netanyahu makes his objectives clear. He wants a “final solution” to the
Palestinian problem—the mass annihilation of the Palestinian people.
His goal is a Palestine without any Palestinians so Israel can
completely occupy all of Palestine once and for all.</p>
<p>The Israel ruling class’ direct application of Hitler’s “Final
Solution to the Jewish Question” warrants a brief historical
reconstruction. By 1939, Adolph Hitler gave a speech calling for the
“mass extermination of all the Jews in Europe.” The very term
“extermination” is based on the dehumanization and vilification of the
Jewish people. The “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” was the
official code name for the murder of every Jew the Nazis could reach.
This policy of deliberate and systematic mass murder in Germany and
German-occupied Europe was formulated in procedural and geopolitical
terms by Nazi leadership in January 1942 at the Wannsee Conference held
near Berlin. It culminated in the Holocaust, which saw the murder of 90
percent of Polish Jews, and two-thirds of the Jewish population of
Europe. Raul Hilberg, author of <em>The Destruction of the European Jews</em>,
wrote that in 1941 the first phase of the mass-murder of Jews, the
mobile killing units began to pursue their victims across occupied
eastern territories; in the second phase, stretching across all of
German-occupied Europe, the Jewish victims were sent on death trains to
centralized killing camps built for the purpose of systematic murder of
Jews.</p>
<p>But why did the Nazis call it the “final solution?” Because every
other form of oppression of the Jews did not solve the problem. Nazi
Germany had so much hatred for the Jews that only their mass
annihilation was the “solution” to their question—what can we do to
eradicate the Jews as a people. The Nazis began with verbal abuse and
physical beating. Then forcing Jews to wear a yellow star of David as
they screamed epithets and threw rocks. Then the forced imprisonment in
ghettos. Then widespread murder. Then a thought that perhaps the Jews
could be dispersed. But to where?—as Germany wanted to control the world
and the U.S., British and French sure didn’t want the Jews. Then,
finally, the Final Solution.</p>
<p>From the conceptual and strategic formulation of Zionism in the 1880s
to the Israeli mass slaughter and dispersal of more than 700,000
indigenous Palestinian people in 1947—that the Palestinians call The
Nakba-the Catastrophe—Israel’s very existence was based on genocide.
Genocide, the removal and mass murder of indigenous inhabitants is the
central tactical imperative of white, European, settler imperialism. The
UN Convention on Genocide of 1948 defines genocide as “any of five acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnic, racial or religious group. These five acts include killing
members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm,
imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing
births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group.”</p>
<p>In the folklore of the white, Christian, European and now Jewish
imperialist settlers, the land is always assumed to be vacant—or in
their minds—pre-vacant. However, the proponents of Zionism in the 1880s
well understood that the entire world was inhabited. As such, they
required the support of the Imperialist Powers, in this case England, to
displace the Palestinians over which the British had colonial control.
That would be the land base of a new settler state run by Zionist Jews.
In return, Israel promised to be a loyal agent of British, and later
U.S. imperialism in the middle east—supporting anti-communism,
counterrevolution, and the expansion of the colonial racist agenda. This
was most grotesquely apparent in Israel’s deep strategic, ideological,
and cultural alliance with the South African apartheid regime.</p>
<p><em>The Israeli tactical plan to carry out its genocide has proceeded methodically</em></p>
<p>It began with the systematic invasion of Jewish settlers into
Palestine, as early as the 1880s, as conscious infiltrators and future
conquerors.</p>
<p>Then there was the Nakba in 1947—a punitive Israeli military invasion
of Palestine resulting in the forced removal of more than 700,000
Palestinians.</p>
<p>Then there was the Israeli occupation of Gaza in 1967—the arrests of 1
million Palestinians and the Israeli creation of a 2-million-person
open-air concentration camp in Gaza— blocked from any humanitarian aid
or the right to travel by land, water, and air. Then, with the people
of Gaza encircled, the Israelis inflicted a systematic reign of terror
against them using the tactics of imprisonment, torture, kidnapping, and
murder. The Israeli brutality and constant cultural abuse led to infant
mortality, despair, depression, PTSD, and suicide among the indigenous
Palestinians. This was a conscious plan by Israel to destroy the
culture, integrity, and national identity of the Palestinian people.</p>
<p>Then, on October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a bold and effective
tactical initiative for Palestinian national liberation. Imagine, that
the Palestinian people and Hamas sought revenge, insurgency, and
liberation against fascist occupation. The simple assertion of the
humanity of the Palestinian people and their right, by any means
necessary, to fight back has forced every nation in the world to pay
great attention to the Palestinian cause and take a stand—which side are
you on? While many of Israel’s traditional allies profess support, many
are already formulating an exit strategy.</p>
<p>In response to the tactical initiatives of Hamas, Israel has
formulated the most brutal of all responses—to destroy the Palestinian
people as a people once and for all. What Netanyahu calls, “Total
victory.” This was always the plan but it had to be implemented in
steps. The concept of an armed Palestinian resistance movement is
inconceivable and unacceptable to the Zionists—but inspiring,
exhilarating, and liberating for the Palestinian people. The mass
resistance of the oppressed, as Franz Fanon pointed out, is the great
anti-depressant.</p>
<p><strong>Netanyahu’s First Prerequisite: <em>Hamas must be destroyed.</em></strong><strong> </strong></p>
<p>Netanyahu begins his manifesto:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>First, Hamas, a key Iranian proxy, must be destroyed. The U.S., U.K.,
France, Germany and many other countries support Israel’s intention to
demolish the terror group. To achieve that goal, its military
capabilities must be dismantled and its political rule over Gaza must
end. Hamas’s leaders have vowed to repeat the Oct. 7 massacre “again and
again.” That is why their destruction is the only proportional response
to prevent the repeat of such horrific atrocities. Anything less
guarantees more war and more bloodshed. In destroying Hamas, Israel will
continue to act in full compliance with international law.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Note that Netanyahu concedes “Hamas’ political rule over Gaza”—an
acknowledgment of its overwhelming political support among the
Palestinian people in Gaza.</em></p>
<p>Hamas is a popular political organization, with support throughout
all of Palestine—with its strongest base in Gaza. Its goal is the
national liberation of the Palestinian people. It is a guerrilla
movement. In January 2006 when the Palestinian territories held what
turned out to be their last parliamentary elections, Hamas, running as
the Change and Reform Party, won the largest popular vote— 44 of the
total. This was compared to 41% for Fatah, the more moderate
Palestinian Authority. Under the parliamentary system Hamas won a
strong majority of seats—74 for Hamas and 45 for Fatah.</p>
<p>This vote was an amazing upset since Israel detained 50 members of
Hamas who were involved the elections as well as capturing and
imprisoning 15 of its leaders. If that was not enough, the U.S. and
Europe provided half of Fatah’s election budget with the U.S.
contributing $2.3 million. Without Israeli, European, and U.S.
intervention and aid, Hamas would have won in a landslide. But through
this process, Hamas gained even greater political support and Fatah was
discredited in the eyes of many in Gaza. So, Netanyahu and the vast
majority of the Israeli political forces who agree with or concede to
him, have decided that “the political rule” of Hamas must be
destroyed. In practice, this means all Palestinians active in Hamas,
friendly to Hamas, or even not opposed to Hamas must be destroyed.</p>
<p><em>Netanyahu’s use of the world “destroy” is an explicit call for the mass murder of Hamas and all Palestinians. </em>The
U.S., Europe, and Israel only use the term “destroy” in their war
against Third World people. Note that during World War II, in U.S.,
English and Third World communists war against German, Italian, and
Japanese fascists, the U.S. leaders never used the word “destroy.” While
the U.S. realized that most German and Japanese people were
enthusiastic Nazis and fascists, the U.S. had plans to re-integrate and
“rehabilitate” them after World War II into its imperialist,
anti-communist plan for world domination. Thus, the U.S. wanted to
create the myth that only a small number of Nazis leaders forced their
people into unbearable crimes against humanity. Then, upon victory, the
U.S. could humanize the Nazis and fascists they intended to recruit to
its cause. Even in the face of German genocide against the Jewish
people, Roma people, and communists, “destroy” was never in the U.S.
lexicon.</p>
<p><em>Proportional Response </em></p>
<p>Here is a documentation of the mass suffering caused by Israel’s “proportional response”:</p>
<p>In Gaza, according to Al Jazeera,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Killed: at least 27,947 people, including more than 12,150 children and 8,300 women</p>
<p>Injured: more than 67,459, including at least 8,663 children and 6,327 women</p>
<p>Missing: more than 7,000</p>
<p>More than half of Gaza’s homes – 360,000 residential units – have
been destroyed or damaged. Including 390 educational facilities, 13 out
of 35 hospitals are partially functioning. 122 ambulances, 267 places of
worship destroyed by Israeli attacks.</p>
<p>Every hour in Gaza: 15 people are killed— six are children, 35 people
are injured, 42 bombs are dropped, and 12 buildings are destroyed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Netanyahu, with the full support of President Biden and the vast
majority of the Democrats and Republicans made his plan for mass murder
apparent. As he stated on October 7 reported in Al Jazeera,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We will take mighty vengeance for this black day,” the Israeli leader
said in a televised address. “We will take revenge for all the young
people who lost their lives. We will target all of Hamas’s positions. <em>We will turn Gaza into a deserted island.</em> To the citizens of Gaza, I say. You must leave now. We will target each and every corner of the strip.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Israel’s contempt for any international statutes and institutions that try to protect human rights </em></p>
<p>Everyone in the world, or at least the Third World, knows that U.S, Europe, and Israel have contempt for international law.</p>
<p>On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled
on South Africa’s charges that Israel is committing acts of Genocide
against the Palestinian people. As could be expected, the U.S., Germany,
and Israel rejected the entire charge as “baseless.” Nonetheless,
under international pressure, Israel had to accept the authority of the
court to rule on the charges because it decided it had to put forth a
vigorous defense. The ICJ ruled against Israel and demanded that Israel
cease and desist from many of its genocidal practices. Its decision
stated,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the court’s view, “at least some of the acts and omissions alleged
by South Africa to have been committed by Israel in Gaza appear to be
capable of falling within the provisions of the 1948 Genocide
Convention.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now, in a literal reading of this decision, it might appear that the
Court ruling was not very strong. But the court’s language— “at least”
“alleged” “”appear to be capable”— were carefully constructed to meet
the legal standards of its interim decision and prevent Israel from
claiming animus against it. But the main conclusion of the Court was
that <em>Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. </em>This
is a massive political defeat for Israel and a tremendous victory for
the South African government and the people of Palestine.</p>
<p>Sadly, but not surprisingly one week after the decision <em>The Conversation</em> documented Israel’s contempt of court.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>More than a week has passed since the International Court of Justice
(ICJ) mandated provisional measures against Israel following South
Africa’s accusation of genocide. The court’s demands were clear: Israel
must take immediate steps to prevent genocidal actions in Gaza; prevent
and punish incitement to genocide; allow access to humanitarian aid; and
prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence of
alleged crimes. It must also report back to the court within a month on
the implementation of these measures. There’s little evidence Israel has
changed course, despite these clear orders. In fact, reports from Gaza
suggest escalated violence and increased civilian casualties each day.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Worse, as we read this, Israel, having driven the people of Gaza
towards the Rafa border, is now planning an imminent ground mass murder
against one million Gaza residents trapped by the IDF assault.</p>
<p><strong>Netanyahu’s Second Prerequisite: Hamas must be demilitarized.</strong></p>
<p>Second, Gaza must be demilitarized.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Israel must ensure that the territory is never again used as a base
to attack it. Among other things, this will require establishing a
temporary security zone on the perimeter of Gaza and an inspection
mechanism on the border between Gaza and Egypt that meets Israel’s
security needs and prevents smuggling of weapons into the territory. The
expectation that the Palestinian Authority will demilitarize Gaza is a
pipe dream. It currently funds and glorifies terrorism in Judea and
Samaria and educates Palestinian children to seek the destruction of
Israel. Not surprisingly it has shown neither the capability nor the
will to demilitarize Gaza. It failed to do so before Hamas booted it out
of the territory in 2007, and it has failed to do so in the territories
under its control today. For the foreseeable future Israel will have to
retain overriding security responsibility over Gaza.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>The Israeli objective to demilitarize Hamas is an explicit plan
to create an unarmed, defenseless Palestinian people subject to every
form of Israeli barbarism without any hope, or capacity to retaliate.</em></p>
<p>According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies
(IISS), Israel has 169,500 active military personnel, 465,000 reserve
forces, and 8,000 paramilitary personnel. The entire apparatus is
mandated by Israel’s financial system, which counts on more than $3.8
Billion of military aid a year from the U.S. The State of Israel has
between 80 and 400 nuclear warheads. It can deliver them by aircraft, as
submarine-launched cruise missiles, and via the Jericho series of
intermediate to intercontinental range ballistic missiles.</p>
<p>By contrast, Haman’s armed forces are very small. But they are
strategic, disciplined, focused, and effective. Hamas has a
well-developed military structure with 15,000–16,000 potential
combatants. The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, has an
estimated 30,000–40,000 fighters. Thank God they have a people’s army.
Despite Hamas’ small force of armed resistance, they are winning the
war of ideas and the war of political support in the world. The
Palestinian people will never lay down their arms and will always resist
the Israeli Holocaust.</p>
<p><strong>Netanyahu’s Third Prerequisite: Gaza Must Be De-radicalized </strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Third, Gaza will have to be deradicalized. Schools must teach
children to cherish life rather than death, and imams must cease to
preach for the murder of Jews. Palestinian civil society needs to be
transformed so that its people support fighting terrorism rather than
funding it. That will likely require courageous and moral leadership.
Successful deradicalization took place in Germany and Japan after the
Allied victory in World War II. Today, both nations are great allies of
the U.S. and promote peace, stability and prosperity in Europe and Asia.
Such a cultural transformation will be possible in Gaza only among
Palestinians who don’t seek the destruction of Israel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Deradicalization is code for the Jakarta Method, documented by
Vincent Bevins in which the U.S. and its allies use mass murder as the
only successful form of counter-insurgency</em>.</p>
<p>The Indigenous People of the America’s well understand that
“deradicalization” led the Spanish invaders, the Portuguese, and later
the English-Americans to murder more than 90 million indigenous people
in one century—and then systematically murder the leaders of those who
remained. The Black Panthers well understood that J. Edgar Hoover’s
“COINTELPRO” program was designed to “expose, disrupt, misdirect,
discredit and otherwise neutralize” —that is, arrest, torture, and
assassinate the leaders of the Black Liberation and civil rights
movement. The U.S. worked to deradicalize the National Liberation Front
of Vietnam my murdering 4 million Vietnamese people.</p>
<p>To apply the ideas of the great Martinican revolutionary Aimé Césaire in his <em>Discourse on Colonialism</em>, the U.S., Europe, and Israel are indefensible.</p>
<p><em>Netanyahu concludes his discourse on genocide</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Once Hamas is destroyed, Gaza is demilitarized and Palestinian
society begins a deradicalization process, Gaza can be rebuilt and the
prospects of a broader peace in the Middle East will become a reality.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It has become clear that Netanyahu’s brutal vision is shared by Israel’s willing executioners.</p>
<p><em>Two Israeli rappers have called for the murder of singer Dua
Lipa, model Bella Hadid, and ex-porn star Mia Khalifa in a chart-topping
song that has become an unofficial soundtrack for the Israel-Hamas war.</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>The drill rap by Israeli duo, Ness and Stilla, has exploded since it
was released three months ago — with the music video since racking up a
whopping 18.5 million views on YouTube. The Hebrew track — titled “Harbu
Darbu” — features the rappers firing off an apparent kill list of those
they hold accountable for the October 7 bloodshed inflicted by Hamas
terrorists in southern Israel.</p>
<p>“Every dog will get what’s coming to them,” the duo sings in the clip
after listing off the three celebrity names. Dua Lipa, the
British-Albanian singer and Bella Hadid, the world-famous fashion model
who is of Palestinian descent, have both called for a cease-fire amid
the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Khalifa, meanwhile, sparked outrage after
referring to Hamas as “freedom fighters” on social media in the days
after the war broke out.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the rappers also take aim at Mohammed Deif, the head of
Hamas’ Al-Qassam brigades; Hamas’ political wing chair, Ismail Haniyeh;
and Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah — chanting that the Israel
Defense Forces will “rain a storm down on them.” Other lyrics featured
in the rap translate to “we have brought the whole army against you and
we swear there will be no forgiveness” and “get your a-s ready” for the
IDF. It also featured heavily as background music on TikTok videos where
young Israelis and soldiers filmed themselves lip-syncing and dancing
to the song.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Israeli crimes are not the ramblings of a mad man. They are deep
in the heart and soul of the Israeli people. Young and old, reformed,
conservative, and orthodox, agnostic, atheist, religious or secular,
square or hip—there is mass support among Israeli Jews for Netanyahu’s
final solution. A recent public opinion poll at Tel Aviv University
found that 40 percent of Jewish Israelis believed that the mass murders
by the IDF were the right level of force, while 58 percent felt they
were not brutal enough. One does not need to be a mathematician to see
that among Israeli Jews—until there is a courageous and militant Jewish
anti-Zionist resistance— there is a widespread and insatiable appetite
for killing the Palestinian people.</p>
<p>In the U.S. we have seen, and worked to create, a meteoric rise of
the Black, Jewish, and progressive support for the human rights of the
Palestinian people. The immediate popular demands are to call for an
immediate ceasefire, cutting of all aid to Israel, and a massive
campaign for humanitarian aid. Others go further—to oppose Netanyahu’s
genocidal plan, to save the lives of the Palestinian people as a prelude
to the most extensive reparations and to bring U.S. officials including
U.S. President Joe Biden up on charges of genocide in front of the
International Criminal Court.</p>
<p>The 2024 U.S. presidential elections are a tremendous historical
opportunity to bring international attention to the U.S. genocide
against Palestine, and its continued genocide against the Indigenous and
Black people trapped inside its territorial borders. The U.S.
presidential elections, starting now, offer the movement the chance to
convince many people of goodwill that the main “outcome of the election”
is not which candidate will win but how can we help deliver a victory
for the people of Palestine</p>
<p>The long history of the Black, civil rights, anti-war movements’
support for Palestine and the prominent role of anti-Zionist Jews in
those movements offers hope for today. In the summer of 1964, 60 years
ago, 1,000 young white people came South at the request of the
leadership of the Black Freedom Movement. They came “to be of use” as
they were asked to “put their bodies on the line.” Of the 1000 white
volunteers, 500 were Jews. That is statistically astounding but
historically explainable. The young Jewish people, many of whom had
family members who were Holocaust victims and survivors, were fiercely
anti-Zionist in the secular liberal, humanist, socialist, and communist
traditions of Jews all over the world. We saw the struggle of the Jewish
people against German genocide reflected in the struggle of Black
people against U.S. genocide. We saw the struggle of the Palestinians
against Zionist occupation as the cutting edge of the ongoing
anti-fascist united front.</p>
<p> On June 21, 1964, the Ku Klux Klan, working with the Neshoba County
Police, murdered CORE civil rights workers James Chaney, a native
Mississippian, and Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, two Jews from
New York in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The Black/Jewish connection was
critical to the success of Freedom Summer and is an essential
relationship in the struggle for Palestinian and Black rights today.</p>
<p> I am a Jew from Brooklyn who has been in the Civil Rights and
anti-imperialist movement for more than 50 years. In 1964, CORE, where I
worked as a field secretary, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee, and all of us in the civil rights movement saw the Black,
Palestinian, and Black South African anti-apartheid struggles as
national liberation movements against the U.S., Israeli and Afrikaner
white settler states. In 1967, SNCC, led by its courageous
communications director Ethel Minor, wrote <em>Third World Round Up: The Palestine Problem</em>, based on the work of the Palestine Research Center. SNCC concluded:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Comrades. It is clearly a question of right and wrong. In the Middle
East, America has worked with and used the powerful Zionist movement to
take over another people’s home and replace the Palestinian people with a
partner that has well served America’s purpose, a partner that can help
the United States and other white Western countries to exploit and
control the nations of Africa, the Middle East and Africa. We have no
choice but to resist.</p>
</blockquote>
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