| By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Palestine
For years, I have been warning that Israel is psychologically and morally capable of carrying out a holocaust or a genocide against the Palestinian people. Needless to say, the horrible events of the past two weeks in Gaza seem to have enforced and vindicated my convictions in this regard. Israel, government and people, seem to possess the psychological propensity that would make her embark on such a monstrosity. Yes, there is a minority of Israeli Jews and non-Israeli Jews who say "No" to all the evils and crimes Israel is doing in their name. However, let us be honest and realistic. These people are a small minority and have very little influence if any on the Israeli government and army. Today, what many people had thought would be unthinkable or far-fetched in terms of the extent to which Israel would be willing to go in savaging the Palestinian people seems quite possible in light of the Jewish state's Nazi-like behavior in the Gaza Strip. Given the Israeli mindset, Israel may well be hoping the latest genocidal onslaught could have a certain desensitizing and de-mystifying effect on people's perceptions and attitudes. The logic is quite simple. If the world can be bullied or cajoled into silence and apathy when Gaza is ravaged and thousands of its inhabitants are slaughtered en mass in full view of humanity, the same world can likewise be manipulated in similar fashion to come to terms with a greater genocide. On Tuesday, 6 January, one Israeli official, Eli Yeshai, called for the total extermination of Gaza . The leader of the ultra Orthodox Shas party argued that "extermination of the enemy is sanctioned by the Torah." Other Israeli political and religious leaders have lately spoken enthusiastically of the need for "wiping off Gaza from the face of earth" and "annihilating of every moving thing there." Interestingly, this is by no means a minority opinion in Israel. Indeed, one could safely argue that the "ideology of annihilation" now represents the mainstream in the Israeli society. As we all know, Israel heavily employs mendacity, deception and disinformation to conceal, or at least blur, its criminality and barbarianism. The Israeli hasbara machine's main job has always been and continues to be to turn the black into white, the white into black and the big lie into a "truth" glorified by millions, especially in the west. To effect these obscene lies and "virtual realities," the Israeli government counts heavily on the Jewish-controlled or Jewish influenced media in the western world, especially in North America where telling the truth about Israel is the ultimate taboo. In truth, what has been happening in Gaza is a huge massacre of genocidal proportions as many conscientious Jews have testified. What else can be said of this wanton, deliberate and indiscriminate blanket bombing of densely-populated neighborhoods and refugee camps? I believe terms such as "huge massacres" and "genocidal onslaught" used in reference to the Gaza nightmare cannot be dismissed by Israel and her supporters as merely overstatements or rhetorical exaggerations. This is unless Israel views non-Jewish pain and suffering as disingenuous, probably because non-Jews or "goyem" are actually considered "human animals" by a large and growing class of fanatical rabbis, politicians and military leaders. So far, more than 4000 Gazans have been mercilessly killed or badly mutilated or incinerated in less than two weeks of intensive indiscriminate aerial and artillery bombing targeting everyone and everything. Mosques, homes, public buildings, shelters, schools, colleges, dormitories, factories, cultural institutions, businesses, even hospitals and drug stores as well as the entire civilian infrastructure have been bombed and reduced to rubble. The rabid bombing from high altitudes has exterminated numerous whole families and destroyed entire neighborhoods. This is probably what Israeli leaders had in mind when they spoke earlier about a "shock and awe" campaign against Gaza . On 6 January, Israeli tanks fired several artillery shells at a school at the Jabalya refugee camp, killing more than 40 civilians, mostly children and women, who had sought shelter at the UNRWA-run facility. Dozens others were injured, many critically. Israeli army spokespersons, who are actually professional liars, claimed that Palestinian fighters were seen in the vicinity of the building and that some of these actually fired on Israeli troops from the school. However, UN officials in Gaza strongly denied the Israeli account, with one UN official saying that he was "99.99%" that the Israeli army was lying. Earlier, the Israeli air forces hit a mourning reception, killing 15 members of the same family. The pornographic killing of civilians has no explanation other than the ostensible fact that Israel is adopting a no-holds-barred approach toward Gaza , which is still under effective Israeli occupation despite the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the coastal enclave more than three years ago. Well, if we are to accept this logic, namely that everything is fair in war, then Jews should stop complaining about what the armies of Hitler did to them during World War II. It is just unacceptable to apply two standards of morality, one for Jews and another for non-Jews. For if what Israel is doing in Gaza is right, as Israel and her supporters maintain, then what the Nazis did in Europe several decades ago must have been right as well. And vice versa. After all, crime doesn't become kosher when committed by Jewish hands. Colossal crime The enormity of the present holocaustic assault is undoubtedly a colossal crime against humanity. In proportion to the size of population, the murder and maiming of 4000 Gazans (the number keeps rising) is like the US having at least a million of its citizens killed or badly injured as a result of a foreign aggression. As to the utter destruction of Gaza , it is equally shocking. Some American expatriates here in occupied Palestine have spoken of a double holocaust in Gaza , one targeting humans, and another targeting civilization. Facing their crimes, pornographic and outrageous as they are, many Israelis, probably the majority, are simply so gleeful that they think Israel is doing the right thing and that God is standing on the side of Israel in this war and every war. Some religious Israelis have become so euphoric, thanks to the Gaza blitz, that they think the Messiah's coming imminent. Other "religious" Israeli Jews, including rabbis, readily justify the wanton slaughter by quoting biblical verses justifying genocide. One Israeli settler leader recently argued during a conversation with a visiting American peace activist that "if it was right to commit genocide during Biblical time, why can't it be right to commit genocide now . Has God changed his mind," the settler wondered sarcastically. As to Israeli leaders and officials, they simply indulge in what they have always been indulging in, namely "denial" and "self-righteousness" or simply playing the role of victim. Thus behaved Shimon Peres, the Israeli President, when he told al-Jazeera during a live interview on Monday, 5 January. " We don't kill and we have not killed any children in Gaza . We are the victim of Hamas aggression," said the pathological liar and certified war criminal rather shamelessly. Peres's pornographic lies don't need any further comment. They speak for themselves. Zionist Jews may very well think that might is right, and that morality is unneeded and unnecessary as long as they possess overwhelming material strength. They may think that the rivers of blood the "only democracy in the Middle East " has been shedding will strengthen Israel and terrorize its neighbors. Well, it may in the short run. However, in the long run, Israeli criminality and evilness will make it sterile from within to the point of death. Like evil people, evil states shall not prosper. | 
Network World on Twitter: Get our tweets and stay plugged in to networking news
