Destruction by an Israeli strike on the al-Jaouni school in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, September 11, 2024 (EPA)
EA on WION and Pat Kenny Show: Can Netanyahu’s “Forever War” in Gaza Be Stopped?
I joined Dublin NewsTalk’s Pat Kenny Show on Thursday to analyze latest developments in Israel’s mass killings in Gaza, including a strike on a school leaving six UN staff among the 18 civilians slain.
I begin with a resigned admission to the host Anton Savage:
I don’t know what to say anymore as an analyst as we heads towards the one-year anniversary, first of Hamas’s mass killing inside Israel and then the Israeli mass killings of more than 41,000 people.
Not just every few days, but almost every day there is another mass killing. It just so happens that this one gets more profile because there are UN personnel among those killed.
Most of Gaza’s schools, operating as shelters, have been bombed. Most of Gaza’s hospitals have been bombed and put out of service. Most of the public spaces, even those declared humanitarian zones, have been bombed.
We’re at a point, to paraphrase an awful expression from US operations during Vietnam, “You kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out.”
Regaining composure, I evaluate the latest dynamics inside Israel over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “forever war”; the position of the international community, especially the US; and the dim possibility of a ceasefire.
Responding to the recurrent Israeli claim that they are carrying out only “precision” strikes, I make clear:
I am happy to discuss this with an Israeli spokesperson on this program or any other.
You have merit in going after Hamas, given the mass killings of last October. But you lose that merit, you lose that justification when the vast majority of people whom you kill are women and children who are not Hamas fighters— and when the effect will not be to destroy Hamas, but to push civilians closer to Hamas because they have no alternative.
