Israel averts an unspeakable tragedy

This weekend, the Israeli navy intercepted a ship in international waters carrying 18 insidious peaceniks, two ink slingers and one parliamentarian — 21 in all — from the UK, the US, Australia and France. It was the extremist group's third attempt this year to illicitly reach the shores of the Riviera of the Middle East.

The apprehended aggressors' cry of "justification" for their pernicious act was bold — and yet, pathetic; the insolent, groveling plea of Our vessel is loaded with only baby formula, diapers, food and medicine for the Riviera's unfortunate few.

In response, the Israeli government, known globally for its extraordinary empathy for plucky militants, as Israel's founders were, released a gentle, Ribbontrop-inspired statement through its foreign ministry: "Unauthorised attempts to [reach Gaza with even trifles of aid] are dangerous, unlawful, and undermine ongoing humanitarian efforts."

The government's claims cannot be denied by serious people. "Unauthorised attempts" are by definition unlawful in the authorizers' eyes and dangerous to a hegemon's totalitarian control. But above all, Israel's devotion to undermining humanitarian efforts in Gaza have nearly mirrored the Wehrmacht's humanitarianism in Ukraine. In short, almost picture perfect.

The aforementioned unfortunates of this otherwise pleasantly scenic coastal land "routinely choose between two often fatal options: risk death by starvation, or risk death by gunfire to reach food aid sites that are likely to have run out of supplies by the time many arrive," reports The NY Times. As journalistic travelogues go, the Gray Lady's is rather downbeat.

She pays witness to the starvation that "is now sweeping across Gaza." In a phone interview, hospital volunteer Nick Maynard, a British surgeon who departed the Strip on Wednesday, said "I saw the severity of malnutrition that I would not have thought possible in a civilized world. This is man-made starvation being used as a weapon of war."

Other such instruments in chronic use by Gaza's civilized overseers are of the more direct kind that merely begin with starvation:

Radically reduced in number are food distribution sites; where once there were U.N.-operated hundreds, thus close to locals, there are now only "a handful" (four) run by Israeli-approved American contractors. The transition to site minimization was essential, say Israel's leaders, because Hamas was plundering the food and medical aid. Say Israel's in-country military personnel, What plundering is this?

The upshot of draconian reductions in accessible food distribution sites is that "most Palestinians in Gaza can [reach them] only by walking for miles through Israeli military lines," notes the Times — and "Israeli soldiers have killed hundreds of people walking these routes, turning the daily search for food into a deadly trap." William Styron might call this a Palestinian's Choice: "death by starvation" or "death by gunfire."

I should add, however, that the Times errs twice in one critical sentence. The paper observes (in other, more delicate words) that life for Palestinians has been even less than a living hell "since" — quoting further — "Hamas led the October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the current war in Gaza."

For any Times readers seeking a profound misrepresentation of both the present and history, there it is. One, Israel's current "war" is on Gaza; opposing armies are requisite in genuine wars, and such armies are unmanned by children, women, the severely ill and elderly. Two, the relentless "triggering" of Palestinians' dispossession, deracination and mass murder dates to at least the Nakba — "the catastrophe" — of 1948.

Looking for a somewhat apt historical metaphor? The Israeli government's Gaza policy is one of Lebensraum, and word has it that Bibi and cabinet intend to annex Austria, next, the Sudetenland.

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