Back in 2004, I attended an event where the defense minister at the time, the late Bill Graham, was the guest speaker. Mr. Graham, who was considered a friend of the Arab community in general and the Palestinians in particular, gave what many in the audience considered a nice and well-balanced speech and was rewarded with a standing ovation. I felt otherwise. What I took away from the minister’s speech was that the Arabs are either terrorists to be killed or refugees to be pitied, but not human beings fighting for their freedom and dignity.

Terrorists and refugees. This stigma haunts us until today. Hamas are a “bunch of terrorists”, so it’s ok to destroy Gaza on their heads. And if Israel kills tens of thousands of innocent people in the interim, that’s also ok because they are allowing Hamas to use them as “human shields”. The same goes for Lebanon, “Hizballah is a terrorist organization” so let’s bomb the hell out of Beirut, the south of Lebanon, the north, the Bekaa valley, the Beirut Damascus highway and turn more than 1.5 million civilians into refugees within a week.

But where do such labels come from? They come from governments: the UK, France, Italy, Germany, the Vatican and the USA, which, back in 1917, supported the creation of an exclusive ethnocentric religious state in the heart of the Middle East. A state that has been illegally expanding at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population through massacres, occupation, displacement and Zionist settlements. At every stage of this nightmare, the occupying powers, Britain 1920-1948, and Israel from 1948 on, declared all acts of resistance to this monstrous scheme as terrorism.  Today, those same countries, and their new allies, are aiding systemic genocide of the Palestinians and Lebanese under the pretext of fighting terrorism and supporting Israel’s “right to defend itself”.

Netanyahu has finally declared the real objective of his war. Forget about Hamas, forget about the hostages. The real objective is reshaping the Middle East. It includes, among other things, “redrawing of borders”, “assassinations” and “exploiting Arab world divisions”, all with the help of the USA. His propaganda machine and that of his Zionist Christian allies are promoting just that. To understand the new Middle East, look here and here.

While planting destruction, Israel has been presenting itself as the victim. No more. The world is getting wiser to this trick. The millions who have been constantly demonstrating worldwide, those courageous academicians and media people who are lifting the curtains on the inflicted horrors are starting to make an impact. Some governments are demanding accountability from Israel, and others are calling for stopping arm shipments. Israel is becoming isolated but more dangerous. Israel has to be held accountable for its actions and this madness must stop.

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