Our complicity in Gaza has set the stage for a second genocide - in the West Bank ... the back story that utterly undermines Israel's "self-defence" narrative in Gaza by Jonathan Cook

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

 https://x.com/Jonathan_K_Cook/status/1956325210505859098

Jonathan Cook

@Jonathan_K_Cook

There is a revealing back story to Israel's so-called E1 Plan, a massive settlement project that includes the building of many thousands of new homes. The plan’s goal is to irreversibly sever the illegally annexed eastern, Palestinian side of Jerusalem from the West Bank, and then break the illegally occupied West Bank into two separate territorial cantons, destroying any hope of future Palestinian statehood.

 

That back story utterly undermines Israel's "self-defence" narrative in Gaza.

 

The media are playing up the role of Bezalel Smotrich, the self-declared fascist minister in Netanyahu's government, in the E1 Plan – as though it somehow reflects his ugly and malign influence. That is pure misdirection.

 

In fact, this plan has been around since the 1990s and was first formulated by the supposedly "peacenik" Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. It was intended as a parallel move to the “peace accords” of that time negotiated in Oslo.

 

The Oslo accords had incited huge divisions in Israeli society because it was assumed that they would cede back to the Palestinians significant pieces of territory Israel was illegally occupying and colonising in the West Bank. Domestic opposition ultimately led to Rabin’s assassination.

 

In Rabin's eyes, E1 overrode those objections. It would protect the then largest of the illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Maale Adumim, incorporating it into the eastern side of Jerusalem, which Israel had already annexed and was furiously settling with Jews while displacing Palestinian communities there.

 

As an aside, let us note that Rabin, who won the Nobel peace prize along with Yasser Arafat for signing the Oslo accords, was expressly against the creation of a real Palestinian state. He wanted “ an entity which is less than a state” – a vision that appears to have viewed that “entity” as little more than a glorified local authority running schools and collecting the rubbish.

 

Notably, Rabin also drew up plans for a separation wall across the West Bank between Israel and its settlements, on one side, and Palestinian communities on the other. A successor, Ariel Sharon, a hawkish former army general, would be the one to build that wall nearly a decade later, imprisoning Palestinian communities behind steel and concrete fortifications, and in the process stealing vast swaths of their agricultural land. Western capitals, as ever meekly protested to zero effect.

 

After Rabin, every Israeli prime minister, whether they identified with the Zionist left or right, advanced the E1 Plan: Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Sharon, Ehud Olmert.

 

And all helped build the initial infrastructure – the roads, and even a police station – to make E1 become a reality.

 

The plan was formally frozen in 2009 only after the US exerted huge pressure on Israel. Why? Because the realisation of E1 could mean only one thing: a permanent end to the pretence of a two-state solution. Israel's interest in "peacemaking" would be exposed as the hollow charade it always was, even under Rabin.

 

Smotrich has made precisely that point in his usual blunt way, saying E1 is necessary because it will “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”. It is the prelude to his ambition, one shared by the rest of the Israeli government and large parts of the public, to formally annex the West Bank.

 

Which is why the Guardian and other media are calling the E1 Plan " hugely controversial" – a predictable and hugely controversial understatement.

 

In fact, E1 is utterly illegal. 

 

It is the precise opposite of what the International Court of Justice – the world's highest court –

ordered last year. Which was for Israel to begin dismantling the settlements, end its system of apartheid rule over Palestinians that has been required to enforce decades of colonisation, and restore all of the territory stolen by the Israeli occupation regime from the Palestinian people.

 

Spinning this the best way he could for Israel, the Guardian’s veteran foreign affairs correspondent Peter Beaumont observed, as if he was some sort of rookie journalist: “It remained unclear on Thursday how much buy-in Smotrich has from Netanyahu and the Trump administration.”

 

“Buy-in”?! As noted, every Israeli prime minister has sought to advance E1 – Netanyahu at least as enthusiastically as the rest of them. There is nothing controversial about the E1 Plan inside Israel.

So how does all of this relate to Gaza?

 

Establishment media, including so-called liberal outlets such as the BBC and Guardian, would like you to digest the news from the West Bank and the news from Gaza as though they are happening in entirely different universes. As though what Israel does to Palestinians in Ramallah is unconnected to what it does to Palestinians in Gaza City.

 

That is patently ridiculous. The two territories, the two occupations, the two systems of apartheid, the two programmes of ethnic cleansing draw on exactly the same Israeli impulse for domination, the same Israeli desire for ethnic cleansing and colonisation, the the same racist Israeli disregard for Palestinian life.

 

Israel’s settler colonial project has been going on for decades. All too obviously, the West Bank and Gaza are only separate territories – disconnected parts of the same Palestinian homeland – because Israel enforced their separation.

 

All Israeli leaders have signed up to the same settler-colonial programme that requires the removal and replacement of the Palestinian people. In Gaza, that removal is being carried out to a tight deadline and has required an overt genocide. In the West Bank, it is – for the time being, at least – being carried out more by stealth, more incrementally, more obliquely.

 

But the intended fate of the people in the West Bank is ultimately no different from the fate of the people in Gaza – unless we in the West stop it by refusing to remain silent about what is happening.

E1 is the last phase in an apartheid system made concrete by Israel in the form of the checkpoints and walls it has built across the West Bank. E1 is that territory’s version of the military cage Israel built around Gaza in the early 1990s, when the E1 Plan was first on the drawing board. It will create the conditions for an intensified blockade of the West Bank, in the same way that the cage around Gaza made possible the siege of Gaza that began in 2007.

 

We know where Gaza’s siege led: to years of different forms of Palestinian revolt, including

non-violent protests at the perimeter of their cage. Ultimately it led to Hamas’ break-out on 7 October 2007, and Israel’s genocidal response.

 

When we continue to do nothing to stop the Gaza genocide, or actively assist it as our governments have been doing for the past two years, Israel feels more emboldened. Our complicity in Gaza is precisely why Israel is dusting off the E1 Plan for the West Bank now.

 

Israel will continue intensifying its oppression there until it creates conditions for open revolt, as it earlier did in Gaza. Israel will seize such a revolt, as it did in Gaza, as the pretext for committing a second genocide – this time in the West Bank.

 

We know what is coming. The question is: Have we learnt anything? This time, will we act?

Dear America- STOP THE SIEGE- stop funding crazy cruel Israeli checkpoints & the forced displacement, imprisonment, starvation, torture, and killing of human beings in Gaza and Palestine.

Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip. Photograph: Ramadan Abed/Reuters The Guardian: 73 people killed while waiting for aid in Gaza, and more than 150 people also wounded, some critically, as some witnesses say Israeli military shot at crowd.

 Dear America,

Both Democratic and Republican Presidents and their administrations, as well as far too many American Senators and Representatives have been foolishly using American tax-payers' money to empower Israel and Israel's cruel Zionist schemes that disparage, displace, starve, impoverish and destroy the native non-Jewish men, women and children of historic Palestine.

Crazy cruel is that monstrous land grabbing wall built by Israel on Palestinian land imprisoning Palestinians so that Israeli citizens and usurpers are free to drive on Israeli-only roads, breezing through Israeli checkpoints while Palestinian farmers are blocked from harvesting their own farmland and Palestinian children are prevented from getting to school.

Crazy cruel is that Israel has a full blockade on Gaza, using starvation as a weapon of war in addition to bombs... Children are dying of hunger and they are also being targeted and killed by the IDF. Those that live are tormented by suffering. 

Hitler's Nazi Holocaust and World War II killed more than 60 million people - did they all die in vain, not for freedom or the rule of fair and just laws and human decency and dignity but for land grabbing Israel so that Zionism can rise up crossing all borders and oceans to ruthlessly rule Planet Earth and our skies with brute force, bombs, land grabs, and a plethora of poisonous propaganda all aimed at gathering more funds and oil fields.

Our newspapers and mainstream media are failing to fully cover the story as a very foreign country intentionally sabotages and undermines every ideal we Americans and global citizens should hold dear! 

Crazy cruel is that American leadership is electing to follow Israel's lead in closing down UNWRA and stopping international law from doing what it does best- respecting human dignity for ALL people, not just your chosen favorites.

Meanwhile American tax codes favor big businesses and billionaires who callously flit off on gas guzzling private jets and mega luxury yachts to bask in a shrinking pool of clean air and water.

Crazy cruel is that U.S. government investments in AI, Cryptocurrency, Data Centers, Warehouses and the Weapons Industry all flourish while investments in roads and schools, family needs, environmental protections, NPR, PBS, National Parks, and real jobs for real people flounder. 

Our Economy is losing the very pay checks and balances it needs to be sustainable.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

Crowds of starving men, women, and children in #Gaza wait for little food. Some people go for days without eating. UNRWA has not been able to bring in any food for over four months. Lift the siege...

Free Palestine STOP the WAR MACHINE ... OPEN THE GATES... STOP THE SIEGE- stop funding Israeli checkpoints & the forced displacement, imprisonment, starvation, torture, and killing of human beings in Gaza and Palestine.

"Western leaders call this self-defense, the media says it was all on accident." Assal Rad ... "Gaza is: -Hungriest place on earth -Most dangerous place for children -Most dangerous for journalists -Most dangerous for aid workers -Most pediatric amputees -Largest proportion of displaced people

"If countless photos of starving, skin-and-bone children, elderly people, HUMANS in Gaza haven’t appeal to the world, maybe a before-and-after of animals will? . This is Tom, my cat, before Israel’s genocide, and just moments ago, in the midst of its deliberate, systematic starvation campaign" Maha Hussaini

Killing of young siblings at Gaza water point shows seeking life’s essentials now a deadly peril. Karam al-Ghussain, 9, and Lulu, 10, were fetching water from a nearby distribution station when an Israeli strike hit it, and them

Urgent appeal: The catastrophic situation in Gaza, a people starving to death amid global silence... OPEN THE GATES!

Children in Gaza have been killed while sleeping, sheltering in schools, or queuing for water... “Israel has killed a classroom full of children every single day.” UNRWA Sam Rose tells BBC Radio 4.

Gaza is being inentionally starved and tortured by Israel... It’s not a natural disaster, it’s a crime against humanity. "There are no words to describe the cruelty of hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza who have been relentlessly bombed and displaced for almost 2 years now STARVING to death en masse. Almost half a million murdered by bombs, the rest being murdered by withholding bread..."

UNRWA has enough food for the entire population of #Gaza for over three months stockpiled in warehouses–including this one in Al Arish, Egypt–awaiting entry. The supplies are available. The systems are in place. Open the gates, lift the siege, allow UNRWA to do its work and help people in need among them 1 million children.

The mounting starvation in Gaza is a direct result of Israel’s dismantling of the ‘UN model’ of aid distribution and its replacement with the lethal GHF system: Israel is pushing the United Nations system towards a planned collapse... and intentionally starving Palestinians

Stop forcing us to be wage slaves for Israeli racism and escalating war... #MandelaDay is an opportunity to honor Mandela's commitment to freedom, justice & equality.

"𝙄𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙮. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙." ... Nelson Mandela ... "We can in fact change the world and make of it a better place"

July 17th, 2025: Israel just bombed the very Gazan church Pope Francis used to call daily during the genocide. They injured the very priest, Gabriele Romanelli, who used to update the Pope on the situation. 2 church goers were killed, 6 wounded.

“The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal...” GLOBAL ACTION is needed to stop Israel !

The Guardian view on the children of Gaza: when 17,000 die, it’s more than a mistake- Israel’s military blamed the deaths of six Palestinian children on Sunday on a technical error. But a staggering toll continues to mount

“For too long, international law has been treated as optional – applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful. This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order. That era must end,”

Israel plans to confine Gaza residents in a closed concentration camp atop Rafah ruins

Israel cuts power, water to UN agency for Palestinian refugees... The United Nations has reiterated UNRWA’s commitment to neutrality and rejected Israel’s ban, emphasizing the agency’s vital role in delivering humanitarian aid.

"Israel must stop killings and home demolitions in occupied West Bank" & "Gaza: Palestinians seeking food continue to be killed by Israeli military" United Nations Human Rights & more

Creating Apartheid Israel ... "A Land Without a People…"

USA/Israeli Harassment Campaigns seek silence support for Human Rights, the Rule of Fair and Just Laws, Real Democracy, Palestine... and the list will not stop there: Your turn is coming.

" Ever since the failure to implement the 1948 UN resolution 194, which gave Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes in what became Israel, we have been disappointed again and again." Gaza Raja Shehadeh

LETTERS  https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/letters

Life is not a video game. These are real human beings and American made weaponry has been creating a Holocaust with The Rule of Lawlessness in the Holy Land.

State sponsored violence is not the way to convince vulnerable people to veer away from arming religious tyranny and terrorism.

Slavery, Segregation and Forced Displacement are wrong. Wrong then and wrong now

This Earth Day please start noticing how much pollution and injustice war creates.

Building a Culture of Peace ...

"The United Nations was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell." ~Dag Hammarskjöld, second Secretary-General of the United Nations

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."   https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

3 Maps: Gaza Strip Blockade before Oct. 7, 2023 + Permanently Staffed Israeli Checkpoints and Crossings in the West Bank by 2010 + In 2002, Israel started constructing a land grabbing Apartheid wall, slicing through Palestinian communities, agricultural fields, and farmland

Gaza Strip Blockade before Oct. 7, 2023- Four days after Hamas' assault on Israel, the army has tightened its 2007 blockade into a 'complete siege' of the Gaza enclave.

 

The West Bank PALESTINE has been illegally occupied [& strangled] by Israel since 1967

Permanently Staffed Israeli Checkpoints and Crossings in the West Bank

Permanently Staffed Israeli Checkpoints and Crossings in the West Bank  OCHA map (As of May 2010) https://www.un.org/unispal/permanently-staffed-israeli-checkpoints-and-crossings-in-the-west-bank-ocha-map-as-of-may-2010/

About 85 percent of the Israeli built APARTHEID WALL falls within the West Bank rather than running along the internationally recognized 1967 boundary, known as the Green Line. [Al Jazeera]

Palestinian farmers harvest their olives in the southern West Bank village of the monastery of Samet, near the Israeli separation wall in Hebron.  

When Pope Francis stopped, touched the wall, and said a prayer, it was truly a monumental moment that made waves in world news. Pope Francis couldn’t help but notice the ugliness of this concrete structure at the heart of Bethlehem. This wall should make us all uncomfortable. To this discomfort, the Pope couldn’t help but react and reach out. By responding in this manner, the Pope touched more than the wall. He touched the ugliness of the occupation and war. He touched the depth of our suffering. With humility and weakness, he looked injustice in the eyes, and challenged it." The Other Side of the Wall by Pastor Munther Isaac

 

Pope Francis in Bethlehem, Palestine

Munther Isaac

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Palestinian, and Palestinian Christians in particular, have lost a dear friend today. Pope Francis was beloved in Palestine. He conveyed true compassion to Palestinians, most notably to those in Gaza during this genocide. His pastoral heart was evident in his insistence on calling the Christian community besieged in Gaza on a constant basis, even from his hospital.

Some years ago, Pope Francis visited Bethlehem. We all remember the iconic image of him praying at the Wall. This is what I wrote about this incident in my book “The Other Side of the Wall”.

When Pope Francis stopped, touched the wall, and said a prayer, it was truly a monumental moment that made waves in world news. Pope Francis couldn’t help but notice the ugliness of this concrete structure at the heart of Bethlehem. This wall should make us all uncomfortable. To this discomfort, the Pope couldn’t help but react and reach out. By responding in this manner, the Pope touched more than the wall. He touched the ugliness of the occupation and war. He touched the depth of our suffering. With humility and weakness, he looked injustice in the eyes, and challenged it.

What did he say in his prayer? The truth is, I don’t want to know. Some words are better left unspoken. The image of him standing next to the wall and praying will forever be engraved in our memories. For me, this image went everywhere. On my office wall, Facebook page, desktop wallpaper. For us as Palestinian Christians, this image was stored deep into our memory. And when this wall falls one day (not if, when), we might go back to this moment and this prayer as one of the key moments that led to its fall.

At the end of the day, the Pope left, and the occupation and the wall remained. But we were left with a renewed sense of hope—knowing that we are not forgotten. We were left with a mandate to continue lamenting the current situation, to fight against injustice . . . and to pray. (The Other Side of the Wall, pp. 182-183)

The Pope left our world today, and the occupation and the wall remained. Even worse, he left our world while a genocide continues to unfold. Back in November he wrote: “I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory… According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”

Today I wonder: Will the millions who will mourn his death these coming days respect this wish of his? Will they care for Gazans and Palestinians the way he did?

May his soul rest in glory with his Savior. Humanity lost a special soul today.

"“Peace needs bridges, not walls and military checkpoints.” But what we see today is more military barriers, more oppression in the West Bank, and the movement between cities and governorates has become a journey fraught with danger. Remove the military checkpoints. Tear down the apartheid walls that separate one human being from another" Atallah Hanna Archbishop of Sebastia Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem

Archbishop Atallah Hanna on Palm Sunday

Faith Under Israeli Seige 

Archbishop Atallah Hanna 

Holy Monday, April 14, 2025 

 “The checkpoints and military walls stand in the way of our people. Many Christians have been unable to reach Jerusalem, and those who have were only able to do so after obtaining a permit through an exhausting and humiliating process—this is a violation of freedom of religion and the right to access holy places. 

 We call on all human rights and humanitarian organizations to pay attention to this extremely serious issue. Every Palestinian—Christian or Muslim—must enjoy the right to access the city of Jerusalem. No one should be denied access for any reason whatsoever. 

We recall the well-known saying, “Peace needs bridges, not walls and military checkpoints.” But what we see today is more military barriers, more oppression in the West Bank, and the movement between cities and governorates has become a journey fraught with danger. 

Remove the military checkpoints. Tear down the apartheid walls that separate one human being from another—for no mighty power will ever succeed in uprooting Jerusalem from the Christian and Islamic Palestinian soul.” 

 + Atallah Hanna Archbishop of Sebastia Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem - translated - Arabic source: https://facebook.com/story.php?stor

Years after it was deemed illegal by a UN court, the wall continues to cut through and divide Palestinian communities.  In Pictures.

From Panama to Palestine, Jimmy Carter refused to let his moral voice be silenced: Carter signed treaties to hand over the Panama Canal and criticized Israel, drawing respect and fury past his one term - Chris McGreal 30 Dec 2024 in The Guardian

Jimmy Carter writes in a guest book at the end of his visit to the Cuban Jewish community centre in Havana, Cuba, on 28 March 2011. Photograph: Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images

From Panama to Palestine, Jimmy Carter refused to let his moral voice be silenced

Carter "....warned that big money was now so pervasive in American politics that the US was “no longer a functioning democracy” because of “unlimited political bribery”"

But nothing ran Carter into so much trouble as his willingness to call it as he saw it on Israel.   In 2006, he drew a torrent of criticism and abuse with a book critical of Israel’s failure to make peace and end the occupation. The title – Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid – lit the fuse by suggesting Israel pursues a racist policy against the Palestinians...."   

".... Carter infuriated his critics further by standing his ground and ramping up the criticism. He said that balanced debate about US policy on Israel is “practically non-existent” in Congress or in presidential races, and accused America’s political leadership of being “in the pocket” of the Jewish state.

“We cannot be peacemakers if American government leaders are seen as knee-jerk supporters of every action or policy of whatever Israeli government happens to be in power at the moment. That is the essential fact that must be faced,” he wrote."

...READ IN FULL IN CONTEXT  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/30/jimmy-carter-foreign-policy-

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

 

Following his #1 New York Times bestseller, Our Endangered Values, the former president, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, offers an assessment of what must be done to bring permanent peace to Israel with dignity and justice to Palestine.  Palestine Peace Not Apartheid was published in 2007 

 

Maps illustrating Israel (& Palestine)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54116567

 

Map of the Partition of Israel and Palestine 

https://worldhistorycommons.org/map-partition-israel-and-palestine

This map shows in green the areas that Israel has had under military occupation since 1967. As noted in the previous map, the Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egyptian control by 1982.  https://www.palestineportal.org/learn-teach/israelpalestine-the-basics/maps/maps-1967-to-present/

 

This detailed map shows the fragmentation of the West Bank in 2002. Over a decade later, the settlement areas and their populations have greatly expanded. https://www.palestineportal.org/learn-teach/israelpalestine-the-basics/maps/maps-1967-to-present/

This map shows the planned route of the Separation Wall, also called the Separation Barrier, the Security Fence and the Apartheid Wall. Israel began building the Wall in 2002, and it is not finished https://www.palestineportal.org/learn-teach/israelpalestine-the-basics/maps/maps-1967-to-present/

The locations of checkpoints, roadblocks, agricultural gates and other obstacles have changed periodically over the years of occupation, but there continue to be hundreds of such hindrances to Palestinian’s essential freedom of movement.  https://www.palestineportal.org/learn-teach/israelpalestine-the-basics/maps/maps-1967-to-present/

Gaza is part of the territories under military occupation by Israel since the Six Day War of 1967. Although Israeli settlers and troops were withdrawn from Gaza in 2005, it is still considered occupied territory under international law because Israel still controls the lives of the inhabitants of Gaza. Israel maintains a blockade by land and sea https://www.palestineportal.org/learn-teach/israelpalestine-the-basics/maps/maps-1967-to-present/

 

This map give a detailed picture of the land around Jerusalem that Israel is annexing with the Separation Wall. The solid black line shows the portion of the Wall that has been completed and the solid red line that extends from that black line shows the route of the Wall that remains to be built. All of the light blue area is Palestinian territory trapped between the Wall to the east and the border of Israel to the west, the seam zone. All of the green area is occupied Palestinian territory beyond the Wall.

The dark blue areas are settlements, both east and west of the Wall. The orange areas are Palestinian communities, both east and west of the Wall. https://www.palestineportal.org/learn-teach/israelpalestine-the-basics/maps/maps-jerusalem/