Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
October 7, 2024, marks the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. On that day, Palestinian resistance fighters broke down some walls surrounding Gaza and 1,200 Israelis were killed, nearly 250 hostages were taken, with 112 having later come out alive, and the remaining 97 are captives.
The Secretary-General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, said on October 24, 2023, the attack “did not happen in a vacuum.”“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” said Guterres.
Guterres was not justifying the killing of innocent civilians in their homes. He was explaining the facts on the ground. Only Israel complained of Guterres’ comments because the rest of the world is aware that Gaza and the West Bank are under brutal occupation, and there is no peace plan to allow their freedom and independence.
Israel is focused on how to make their country safe from terror attacks from the North to the South. However, Israel will never be safe as long as they keep about 6 million persons under lock and key, and without human rights.The core values of Americans are freedom and independence, which they fought for and died for in 1776. The American resistance used brutal and bloody violence to fight for their freedom, and they won.
The UN has deemed Israel as being an apartheid system. The US supported the fight to end apartheid in South Africa. Nelson Mandela was arrested for using violence against the government. He was offered release if he would denounce violence, but he refused. After two decades in prison, he was released and eventually became President of South Africa, and won the Nobel Peace Prize, while remaining on the US list of banned terrorists.The solution in South Africa, championed by the US and Europe, was the collapse of an unjust government, and the development of a free and democratic government.
The solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the two-state solution, which was ratified at the UN decades ago and is still referred to as the only solution offered by the US.
October 7 did not have to happen. The rules-based international order that the US and its allies always refer to does not exist in Israel. When Hamas announced they had taken captives, they were sure those captives would be swapped for the Palestinian men, women, and children held in Israeli prisons without charges, trial, or legal representation.
But, a full prisoner exchange never materialized. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been blamed by his citizens for not making a deal to get the captives released, now after one year underground in Gaza. Some were killed or died of illness, and the remaining 97 hostages are running out of time.
Even on the day of the first anniversary of the attack, the hostage families were still protesting in the streets asking for Netanyahu to change course and make a deal for their release.Netanyahu has a plan for Gaza, and that is why he has refused all attempts by US President Joe Biden for a ceasefire. Netanyahu plans to destroy Hamas, remain occupying Gaza, and annex Gaza. The plan ends with the people of Gaza either dead or living in Egypt.
The second part of the Netanyahu plan is to empty the Palestinians from the Occupied West Bank into Jordan and annex the West Bank. Netanyahu’s plan, which is being successfully executed so far, will end the two-state solution once and for all, because all of the original Palestine will be officially Israel.The Israeli public generally does not want a two-state solution. Many are Zionists who believe God gave them the land about 9,000 years ago, and they are the owners of the former Palestine.American Evangelicals are a large cult within the Christian population in the US.
They support the Jewish claim to the former Palestine and follow the ideology of Zionism, which is not based on religion but is a political ideology.Israelis and American Zionists have no qualms with Israel killing over 41,000 people in Gaza, and over 96,700 people injured as of Oct. 3, 2024.The fact that Palestinian Christians are killed, maimed, injured and their ancient churches destroyed by Israel does not bother the American Evangelicals.
They are so sure of their God’s plan, that genocide is justified. They defend their lack of morals as a Biblical promise by a God who does not want justice and equality in Palestine.Biden has stated publically that he is a Zionist.According to the UN, at least 10,000 people are assumed to be buried under the rubble of Gaza. The hospitals have been destroyed, medical workers killed and food and medical supplies have been prevented from delivery by Israel, according to the UN, which has reported on the famine in Gaza that is preventable.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said on Oct. 2 that more than 100,000 metric tons of food is being prevented from delivery because of Israeli restrictions.Netanyahu has now begun a campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon and has successfully eliminated many of the top leadership of the resistance group.
Israeli military claims that the have destroyed 50% of Hezbollah’s weapons but in reality the haven’t according to several military specialist. and the Israeli air force have destroyed the neighborhood in south Beirut , as well as many areas they lived in the south.None of Israel’s military achievements will bring them closer to peace, economic recovery, or security. The ‘cancer’ of the Middle East is the Israeli occupation of Palestine. When facing cancer, some surgeries and treatments can produce healing and good health. Hi.ding from the diagnosis, and refusing to seek a solution only prolongs the illness, and can eventually lead to death.
Netanyahu is on a path to use band-aides, paid for by the US taxpayer, to treat a potentially incurable disease, because he refuses to recognize the diagnosis and begin the first step towards recovery. The genocide in Gaza was made possible by Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris. They kept the flow of $17.9 billion in cash and weapons to Israel, even breaking US State Department regulations preventing the transfer of weapons to conflict where human rights are abused.
Netanyahu is perfectly positioned to execute his plans in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. The Oval Office is flying on autopilot as Biden is in the last days of his term. Biden has given Netanyahu a brightly lit ‘green light’ to do anything he likes, regardless of what international rules and norms he bulldozes over.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist.
