The genocidal attacks on Gaza by the occupying Israeli state continue, with the open support of imperialism despite the great anger and protests occurring all over the world. We are now at the point that Craig Mokhiber, Director of the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, resigned, saying, “We see a genocide unfolding before our eyes.” Tons of bombs are falling on hospitals and refugee camps. In a show of force, imperialism intimidates the peoples of the region with ‘shock and awe’ operations carried out by Israel. With the bombs it provides to Israel, imperial states are demonstrating what will happen if they are defied.
There are reports that US Special Forces are even participating in the partial ground operations in Gaza. In order to understand what is happening in Gaza more clearly, we need to look at the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 1945. Even at the time, the US Chief of Staff himself stated that the bombs that rained death and destruction on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not a military necessity. Japan had already been defeated. By organizing mass killings with atomic bombs, American imperialism was essentially demonstrating its power to friend and foe alike. The bombing of the German city of Dresden (February 1945) took place for the same purpose.
American Century
In the context of its perspective of global war against communism, American imperialism had given its message to the Soviet Union and the peoples of the world. With these bombs, it reminded the imperialist-capitalist world that it was now the real boss. As expressed in an editorial in Life magazine in February 1941 by Henry R. Luce, the “American Century” was beginning, and it was opening with mass murder. In the post-war financial architecture of the imperialist-capitalist world, just as the Dollar sovereignty and the effectiveness of institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank were necessary, bombs were also needed. US military had to be established around the world and, in this context, Israel existed as a major military base in the Middle East. Securing the flow of oil from the region was of great importance.
With this in mind, it is useful to look at the large imperialist military presence in the region in the last month and the military support offered to Israel. The US has moved to re-establish its hegemony in the Middle East, which has eroded over time, and Israel wants to realize its specific goals by embedding them in these US moves. According to information obtained by the New York Times from American officials, during talks between US and Israeli officials, the Israelis told the Americans that “they believe that mass civilian casualties are an acceptable price to pay for military action.” The Israelis also said that “the Second World War, including the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” was an acceptable price to pay for military action.
The October 7 operation of the Palestinian resistance forces has completely removed Israel’s false facade, and they no longer feel the need to hide their true intentions. Israel’s top officials – from the head of state to political leaders – use the words “animal” and “monster” without any discomfort to describe the Palestinians. In a statement posted on her X social media account, Galit Distel Atbaryan, a female MP from Israel’s ruling Likud party, called for ethnic cleansing of the blockaded Gaza Strip. She advised Israelis, “Don’t hate each other. The monsters hate you enough. Hate the enemy. Hate the monsters. Any shred of internal strife is a maddeningly stupid waste of energy. Invest that energy in one thing: wiping the whole of Gaza off the face of the earth. The monsters from Gaza will either go to the southern fence and try to enter Egyptian territory, or they will die. Gaza must be wiped off the face of the earth. A vengeful and cruel Israeli army is needed. Anything less is immoral. It is completely unethical.”
Atbaryan’s remarks must be taken in conjunction with a document leaked to the Israeli press. This document offers some insights into exactly what Israel intends to do in Gaza with these attacks on the civilian population. The document, prepared by the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence and first publicly published in the Israeli magazine Sicha Mekomit, proposes a permanent forced transfer of the population of the Gaza Strip to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.
The project envisages the relocation of Gaza residents to tent cities in northern Sinai and their resettlement in permanent towns. Another element of the project is the creation of a buffer zone between Israel and the permanent resettlement towns. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate the other day that the US is considering a range of options for the future of Gaza. “They can’t go back to the status quo with Hamas being in a position in terms of its governance of Gaza to repeat what it did,” Blinken said.
It is becoming clear that the basis of the project is to first kill as many Palestinians as they can and then expel the rest from Gaza. However, it is important to underline the reality that such projects are not new for the Israeli state, but are, in fact, constantly being developed. For example, for years, 150 Palestinians living in Zanuta, a Palestinian village in the Hebron hills of the West Bank, have been resisting pressure to leave their land. Since October 7, they have been forced to flee their village due to increased levels of attacks by Israeli soldiers and Israeli settlers. Guardian correspondent Bethan McKernan, reporting from the West Bank, describes the situation as follows: “Armed settlers – some in reservist army uniforms, some covering their faces – have begun breaking into their homes at night, beating up adults, destroying and stealing belongings, and terrifying the children.”
Insight Into Israel’s Goals
The day before the October 7th attack by Palestinian resistance forces, Zvi Sukkot, a member of the Israeli Parliament, led a settler attack on Palestinians in the West Bank village of Huwara. Last week, he was appointed head of the Israeli Parliament’s Subcommittee on the West Bank and sits on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. This appointment provides very clear insight into Israel’s goals.
It is quite clear that the main orientation of the US and EU-backed Israel is a new Nakba (Palestinian Catastrophe), and the resistance forces know this very well. The collaborator Arab sovereigns, whose main characteristic is servitude to US imperialism, and the Turkish sovereigns, who shout and shout but have not taken any serious steps against Israel’s genocide attempt, are only trying to absorb the anger accumulated among the peoples of the region. While the resistance forces, which are aware of these realities, grow the resistance based on their own forces, they do not hesitate to warn the collaborators.
The Palestinian resistance sends a clear message to friend and foe. The Palestinian people are once again passing through the life and death days that they have faced many times in the last hundred years of their history. The victory of the Palestinian people depends on two main factors. The first is to continue and advance the resistance that it has raised with its own strength. The second is the growth of international solidarity actions with the Palestinian people all over the world and taking it to the streets like the working class has in Brussels and Athens for the liberation of Palestine. The actions that draw millions of people to the streets despite the collaborationist governments all over the Arab world, are the strongest indicators of the historical rightness and indestructibility of the Palestinian people.
Cenk Agcabay has been living in Switzerland as a political refugee for ten years. He worked as a publisher, editor, and journalist. He authored many books and chapters on world politics, Turkish political history, and Marxist theory. He is currently working on a book about the political history of the modern Middle East.
