Thread by @DanMKervick

I want to review, so there is no misunderstanding about my position.

As I have said from the beginning, it is my view that the goal of Israel’s military operation in Gaza is to ethnically cleanse Gaza. /1

The goal is not to fight and win a “war against Hamas.” The goal is also not to rescue the hostages. The war against Hamas is a cover story, and the hostages are a prop. /2

How do you ethnically cleanse a place like Gaza? You render it incapable of supporting a tolerable human life, so that its people ultimately feel compelled to flee, and irresistible pressure grows on other countries to absorb them. /3

To do that you destroy everything that supports civilized life. You destroy the hospitals, you destroy the places where people live, you destroy the schools, you kill the doctors and teachers and inspiring intellectual leaders. You keep food out. /4

Obviously, an ethnic cleansing campaign like this is an outrageous crime against humanity. It is also, for the reasons South Africa has already made plain at the ICJ, a genocidal campaign. /5

It has also been my position from the start that the US administration, including and especially the president, are fully apprised of the real nature of the Israeli campaign, and support that campaign. Any statements hinting otherwise are to manage global or domestic opinion. /6

Why do I believe this is the real purpose of the campaign? Because of record of material actions by the US and Israeli governments, and because dozens of prominent Israelis have in effect said this is their purpose. The genocidal, ethic cleansing intent has been made clear. /7

Now the Israelis are psychopathic supremacists, and if they could ethnically cleanse Palestine by going around shooting every Palestinian man, woman and child in the head, they would. But they can’t get away with this. For Gaza, they need a cover story. /8

The cover story is the “war on Hamas”. Every act of physical destruction, every murder, every move to choke off supplies has to be portrayed as collateral damage where a Hamas redoubt or a Hamas official or a Hamas member or a Hamas shipment was the alleged target. /9

Israel can be stopped and Palestine can be liberated from Zionist oppression, Zionist occupation, Zionist dispossession, Zionist death squads, Zionist settlements and theft. /10

How can Palestine be liberated? It will take a global effort. That effort is ongoing.

Just like the African National Congress before them, the Palestinian resistance is magnificent. But also like the African National Congress, they cannot prevail in the struggle alone. /11

Israel must be isolated diplomatically, politically, economically and militarily from its many sources of outside support around the world. Palestine’s supporters must regard what is happening as an ongoing emergency and exert unrelenting pressure on offending governments. /12

Keep Israel’s strategic objectives clearly in mind. Don’t think, “How is this mindless destruction helping Israel win the war against Hamas? The Israelis must be stupid or crazy!” /13

This gets things precisely backward. The destruction isn’t mindless, and is Israel’s real purpose. The war against Hamas is only the cover story. /14

Don’t be divided or distracted by ruling class attempts to distract, misdirect or demobilize global resistance. Nothing the Israelis say should be trusted. Nothing the US government says should be trusted. Nothing mainstream imperial media says should be trusted. /15

These forces will attempt various ruses. They want to direct and choreograph the global diplomatic theater of false hopes, controlled leaks, limited hangouts and pretend shifts in direction to keep the Zionist strategic objectives on track. /16

That’s all for now.

Keep resisting.

Palestine will be free. //17