Dispatch #117 White Lesbian Age 71 Considers Whether Israel Intends Disproportionate and Deadly Attacks on Palestinian Civilians

Dec. 5th 2023   

1049 Days Since Inauguration of First Woman Vice-President

49 Days Until the 2024 Presidential Primaries Begin 

529 Days Since Supreme Court Ruled Women Don’t Have Human Rights

‘We now just wish to be killed’: the Palestinians under fire in southern Gaza

www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/02/we-now-just-wish-to-be-killed-the-palestinians-under-fire-in-southern-gaza 

With every mega-bomb dropped killing hundreds of women and children, Israel drives the toxic stake deeper into its own soul.  With every message urging Palestinians to run here and then there to escape saturation bombing, Israel eats away at whatever remains of its moral core.  400 strikes in first 2 days -- 50 strikes in Khan Younis where Israel ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in North Gaza to go. More than 700 Palestinians killed in first 24 hours as one bomb dropped in a densely packed neighborhood left a crater the size of a basketball court.

US sends ‘bunker buster’ bombs to Israel for war on Gaza. The Wall Street Journal reported the U.S. has supplied Israel with 15,000 bombs, including 2,000-pound bunker busters, and 57,000 artillery shells since October 7.  www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/2/us-gives-bunker-buster-bombs-to-israel-for-war-on-gaza-report 

“There Simply Is No Safe Place in Gaza”: Aid Groups Demand Ceasefire as Israel Intensifies Its War.  www.democracynow.org/2023/12/5/no_safe_zones_in_gaza 

Israel Kills 800 Palestinians as Truce Ends; Hospitals Under Attack as Gazans Have Nowhere to Turn.  www.democracynow.org/2023/12/4/headlines/israel_kills_800_palestinians_as_truce_ends_hospitals_under_attack_as_gazans_have_nowhere_to_turn  

Including several thousand missing persons, Israel has killed at least 20,000 Palestinians in two months. With more than 40,000 Palestinians wounded, Israel’s war on Gaza has created more than 60,000 Palestinian casualties.  Israel’s ongoing siege will begin to kill several hundreds of the most vulnerable Palestinians.  Will 100,000 Palestinian casualties satisfy Israel? Or move the US to demand a permanent ceasefire?  

‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza. Permissive airstrikes on non-military targets and the use of an artificial intelligence system have enabled the Israeli army to carry out its deadliest war on Gaza. Israeli investigative reporter Yuval Abraham describes the history for how Israel now intentionally disregards protocols designed to limit harm to civilians, and uses an artificial intelligence system “Habsora” to generate a hundred bombing targets daily.  Unprecedented bombings of residential homes and high-rise apartment buildings reflects Israel’s “Dahiya Doctrine,” that is, war with guerilla groups requires the use of disproportionate and overwhelming force while targeting civilian and government infrastructure to establish deterrence and force the civilian population to pressure the groups to end their attacks. Abraham concludes:

This deadly policy continues today — thanks in part to the use of destructive weaponry and sophisticated technology like Habsora, but also to a political and security establishment that has loosened the reins on Israel’s military machinery. Fifteen years after insisting that the army was taking pains to minimize civilian harm, Gallant, now Defense Minister, has clearly changed his tune. “We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly,” he said after October 7.  www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/ 

Dehumanization Is at the Heart of Endless War. www.thenation.com/article/world/japan-hiroshima-israel-gaza/

Dehumanization is the toxic fuel that powers occupation and violent oppression.  Dehumanization allows people to stand aside and turn their heads when they have to power to stop the extreme suffering of other human beings.