Alastair Crooke:
Evaluating Israel’s Moral Justifications
Steven Starr / Special to EAW
(November 21, 2023) — Former British diplomat Alastair Crooke describes “a complete collapse of morality” on the part of the Israelis, which has been fully supported by the US and the EU. This has led to the end of more than 20 years of US efforts at diplomacy, causing an “ice cold hatred” on the part of the Arabs and the Muslim world towards not only Israel, but America and the West. This means that “people wanting action will take action”; Crooke says this “cold anger” suggests that the war will lengthen and widen
Crooke says that Netanyahu sees the war in “grand terms, and one that will turn him into a hero to his people”. Israel is now attacking sites 40 kilometers inside of Lebanon as a provocation, which is designed to pull Hezbollah and hence the US into the war. Crooke points out increasing calls inside the US to retaliate against Hezbollah and Lebanon against attacks against US bases [illegally] in Syria.
Crooke says Iran has missiles armed with conventional warheads that are fully capable of destroying Israel. which will be used if Israel and the US attack Iran. The Iranians have set their military forces, including missile bases, to operate independently for extended periods of time. The Straits of Hormuz will be shut if Iran is attacked, collapsing the world economy.
Netanyahu and the Zionists say they must attack Hezbollah and drive them back from the border, otherwise the Israeli settlers will never return to their settlements there in northern Israel. Netanyahu thus plans to attack Hezbollah and drive them back to the Litani River.
In this way, Israel will also obtain this important source of water in Lebanon by capturing/taking the southern part of Lebanon (at the minimum). This land is part of the “Greater Israel” that the Zionists wish to establish, which was shown by the map that Netanyahu displayed at the UN.
- Do they believe that the Old Testament or the prophets in the Old Testament indicate that it’s the will of God that Israel should occupy from the River to the Sea?
A: Many even though they they are secular and Netanyahu I mean although he professes it [Jewish messianic ideas], he is basically deeply secular, but many of them do believe this . . . that that Israel is the elect, they are God’s chosen people, they do believe also they’re victims the historic victims of the world and they do believe that the combination of those two gives them right to do things as they feel necessary …
Now that is widely held even in a secular sense but what we’re talking about here is the sense that it is just not possible, and this is certainly the view of one of the cabinet members, Smotrich, and he’s put out this plan and he says:
… we can’t live together with the Palestinians , we see their aspirations for a state and our aspirations for Israel on the land of Israel are incompatible and let’s stop kidding ourselves and let’s stop trying to pretend reconciliation or a two-state solution is possible now…
This is put in sort of basic geopolitical terms — not in religious terms — but the two mesh together completely. The Messianic and this sort of message from Smotrich and it’s getting now, this is widely happening.
I mean you know people just sent me a video of school children, young children singing songs about, you know, death to all the Arabs in Gaza … I mean it’s really spreading [ie this extreme divergence between the two peoples at a grassroots level] . . .but it is widely accepted [in Israel] now that the Gazans must either go or be exterminated, I mean that is a view that is there — I’m not saying all Israelis except that, I’m certainly not saying people in the United States accept it — but is it a majority, yes.
The Eradication of the Palestinian State
And now we have 92% of Palestinians saying more or less the reciprocal; there’s no question that we could live with these Israeli people, no question of (a Two-State solution) a Palestinian state (alongside an Israeli state).”
Israel has not been attacking Hamas,, rather they have been proceeding with the complete destruction of northern Gaza, systematically destroying all the civilian infrastructure — hospitals, schools, the university, etc.
1.7 million Palestinians living in Gaza have been made homeless by these relentless Israeli attacks, which have used more than 30,000 tons of bombs against civilians, who have no capacity to defend themselves! No water, no bread, no place to live, nothing to return to.
And this has been accomplished with the active support of the US. This has destroyed the West — and especially the US — as standing for anything, except war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing. All the talk of democracy and freedom and values has been shown to amount to nothing but hypocritical lies and propaganda.
Crooke says, “You have to be clear, this is not a glitch in the system, it is the point of the system, to make it so intolerable . . .that Palestinians can be given these alternatives. One of the Cabinet Ministers laid them out and said that the Palestinians must basically make the choice that “you either become serfs and submit to the great power of Israeli military might, or you leave, or you will be exterminated.”
Crooke states that simply removing Netanyahu will not solve the problem.
Alastair Crooke:
Evaluating Israel’s Moral Justifications
Join our thought-provoking conversation with Alastair Crooke that delves into the complex landscape of Israel’s actions in the context of ethics and morality. We embark on a nuanced exploration, critically examining the historical, political, and social aspects that contribute to Israel’s moral justifications. #AlastairCrooke #IsraelEthics #
