A view of the damaged vehicle carrying World Central Kitchen workers in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on April 2. Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images
Any sign of even tiny opposition is enough to send Israel into a frenzy of bloodletting. Hospital attacks, murders of aid workers, violations of the sovereignty of embassies, are all par for the Zionist course. Friends in Washington talk out of both sides of their mouths with condemnation but always end on the side of their partner in crime.
Every war crime committed by the state of Israel, no matter how horrific, is logical if one considers a few basic facts. First, one of Israel’s goals is to ethnically cleanse Gaza. They have to kill thousands of people in increasingly brutal ways, terrorize the survivors, and turn hospitals and universities and mosques and churches into military targets. The end game is to force the population out of Gaza and make it safe for Israeli settlers, gas exploration, and the construction of a canal to replace the Suez. Even the building of a pier to bring in humanitarian aid is a trojan horse meant to send Gaza’s population far away and expand the settler colony’s territory.
Because its idea of success is anathema to most of humanity, Israel is always fearful that the degree of fealty shown by the United States, its chief protector and partner in crime, may waiver. It doesn’t matter how many candidates for office grovel before the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC), it doesn’t matter that Joe Biden circumvents congress to give them weapons or insists on aiding and abetting them, or that he joins in telling lies about beheaded babies or other tales of atrocity propaganda. It doesn’t matter that the state colludes with corporate media to defend Israel and marginalizes anyone who doesn’t go along with the scheme. Nor are they relieved when deep pocketed billionaires have university presidents axed from their positions as heads are symbolically stuck on pikes as a warning to anyone who might stray from official narratives. Israel will always be worried, because it is only the United States protection racket that allows it to exist in its current form.
So what to do when the United States merely abstains from a United Nations vote requiring an all too brief two-week ceasefire? Israel then accelerates its criminality. Israel laid siege to the Al-Shifa hospital and killed doctors, nurses and patients. Some 300 dead bodies were discovered there, some of them bound, dumped, or crushed by Israeli tanks. As forces withdrew from the hospital, Israeli Defense Force missiles struck the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria and killed seven people, two of them generals in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Vienna Convention is supposed to protect embassies and consulates but why should Israel or its benefactor the U.S. follow international law when they so often violate it with impunity? These acts weren’t sufficient for the Zionist entity. It needed another symbol, another high profile killing to guarantee that its putative sponsor still knows who is in charge.
Spanish-born chef José Andrés' charity, World Central Kitchen, drew the short end of this stick in this phase of the Israeli crime spree. Seven aid workers traveling in a three vehicle convoy in Gaza were killed in drone strikes. One vehicle was hit, the second was hit after attempting to rescue passengers in the first car, and the third was hit after trying to rescue those in the second vehicle. To their credit, Palestinians believe in showing those who have been killed, and the bodies were displayed for all the world to see, lest Israel be able to minimize the carnage.
José Andrés was an interesting choice as a target. He had vehemently and publicly defended Israel, and condemned a minister of the Spanish government who pointed out that Israel was committing war crimes. “You do not represent me or Spain. She does not deserve to be a minister….President @sanchezcastejon should remove her from her position…”
Andrés received a $100 million gift from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, is a friend of Barack and Michelle Obama, and joined Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris’ husband, in announcing a new food program in the U.S. Perhaps this official imprimatur made his organization an easy target. How better to prove one’s status as the worst thug in the neighborhood than to show that no one is safe. Andrés is now a critic and demands that Israel stop the “indiscriminate killing.” Of course the killings of his staff were targeted with great precision. There was nothing indiscriminate about the assassinations.
The Biden administration, the lead gangster, is still committed to sending weapons to Israel. Biden called Andrés to offer condolences but the State Department insists that Israel has not committed any war crimes. The winks and the nudges continue, as the client state shows that it is on an equal footing with its benefactor and should not be considered an underling of any sort.
Two months ago the International Court of Justice called South Africa’s charge of genocide against Israel “plausible” and ordered that country to stop killing Palestinians. It has done nothing of the sort and makes clear that it will invade the city of Rafah, the last place of refuge, and the U.S. makes clear that it has given the green light to this plan for the ultimate atrocity.
The ruling class are split and Joe Biden’s re-election prospects are in jeopardy but the commitment to the Zionist entity continues. The people must remain committed to fighting back in any way possible. Every action is important from protest demonstrations to defeating Biden to heckling the war criminals when they dare to appear in public. It is also important to call a criminal a criminal and to declare that the U.S. is a rogue state and that Israel, its chief client, is as well. They cannot hide it. People like José Andrés believed their connections made them safe. He discovered that was not true. No one is safe from the imperialists. It is best to proceed with courage and to name and shame the criminals. There is no other option.
Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at [email protected].
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