{"id":310016,"date":"2025-12-22T12:01:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T12:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=310016"},"modified":"2025-12-16T02:35:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T02:35:22","slug":"rebranding-genocide-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/12\/rebranding-genocide-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebranding Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

See No Evil Hear No Evil Speak No Evil \u2014 by Mr. Fish<\/p><\/div>\n

The Genocide in Gaza has not stopped. It has been rebranded. And that is enough of a linguistic subterfuge to get the world to ignore it.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

15 Dec 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0First, it was Israel\u2019s right to defend itself. Then it was a war, even though, by Israel\u2019s own military intelligence database<\/a>, 83 percent of the casualties were civilians. The 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, living under<\/a> an Israeli air, land and sea blockade<\/a>, have no army, air force, no mechanized units, no tanks, no navy, no missiles, no heavy artillery, no fleets of killer drones, no sophisticated tracking systems to map all movements, or an ally like the United States, which has given<\/a> Israel at least $21.7 billion in military aid since Oct. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Now, it is a \u201cceasefire.\u201d Except of course, as usual, Israel only abided by the first of the 20 stipulations. It freed<\/a> around 2,000 Palestinian captives held in Israeli prisons \u2014 1700 of whom were detained after Oct. 7 \u2014 as well as<\/a> around 300 bodies of Palestinians, in exchange for the return of the 20 remaining Israeli captives.<\/p>\n

Israel has violated<\/a> every other condition. It has tossed the agreement \u2014 brokered by the Trump administration without Palestinian participation \u2014 into the bonfire with all the other agreements<\/a> and peace accords concerning Palestinians. Israel\u2019s extensive and blatant flouting of international agreements and international law \u2014 Israel and its allies refuse to abide by three sets<\/a> of legally<\/a> binding<\/a> orders<\/a> by the International Cout of Justice (ICJ) and two ICJ advisory<\/a> opinions<\/a>, as well as the Genocide Convention<\/a> and international humanitarian law<\/a> \u2014 presage a world where the law is whatever the most militarily advanced countries say it is.<\/p>\n

The sham peace plan<\/a> \u2014 \u201cPresident Donald J. Trump\u2019s Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict\u201d \u2014 in an act of stunning betrayal of the Palestinian people, was endorsed<\/a> by most of the U.N. Security Council in November, with China<\/a> and Russia<\/a> abstaining. Member states washed their hands of Gaza and turned their backs on the genocide.<\/p>\n

The adoption of resolution 2803 (2025), as the Middle East scholar Norman Finkelstein writes<\/a>, \u201cwas simultaneously a revelation of moral insolvency and a declaration of war against Gaza. By proclaiming international law null and void, the Security Council proclaimed itself null and void. Vis-\u00e0-vis Gaza, the Council transmuted into a criminal conspiracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next phase is supposed to see Hamas surrender its weapons and Israel withdraw from Gaza. But these two steps will never happen. Hamas \u2014 along with other<\/a> Palestinian factions \u2014 reject<\/a> the Security Council resolution. They say they will disarm only when the occupation ends and a Palestinian state is created. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed<\/a> that if Hamas does not disarm, it will be done \u201cthe hard way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hamas (Photo by Chris McGrath\/Getty Images) | Benhamin Netanyahu at the U.S. Capitol Building (Photo by Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The \u201cBoard of Peace,\u201d headed<\/a> by Trump, will ostensibly govern Gaza along with armed<\/a> mercenaries<\/a> from the Israel-allied International Stabilization Force, although no country seems anxious to commit their troops. Trump promises<\/a> a Gaza Riviera<\/a> that will function as a \u201cspecial economic zone\u201d \u2014 a territory operating outside of state law governed entirely by private investors, such as the Peter Thiel-backed charter city<\/a> in Honduras. This will be achieved through the \u201cvoluntary<\/a>\u201d relocation of Palestinians \u2014 with those fortunate enough to own land offered<\/a> digital tokens in exchange. Trump declares<\/a> that the U.S. \u201cwill take over the Gaza Strip\u201d and \u201cown it.\u201d It is a return to the rule of viceroys \u2014 though apparently not the odious Tony Blair. Palestinians, in one of the most laughable points in the plan, will be \u201cderadicalized\u201d by their new colonial masters.<\/p>\n

But these fantasies will never come to fruition. Israel knows what it wants to do in Gaza and it knows no nation will intercede. Palestinians will struggle to survive in primitive and dehumanizing conditions. They will, as they have so many times in the past, be betrayed.<\/p>\n

Israel has committed 738 violations of the ceasefire agreement between Oct. 10 and Dec. 12, including 358 land and air bombardments, the killing of at least 383 Palestinians and the injuring of 1,002 others, according<\/a> to the Government Media Office in Gaza and the Palestinian Health Ministry. That\u2019s an average of six Palestinians killed daily in Gaza \u2014 down from an average of 250 a day<\/a> before the \u201cceasefire.\u201d Israel said it killed<\/a> a senior Hamas commander, Raed Saad, on Saturday, in a missile strike on a car on Gaza\u2019s coastal road. Three others were also apparently killed in the strike.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>

A boy stands near the wreckage of a car targeted by an Israeli airstrike, as others inspect the car on Al-Rashid Street in Gaza City, on Dec. 13, 2025. Four Palestinians were killed. (Photo by Abood Abusalama via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The genocide<\/a> is not over. Yes, the pace has slowed. But the intent remains unchanged. It is slow motion killing. The daily numbers of dead and wounded \u2014 with increasing numbers falling sick and dying from the cold and rain \u2014 are not in the hundreds but the dozens.<\/p>\n

December saw an average of 140 aid trucks allowed<\/a> into Gaza each day \u2014 instead of the promised 600 \u2014 to keep Palestinians on the edge of famine and ensure widespread malnutrition. In October, some 9,300 children in Gaza under five were diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition, according<\/a> to UNICEF. Israel has opened<\/a> the border crossing into Egypt at Rafah, but only for Palestinians leaving Gaza. It is not open for those who want to return to Gaza, as stipulated in the agreement. Israel has seized some 58 percent of Gaza and is steadily moving its demarcation line \u2014 known as<\/a> \u201cthe yellow line\u201d \u2014 to expand its occupation. Palestinians who cross<\/a> this arbitrary line \u2014 which constantly<\/a> shifts<\/a> and is poorly marked when it is marked at all \u2014 are shot dead<\/a> or blown up<\/a> \u2014 even if they are<\/a> children.<\/p>\n

Palestinians are being crammed into a shrinking, fetid, overcrowded concentration camp until they can be deported<\/a>. Ninety-two percent of Gaza\u2019s residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed<\/a> and around 81 percent of all structures are damaged<\/a>, according to UN estimates. The Strip, only<\/a> 25 miles long and seven-and-a-half miles wide, has been reduced to 61 million tons of rubble, including<\/a> nine million tons of hazardous waste that includes asbestos, industrial waste, and heavy metals, in addition to unexploded ordnance<\/a> and an estimated<\/a> 10,000 decaying corpses. There is almost no clean water, electricity or sewage treatment. Israel blocks<\/a> shipments of construction supplies, including cement and steel, shelter materials, water infrastructure and fuel, so nothing can be rebuilt.<\/p>\n

Eighty-two percent of Israeli Jews support<\/a> the ethnic cleansing of the entire population of Gaza and 47 percent support<\/a> killing all civilians in cities captured by the Israeli military. Fifty-nine percent support doing the same to Palestinian citizens of Israel. Seventy-nine percent of Israeli Jews say they are \u201cnot so troubled\u201d or \u201cnot troubled at all\u201d by reports<\/a> of famine<\/a> and suffering among the population in Gaza, according<\/a> to a survey conducted in July. The words \u201cErase Gaza\u201d appeared more than 18,000 times in Hebrew-language Facebook posts in 2024 alone, according<\/a> to a new report on hate speech and incitement against Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The newest form of genocidal celebration in Israel \u2014 where social media and news channels routinely chortle over the suffering of Palestinians \u2014 is the sprouting<\/a> of golden nooses on the lapels of members of the far-right political party Otzma Yehudit<\/a>, Israel\u2019s version of the Ku Klux Klan, including<\/a> one worn by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.<\/p>\n

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Source: @infinite_jaz<\/p><\/div>\n

They are pushing a bill through the Knesset which seeks to mandate the death penalty for Palestinians who \u201cintentionally or indifferently causes the death of an Israeli citizen,\u201d if they are said to be motivated by \u201cracism or hostility toward a public,\u201d and with the purpose of harming the Israeli state or \u201cthe rebirth of the Jewish people in its land,\u201d the Israeli human rights group Adalah explains<\/a>. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed<\/a> in Israeli jails since Oct. 7. If the new bill becomes law \u2014 it has been cleared through its first reading \u2014 it will join the wave of more than 30 anti-Palestinian laws enacted<\/a> since October 7.<\/p>\n

The message the genocide sends to the rest of the world, more than a billion of whom live on less than a dollar a day, is unequivocable: We have everything and if you try and take it away from us, we will kill you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This is the new world order. It will look like Gaza. Concentration camps. Starvation. Obliteration of infrastructure and civil society. Mass killing. Wholesale surveillance. Executions. Torture<\/a>, including the beatings, electrocutions, waterboarding, rape, public humiliation, deprivation of food and denial of medical care routinely used on Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Epidemics. Disease. Mass graves where corpses are bulldozed into unmarked pits and where bodies, as in Gaza, are dug up and torn apart by packs of ravenous wild dogs.<\/p>\n

We are not destined for the Shangri-La sold to a gullible public by fatuous academics such as Stephen Pinker. We are destined for extinction. Not only individual extinction \u2014 which our consumer society furiously attempts to hide by peddling the fantasy<\/a> of eternal youth<\/a> \u2014 but wholesale extinction as temperatures rise to make the globe uninhabitable. If you think the human species will respond rationally to the ecocide, you are woefully out of touch with human nature. You need to study Gaza. And history.<\/p>\n

If you live in the Global North, you will get to peer out at the horror, but slowly this horror, as the climate breaks down, will migrate home, turning most of us into Palestinians. Given our complicity in the genocide, it is what we deserve.<\/p>\n

Empires, when they feel threatened, always embrace the instrument of genocide. Ask the victims of the Spanish conquistadors. Ask Native Americans. Ask the Herero and Nama. Ask the Armenians. Ask the survivors of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Ask the Indians who survived the Bengal famine or the Kikuyu who rose against their British colonizers in Kenya. Climate refugees will get their turn.<\/p>\n

This is not the end of the nightmare. It is the beginning.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for\u00a0<\/em>The New York Times,\u00a0where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief. He previously worked overseas for\u00a0<\/em>The Dallas Morning News,\u00a0The Christian Science Monitor, and<\/em> NPR. He used to be the host of the Emmy Award-nominated <\/em>RT America show\u00a0<\/em>On Contact.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – chrishedges.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15 Dec 2025\u00a0– The Genocide in Gaza has not stopped. It has been rebranded. And that is enough of a linguistic subterfuge to get the world to ignore it… This is not the end of the nightmare. It is the beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":310017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3287,3729,1559,532,405,1854,101,100,1199,2242,87,865,1029,1966,88,2416,427,3534,2897,880,99,70,965],"class_list":["post-310016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-anti-zionism","tag-ceasefire","tag-collective-punishment","tag-colonialism","tag-colonization","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-ethnic-cleansing","tag-famine","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-hamas","tag-hunger","tag-israel","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-palestine","tag-palestinian-holocaust","tag-sociocide","tag-state-terrorism","tag-structural-violence","tag-usa","tag-war-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310016"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310024,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310016\/revisions\/310024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}