Israeli plans for Gaza are even worse than you imagine (with Trump's backing)
While still enjoying global impunity, Israel continues to decimate Gaza in an unprecedented way.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the daily horror show in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and across the Middle East. The election of Donald Trump in the US is a sign that populist, neo-fascist leaders are on the rise.
But looking away is an indulgence that we can’t afford.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Israel is now tied with Haiti as the world’s biggest offender in letting journalists’ murderers go unpunished. Israel has killed so many Palestinian journalists in Gaza in the last 12+ months that there are few reporters left in the besieged territory (here’s a recent, remarkable dispatch from northern Gaza which is chilling).
This recent story in Israeli/Palestinian outlet, +972 Magazine, lays out the Israeli plans for Gaza and they’re both genocidal in intent and action:
The current military operation began in the early hours of Oct. 6. Residents of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, and Jabalia — the three localities north of Gaza City — were ordered to flee to the Al-Mawasi area in the south of the Strip through two “humanitarian corridors.” Israelpresented the attack as a means to dismantle Hamas infrastructure after the group had reestablished itself in the area, and to prepare for the possibility of Israel taking over responsibility for acquiring, moving, and distributing humanitarian aid around the Strip — in other words, for the return of the Israeli Civil Administration that governed Gaza until the “disengagement” of 2005. The first cause was only partially true, and the second was no more than a smokescreen.
For Palestinians in those areas, things looked rather different. The army attacked residents in their homes and in shelters with airstrikes, artillery, and drones, while soldiers moved from street to street demolishing and setting fire to entire buildings to prevent residentsfrom returning. Within a matter of days, Jabalia had turned into a vision of the apocalypse.
As opposed to the picture painted by the army, implying that residents in the northern areas were free to move south and get out of the danger zone, local testimonies presented a frightening reality: anyone who so much as stepped out of their home risked being shot by Israeli snipers or drones, including young children and those holding white flags. Rescue crews trying to help the wounded also came under attack, as well as journalists trying to document the events.
With Donald Trump soon to return to the White House, the preferred Israeli option, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu feels emboldened to realise his long-held vision of a completely subjugated Palestinian people. I explained this to global broadcaster TRT World on the night of Trump’s win:
One thing is clear: treating Israel like a normal state after the mass slaughter since 7 October 2023 is impossible morally, politically and culturally.
I’m an independent journalist without any institutional backing. If you’re able to support me financially, by donating money to continue this work, I’d hugely appreciate it. You can find donating options in the menu bar at the top of my website and via Substack.
My 4-part podcast series, The Palestine Laboratory, inspired by my global best-selling book of the same name, is now out on all podcast platforms. It’s released with the wonderful US media organisation, Drop Site News.
It’s a detailed, freshly reported investigation into the origins of the laboratory, how it developed in the last 80 years and accelerated after 7 October, 2023.
The podcast has attracted interest from across the globe and I’m very grateful for the support and enthusiasm.
I’ve been interviewed about the podcast and related issues on the popular US TV show, Counter Points:
And by UK journalist Owen Jones:
My recent work has largely focused on the worsening disaster in the Middle East and I’ve spoken to media outlets including CNN, Al Jazeera English, Sky News and others. There’s a small selection of my interviews below and you can see the rest on my website and YouTube channel:
In 2022 and 2023, I worked as a researcher on an Al Jazeera Arabic film about Yemeni Jewish babies being stolen by Israel in the 1950s. It’s a largely hidden story.
It screened in October 2023.
The documentary has now been translated into English and has just been broadcast on Al Jazeera English:
The use of AI in warfare is a very hot topic right now but too often the ideology behind this technological advancement is ignored or downplayed.
Here’s my recent, virtual lecture to a major AI conference in Helsinki, Finland where I discuss these issues especially in relation to Israel/Palestine and the war against Gaza.
My talk begins at 36:31:
It’s remarkable how many Israeli soldiers continue to post online about their abuse and torture of Palestinians as well as destruction in Palestine and Lebanon.
This is an amazing investigation at US outlet Drop Site News into Israel’s 749 Combat Engineering Battalion in all its racist output:
The new film by Oscar-winning UK director, Asif Kapadia, 2073, is on the troubles in the world and the likely future direction of this neo-fascist moment. I have a small role explaining the thesis of The Palestine Laboratory and the threat it poses to us all.
In other news:
Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newspaper remains weirdly obsessed with Jewish critics of Israel;
My extended interview on legendary Australian ABC radio show, Late Night Live, about the Palestine lab, the Middle East and Western media bias;
Comments to Declassified UK on the British army’s use of “battle-tested” Israeli defence equipment;
Comments to The Irish Times about the EU’s use and abuse of Israeli drones over the Mediterranean.
Interview on Melbourne’s Triple R radio on my Palestine lab podcast.
Interview on Colombian radio about the presence of Israeli spyware in that country;
Following the recent release of the Turkish edition of my book, The Palestine Laboratory, an extended interview in the Turkish outlet, Artigercek.
Long interview in Australian outlet, Junkee, about Palestine and Australia’s complicity in the carnage.
As the co-founder and co-editor of Declassified Australia, an independent news site that publishes investigative work, please donate $, we’ve recently published some vital journalism on Western intelligence chiefs NOT seeing Iran as a threat, the curious case of ex-Marine Dan Duggan facing extradition from Australia to the US and Australia continuing to trade with Israel.
In the last 20 years, I’ve written a number of books that may interest you from my 2006 best-seller, My Israel Question, to Disaster Capitalism and Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs.
They’re all available, in print/online, and ready for your reading pleasure.
I’m an independent journalist without any institutional backing. If you’re able to support me financially, by donating money to continue this work, I’d hugely appreciate it. You can find donating options in the menu bar at the top of my website and via Substack.
You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter for constantly updated content. My website has information about all my work, books and documentary films stretching back to 2003.
I’m an independent journalist without any institutional backing. If you’re able to support me financially, by donating money to continue this work, I’d hugely appreciate it. You can find donating options in the menu bar at the top of my website and via Substack.
Thanks very much for reading.
Take care.
Antony