Blood Lust:  Are We Living in α Civilized World?

There are more war crimes being committed today, this instant, aided and abetted by the US president but the world, if it hasn’t taken notice, is unable to stop them.  When Jewish people ask, where was the world when the Nazis were killing them, they now have an ironic answer … if only partial.

Yes, there have been demonstrations against the killing of innocent women and children in Gaza all across the world, in all continents — collective punishment for the acts of a few is a war crime.  But they have done little to sway Bibi’s blood lust.  Now soldiers have occupied Gaza’s main hospital, Al-Shifa, claiming it was Hamas’ ‘operational center’.  The evidence for the claim:  a photo displayed of about a dozen weapons plus odds and ends.

The UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, used the word ‘appalled’ to describe his reaction to Israel’s raid.  A World Health Organization spokesperson said they were no longer able to communicate with Al Shifa hospital staff and were extremely worried.

On the ground reports confirm about 200 Israeli soldiers had taken over the building and were going from room to room questioning patients and staff.  They also gathered males aged 16 to 40 in the hospital courtyard for further questioning.

In the meantime, the Biden administration is backing Israeli claims that Hamas had infrastructure underneath the hospital despite the lack of any evidence unearthed — one wonders how Biden’s credibility stands in the Arab world.   His so-called peace initiative is in tatters. and credence as an even-handed peace broker is about non-existent.

The Israelis say they engaged Hamas at the hospital though their account is undercut by the hospital staff who heard no shooting.  The Israeli claim of it being an ‘operational center’ for Hamas is not supported by any concrete evidence.

Thus Israel has violated humanitarian norms by entering a hospital.  Hospitals are specifically protected in conflict meaning that opposing forces cannot attack hospitals or prevent their normal function.  Then cutting off fuel to a hospital which needs it for heating and electricity as Israel did — is not permitted.  There are no longer any reports on what happened to the premature babies in the incubators.

The Israelis also demanded the hospital be evacuated — an order that would be a death sentence for the incubator babies and indeed for critical patients.  The hospital reports that some have died.  The IDF said it was providing incubators; the doctors said they had incubators.  What they needed was power restored, which one supposes will be eventually … after Bibi’s blood lust has been satisfied.

Are we a civilized world when Hamas kills indiscriminately and Israel responds on a larger scale?