Israel will make its own decisions about how to defend itself, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, as Western countries pleaded for restraint in responding to a volley of attacks from Iran.
The United States, European Union and G7 group of industrialised nations all announced plans to consider tighter sanctions on Iran, seen as aimed at mollifying Israel and persuading it to rein in its retaliation for the first ever direct Iranian strikes after decades of confrontation by proxy.
Netanyahu met the German and British foreign ministers, who both travelled to Israel as part of a coordinated push to keep confrontation between Israel and Iran from escalating into a regional conflict fueled by the Gaza war.
Netanyahu’s office said he thanked David Cameron and Annalena Baerbock for their support, while telling them: “I want to make it clear - we will make our own decisions, and the State of Israel will do everything necessary to defend itself.”
I think the whole neighborhood just heard me sigh.
No one can argue that Israel doesn’t have the right to legitimately defend itself, it’s just that no one could reasonably look at what Israel is doing right now and say their actions are defensive, proportionate, or at all justified.
It’s so patently obvious that the onslaught of indiscriminate violence and the direct targeting of aid convoys and civilians, is an offensive war against a population of human beings who are incapable of defending themselves in any meaningful way. This is an absurdly lopsided assault on an entire population of innocent people who just want a country of their own so they can finally have a fair shot at life.
Sorry, but bombing Iran is not defensive (Israel been doing targeted strikes against Iran and Syria for years). Bombing a hospital is not defensive. Guiding your precision missiles so they perfectly strike the WCK logo on the roofs of their vehicles is not defensive. How can killing a child, let alone tens of thousands of children, ever be defensive? It can’t.
Well, you see, those children were going to grow up to be terrorists. You know, because of all the stuff you just said. They’re defending themselves from the potential consequences of their genocide by preemptively genociding harder. Plus they get to shoot things and blow stuff up; and by things and stuff I of course mean people, including and especially children.
Wow, that explanation actually clicks for me in a totally fucked up way. In the past when Israel has used disproportionate violence against Palestinians, they’ve used rhetoric like “mowing the lawn” (look it up, you’ll be disgusted) to try to rationalize this kind of preemptive defense.