As we continue to helplessly witness Israel’s genocide in Gaza in a daily state of apprehension, anxiety, and pain due to the images showing the atrocities that have been ongoing for months, in the past week the world has seen Israel’s military failure in Gaza shift to Lebanon, where the genocidal state has lashed out with equal violence and contempt for humanity against the Lebanese civilian population and Palestinian and Syrian refugees.
Netanyahu and his government’s script is repeating itself in Lebanon as in Gaza. It’s not just Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon who are paying for the messianic fanaticism, but above all, thousands of innocent civilians. Kill ten to hit one. This is the rule applied in Lebanon as in Gaza with a single objective: ethnic cleansing and genocide. This intent towards the Lebanese people has often emerged in Israeli media itself, where politicians and officials have declared that they would “bomb Lebanon back to the Stone Age.”
After visiting Lebanon several times in recent years, with my last trip last July, I personally witnessed that the reality and living conditions of the Lebanese population and Palestinian and Syrian refugees were already dramatic even before these attacks: lack of electricity, water shortages, precarious hygienic conditions, almost total absence of healthcare.
Despite the continuous efforts of Western politicians and their media outlets to create consensus for Israeli conduct, labeling indiscriminate attacks as “precise” and “legitimate” and praising their “ingenuity,” anyone familiar with Israeli tactics understands that avoiding civilian casualties is far from their objective; civilians are, on the contrary, their primary target. Children are especially targeted, as I wrote in a previous article. The more ruthlessly they kill with unchecked impunity, the bolder they become.
Israel’s goal is not the elimination of “terror” but the ethnic cleansing of areas it needs to pursue the project of expanding and rebuilding Greater Israel. To do this, it is eliminating life, the new Palestinian generations, and now the Lebanese ones as well. It’s important to remember that both Hamas and Hezbollah were born from resistance to the daily terror unleashed by Israel on their communities for decades. It would be sufficient to read the texts of Israeli writers to understand the meaning of what I affirm. One among all is Ilan Pappé, one of the major historians of the Middle East, and among his emblematic works translated into Italian are “A History of Modern Palestine. One Land, Two Peoples“, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” and, “On Palestine” with Noam Chomsky.
In less than 24 hours, Israel has already killed half the total number of people killed during the 2006 Lebanon war, which lasted a month. All signs indicate that it’s just beginning because Netanyahu has already rejected a ceasefire plan supported by the United States and France, ordering his troops to fight with “full force” and prepare for a ground invasion.
A sadistic approach, defined as the Dahiya Doctrine, which involves the use of overwhelming and disproportionate force and intentional attacks on civilians and infrastructure, resulting in inestimable damage to power plants, water treatment facilities, bridges, and ports.
As with the genocide in Gaza, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has publicly stated that Lebanese homes contain Hezbollah weapons and rocket launchers, a narrative aimed at dehumanizing Lebanese civilians, describing them as enemy combatants and, consequently, as legitimate targets.
Every tactic of the Gaza genocide is now being used to devastate what remains of Lebanon and to turn its population against the only force, Hezbollah, that can protect it from another brutal invasion and occupation.
For decades, Lebanon and Palestine have stood together against a common aggressor and will continue to do so until Israel is defeated. During my last trip to Beirut and the Bekaa Valley, I collected dozens of testimonies of the strength and unity of the Palestinian and Lebanese people against the Israeli oppressor.
Since the Nakba of 1948 and even before, Palestine has never seen such high levels of violence as those experienced in recent months. However, mainstream media portray Palestinian violence as terrorism while describing Israel’s ferocity and relentlessness as self-defense. On one side, the “immoral” and “unjustified” violence of the Palestinians, and on the other, “Israel’s right to defend itself.” Rarely is Israeli violence labeled as excessive and genocidal.
Despite recent tensions and the escalation of violence, Israel continues to strike southern Lebanon as I write this article. News agencies report that the Israeli army is preparing for a ground operation in southern Lebanon itself.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health has declared that to date, the total death toll of Lebanese victims since the outbreak of hostilities is over 1,670, including 104 children.
The international community can no longer remain silent in the face of this systematic massacre of civilians: it is time to act firmly to stop Israeli aggression and protect innocent lives in Lebanon and Palestine before it is too late.
Dan ROMEO