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ethnic cleansing
Israel Reaches Its Mass-Murder Quota
Around 1,275 Israelis died as a result of the attack on October 7. Israel’s mass murder quota was therefore around 63,750 (= 50 x 1,275). This was reached in recent weeks, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Oct 11, 2025
The ceasefire observed in Gaza results in part from simple murderous arithmetic. Specifically, Israel’s bloodletting reached its numerical target, so Israel has finally signed on to a ceasefire.
After October 7, 2023, former Israeli military intelligence chief Aharon Haliva declared that for every Israeli killed, “50 Palestinians must die.” Around 1,275 Israelis died as a result of the attack on October 7. Israel’s mass murder quota was therefore around 63,750 (= 50 x 1,275). This was reached in recent weeks, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, and as reported by the United Nations. When the rubble is cleared and epidemiologists do their detailed work, the death toll is likely in fact to reach hundreds of thousands, including those who have died due to lack of medical care, starvation, and other critical shortages of life support.
Israel is committing genocide. This is thoroughly documented by the United Nations, and as confirmed by The International Association of Genocide Scholars. What is the basis of Israel’s despicable campaign? There are in fact two interrelated reasons.
The first reason is that mass murder has been the repeated instrument of choice for colonial-settler societies such as Israel. In her recent book They Called it Peace, historian Lauren Benton described how colonial-settlers deployed mass murder and terror as mechanisms of control. Benton writes that for colonial settlers,
“Peace was imagined not as the cessation of violence but as the imposition of order through fear and punishment.”
Elsewhere, Benton writes, “Punitive expeditions and mass killings were justified as instruments to discipline populations, to break resistance, and to render the conquered both submissive and useful.”
Israel’s genocide in Gaza and annexation of the occupied West Bank follow this precise colonial-settler logic. Israel aims to terrorize Palestinians and break their will—all in pursuit of the maximalist objective of eliminating any possibility of a Palestinian state. What Haliva and those like him wanted most was neither to defeat Hamas, nor to free the hostages (which could have been accomplished through negotiations). He wanted to teach the Palestinians and the international community a lesson. For the Palestinians, the lesson is that they must never challenge their occupier. For the rest of the world, the lesson is that Israel is above international law, even if it commits genocide.
When the rubble is cleared and epidemiologists do their detailed work, the death toll is likely in fact to reach hundreds of thousands, including those who have died due to lack of medical care, starvation, and other critical shortages of life support.
The second and related reason is the Old Testament literalism of part of the Israeli government and society, that espouses an ethics of the 10th century BC rather than an ethics of the 21st century. The Old Testament contains numerous accounts of God-commanded genocides, and Netanyahu and his colleagues cite these Biblical accounts to justify mass murder.
For example, Prime Minister Netanyahu chillingly invoked the ancient Biblical story of the Amalekites. The Amalekites appear in Exodus 17, where they attack the Israelites in the wilderness. Later, in 1 Samuel 15, God commands King Saul through the prophet Samuel to 'utterly destroy' Amalek – man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey. When Saul murders the men of the Amalekites but takes King Agag hostage and spares some of the animals, Saul is condemned by God for failure to fulfill the command of total mass slaughter. In fact, Saul loses his kingship because he fails to commit a complete and total genocide. And this is Netanyahu’s chosen text!
The link between colonial-settler violence and Old Testament genocide is more direct than it seems. Colonial-settlers often saw themselves as the “New Israel,” in North America, South Africa, and of course in Israel (and occupied Palestine) today. Their violence stems not only from efforts to subdue Indigenous peoples but also from a supremacist belief in a God-given right to act this way.
The genocide in Gaza is an escalation of persistent Israeli behavior—it is, in the words of historian Rashid Khalidi, a “continuation of ethnic cleansing.” This decades-old strategy of “mowing the lawn,” episodic mass killings, is intended to advance Israel’s goal of permanent control over all occupied Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, as promised by the original 1977 Charter of Netanyahu’s Likud Party. To achieve this objective, Netanyahu and his allies are committed to ethnic expulsions, murder, or the severe suppression of nearly seven and a half million Palestinians living in the area they call Greater Israel.
Even with the ceasefire, even with the disarmament of Hamas, Israel will not agree to a State of Palestine alongside Israel.
Netanyahu made that crystal clear during his speech at the UN General Assembly. As he recounted, the Knesset overwhelmingly voted against the two-state solution with 99 out of 120 members opposing it, reflecting the stance of over 90% of Israelis. He clearly stated, “my opposition to a Palestinian state is not simply my policies, or my government's policy, it's the policy of the state and people of the State of Israel.”
While fulfilling Israel’s 50-to-1 quota was one reason for its agreement to a ceasefire (when one could have been achieved many deaths earlier), another decisive factor is that Israel and the US now face near-total global isolation over the issue of Palestine, with Israel widely reviled across much of the world. More than 150 countries, with around 87 percent of the world population, have now recognized the State of Palestine, even as the US continues to veto Palestine’s permanent UN membership. Arab and Islamic leaders have made it clear to President Trump that they are committed to Palestinian statehood. And American public opinion has decisively shifted, along with global demonstrations to support the Palestinian cause.
The US government, aware of those dynamics, has therefore begun to bend its policies at least a little bit. The ceasefire therefore signals a vital opportunity to push the US further, and to assert the will of the world community. A lasting peace is within reach, based on implementing the two-state solution. The Arab nations must not once again allow the United States to conjure another phony and endless “peace process.” Israel will never negotiate a peace with Palestine.
On September 12, 2025, the UN General Assembly endorsed the outcome document of the High-Level International Conference on the Implementation of the Two-State Solution. The UN General Assembly, with or without the United States, must now act decisively to implement full Palestinian statehood, despite Israel’s ongoing obstruction.
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2 Flotillas, 1 Mission: Another Wave of Flotillas Are Heading for Gaza Now
The mission of the Conscience and 1,000 Madleens will continue citizens spotlighting the continuing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank.
Oct 06, 2025
In the past three months, citizens around the world have participated in dramatic challenges to the horrific Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza with over 66,000 known dead and at least 100,000 souls under the rubble, most of whom are women and children.
The genocide includes the destruction of virtually all food and food distribution systems, hospitals and clinics, schools and universities, water and sanitation facilities, and a huge amount of the housing for 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Ships From the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition
For the past 18 years, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) has used ships to attempt to carry citizens from all over the world to Gaza in a nonviolent challenge to the genocidal violence of the Israeli government and the illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza.
In the past five months, since May 2025, the FFC has launched four missions. In May 2025, the FFC attempted to launch the Conscience ship in Malta, but the Israeli forces bombed the vessel hours before participants were to board the ship. In June 2025 the FFC sent the Madleen sailboat with 12 persons onboard that were arrested and kidnapped in international waters, imprisoned, and deported. In July 2025, the FFC launched the motor vessel Handala with 22 persons onboard. They too were arrested and kidnapped in international waters, imprisoned, and deported.
In August 2025, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition was joined in its mission of challenging the increasing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the illegal Israeli naval and land blockade of Gaza by the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF).
Ships From the Global Sumud Flotilla Intercepted by IOF
On August 31, 2025, the Global Sumud Flotilla launched 22 boats from Barcelona and were joined by about 10 boats from Tunisia, where two boats were hit by incendiary devices dropped from drones; 14 boats from Italy; and six boats from Greece for a total of around 50 ships challenging the illegal naval blockade of Gaza. The GSF had participants from 47 countries.
After sailing almost one month with delays due to weather and mechanical issues of the boats, the Global Sumud Flotilla was intercepted in the early morning hours of October 2, 2025. One vessel, the Mikeno, was able to enter the territorial waters of Gaza, the first boat to do so since 2008 when the Free Gaza Movement sailed five boats into Gaza. 462 participants on 39 boats were arrested and kidnapped in international waters, imprisoned, and, as of this writing, are awaiting deportation.
The first groups of the 462 persons from the Global Sumud Flotilla who were arrested, taken hostage, and then deported were four members of the Italian Parliament on October 3.
The second group of 137 persons from GSF were flown in a Turkish flight to Istanbul in the late afternoon of October 4, including 36 from Turkiye and 101 from other countries: Italy (26), Malaysia (23), Tunisia (10), Switzerland (9), UK (9), Libya (7), Algeria (6), Morocco (4), Kuwait (4), Jordan (2), Bahrain (1), Mauritania (1), and the US.
Second Flotilla Wave: Conscience and 1,000 Madleen sailboats Are Sailing Now
As the Global Sumud Flotilla was sailing to Gaza, in late September 2025, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition launched a second wave of flotilla ships to challenge the Israeli genocide of Gaza and to break the illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza.
The Conscience, which had been repaired from the May 2025 bombing off Malta, left from Otranto, Italy on September 30, 2025 with a mission of bringing medical personnel and journalists to Gaza. The Conscience has onboard 92 participants from 22 countries. The countries represented on the Conscience are: Algeria (1), Australia (1), Azerbaijan (2), Bangladesh (1), Belgium (4), Canada (6), Denmark (3), Finland (1), France (7), Germany (6), Iceland (1), Ireland (3) * (one is Irish and Jordanian), Israel (2), Italy (6), Malaysia (9), New Zealand (1), Norway (2) *(one is Norwegian and Iranian), Spain (5), Tunisia (1), Turkiye (9), UK (2)* (one is British and Jordanian ), USA (8).
As a part of the second flotilla wave, the new organization Thousand Madleens launched seven sailboats on September 27 from Catania, Sicily, Italy with a total of 52 participants from 15 countries: Ireland (2), Denmark (4), Malaysia (1), Spain (2), Belgium (4), Germany (1), Switzerland (1), Italy (4), France (25), Greece (1), USA (4), UK (1), South Korea (1). Five sailboats were from the French campaign, and two sailboats were from the Danish campaign.
The Italian campaign of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition sailed two sailboats with a total of 12 Italian participants from Otranto, Italy on September 26, 2025.
Support for the Flotillas from Many Governments
The Gaza flotilla initiatives have received support from Foreign Ministers of 16 countries; the President of Colombia Gustavo Petro; United Nations experts including the UN special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese; and Members of Parliament in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Turkiye.
Naval vessels dispatched from Italy, Spain, and Turkiye to "ensure the safety of their citizens" retreated as the flotilla reached closer to Gaza. None of the nations stopped the Israeli navy from kidnapping, arresting, and imprisoning their citizens in international waters.
Citizens Around the World Demonstrate for Ending the Israeli Genocide of Gaza and for the Gaza Flotillas
The many boats and the kidnapping, arrest, and imprisonment of the many participants in the Global Sumud Flotilla have created big mobilizations of citizens all over the world to emphasize how their governments are complicit in the Israeli genocide of Gaza.
The mission of the Conscience and 1,000 Madleens will continue citizens spotlighting the continuing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank.
Track the Conscience and 1,000 Madleens
Citizens around the world can track the progress of the Conscience, the 1,000 Madleens, and the boats from Italy through the FFC tracker: https://freedomflotilla.org/ffc-tmtg-conscience-tracker/
One can observe life on the ship Conscience through this live feed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FJIGo3hNoY
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The Most Destabilizing Middle East Country? Israel, Hands Down.
The United States needs to get beyond the familiar mantra about Iran supposedly being the biggest source of instability in the Middle East.
Sep 29, 2025
Is conflict in the Middle East at an inflection point? It might seem so, given how international outrage over Israel’s lethal conduct in the Gaza Strip has become increasingly intense and widespread in recent weeks.
Several major Western countries that previously had declined to join most other members of the United Nations in formally recognizing a Palestinian state used the opening of the current session of the General Assembly as the occasion to take that step. Popular demonstrations in the West in support of the Palestinians have been as large and conspicuous as ever, and recent polls show a sharp decline in the American public’s support for Israel.
Such responses are the least that can be expected in the face of new lows in barbarous Israeli actions against the residents of the Gaza Strip. An Israeli military assault on Gaza City has added to the rubble to which most of the city had already been reduced. The assault has given remaining inhabitants the choice of suffering and perhaps dying in place or fleeing once again to someplace else in the Strip with still no assurance of safety. The armed attacks and imposed starvation have seen the death toll of Gazans increase to what is now probably several times the officially reported figure of about 65,000.
The international responses, including diplomatic recognition of Palestine by Western governments, fall short of eliciting a constructive Israeli response. The recognition of a Palestinian state has been the target of criticism from some Palestinians who rightly point out that it does nothing to alleviate the immediate misery on the ground. Diplomatic moves and street demonstrations do not speak the only language that Israel appears to understand, which is one of force and compulsion.
The Israeli response to the latest diplomatic moves has been one of defiance and threats to inflict still more depredations on the Palestinians. The Israeli national security minister, right-wing extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, is pushing to make annexation of the West Bank the main Israeli response to Western recognition of Palestine.
Most Israelis, and not just their government or the extremists within it, see international pressure as just more evidence of bias against Israel and of the need for Israel to use force to protect itself, regardless of worldwide outrage. Survey research shows that most Israelis believe there are "no innocents" in Gaza and favor expulsion of residents from the Gaza Strip. An appeal to morality will not get a positive response from a government that has this population as its political base. Only the imposition on Israel of significant costs and consequences would lead it to change its policies.
Although we may not be at an inflection point regarding the Palestinian-Israeli tragedy, the thinking of Arab regimes in the region has reached an inflection point of sorts in recent weeks. The Israeli attack in early September on the territory of Qatar, in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Hamas leaders engaged in Gaza-related negotiations, shocked that thinking.
The attack in Qatar comes amid a fusillade of Israeli armed attacks against other regional states, including Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran, in addition to the carnage in Palestine. These and other regional states (such as Iraq and Egypt) have been the targets of Israeli attacks — both overt military and clandestine — for many years, but it is the near-simultaneity of some of the attacks over the past month that has added to the shock.
The attack in Qatar demonstrated to the Arab governments not only that Israel is the most destabilizing state in the region but also that any one of their own nations could be similarly attacked. Qatar’s security relations with Israel’s prime backer, the United States — which has a large military presence at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar — did not protect it from the Israeli aggression. Although Arab governments may be showing signs of fatigue in their decades-long support of the Palestinian cause, they are highly concerned about the possibility of any assault on their own territories.
The concerns of Egypt — party to the first Arab peace treaty with Israel — are great enough for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to label Israel an “enemy” in his remarks at an emergency Arab summit following the attack in Qatar. Egypt, like Qatar, has mediated ceasefire talks on Gaza, and could become another target of Israeli determination to kill Hamas officials wherever they may be, even ones involved in peace negotiations. Egypt also fears consequences for its own security of continued Israeli ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip, which adjoins Egypt. Jordan has similar fears regarding how increasingly aggressive Israeli moves against Palestinians in the West Bank could push them eastward and upset Jordan’s already fragile domestic situation.
One result of these events is to remove, at least for now, the possibility of more diplomatic normalization agreements between Arab states and Israel, to add to the ones that Bahrain, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates signed during President Trump’s first term. There might even be some retreat from cooperation by governments that did sign such agreements. The UAE responded quickly to talk in Israel about annexing the West Bank by warning that annexation would cross a “red line.”
A benefit of this development is to help debunk the notion, which one sometimes hears in the United States, that the upgrading of relations with Israel — the so-called “Abraham Accords” — represents progress and even a step toward Israeli-Palestinian peace. To the contrary, such upgrading is an alternative to Israel making peace with the Palestinians. It is a way for Israel to enjoy, and be seen by the world to enjoy, full relations with regional neighbors while continuing the subjugation of Palestinians and occupation of their territory. Given the Israeli inclination also to view such agreements as the core of an anti-Iranian alliance, these supposed “peace agreements” also have sharpened lines of conflict in the Persian Gulf.
An implication for the United States is that it should discard the fixation, which has characterized both the Trump and Biden administrations, on seeking more normalization agreements between Israel and Arab governments. Given the other circumstances in the region, including what is transpiring in Gaza, such agreements do nothing to advance peace and security in the Middle East or other U.S. interests.
Another implication flows from the decreased value that Arab governments are almost certainly placing on security cooperation with the United States. Arab doubts about that value were stimulated in 2019 by the U.S. non-response to an Iranian attack on Saudi oil facilities (which was part of the Iranian response to the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” policy, reaffirmed in Trump’s second term, that was aimed at cutting off Iran’s oil exports). The Israeli attack in Qatar, a small state that had implicitly placed much of its security in the hands of the United States, has amplified the Arab doubts. The United States may need to prepare for lesser military access to Arab territories.
It is good for U.S. interests that a new formal security agreement with an Arab state, such as what the Biden administration pursued with Saudi Arabia, has become less likely than before. This development helps to minimize the risk of the United States getting ensnared in conflicts not of its own making. But as the Qatar episode illustrates, even just an implicit guarantee entails costs and risks. With Israel primed to repeat such attacks anywhere in the region, the United States, owing to its close association with Israel, may again be put in a difficult position.
The United States needs to get beyond the familiar mantra about Iran supposedly being the biggest source of instability in the Middle East. It needs to consider what other state actually has started more wars and attacked more nations — and currently is killing more civilians — than any other state in the region, and to fundamentally reappraise its relationship with that state.
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