“…Is this what war looks like now? Our world has changed over the past two and half years. In the weeks after the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, Israel set in motion a machinery of genocide – largely enabled by unwavering US support and powered by impunity and denial – against Gaza, unleashing one of the most destructive military campaigns targeting civilians in modern times. Israel has repeated the Gaza playbook in its war on Lebanon: intense aerial bombardment and illegal mass evacuation orders that lead to the large-scale displacement of civilians; the destruction of civilian infrastructure and border towns to make way for so-called “buffer zones” occupied by Israeli troops; the targeting of hospitals and healthcare workers; and the killing of journalists. And, as it did with Gaza, the west largely looks on with indifference.
Gaza represents a new pinnacle for this type of wholesale destruction as a military strategy, of using overwhelming and disproportionate force against civilians and infrastructure. But the seed of this strategy was planted two decades ago – in a previous Israeli war on Lebanon. That war resulted in Israel’s Dahiyeh doctrine, which calls for the deliberate targeting of civilians and infrastructure as a means of collective punishment that seeks to turn local populations against armed militias. That doctrine played out in full force in Lebanon – and also has made multiple rhetorical appearances in Donald Trump’s threats to destroy societies and civilizations on a large scale.
A peace dove holding an olive branch tries to fly but is weighed down by a heavy metal ball chained to its leg.
A ‘magic pill’ made Israeli violence invisible. We need to stop swallowing it
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As long as this impunity continues, this playbook will repeat itself, constituting a new normal where the eradication of infrastructure, agriculture, cities and towns fit for habitation and entire cultures, is acceptable to much of the world as a method of war. The west’s dehumanization of Palestinians – and Lebanese, Iranians and others – has also made it possible for the aggressors to keep committing more abhorrent acts of violence…”