Video Infoblog with Transcript: Why Israel faces a strategic defeat in Gaza | David Hearst
David Hearst, editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye, discusses how Israel’s war on Gaza is forcing its Western backers to confront the atrocities being committed in a campaign they had described as “just” five months ago. He argues that the ongoing genocide cases at the International Court of Justice, erosion of the Jewish consensus, and the increasing nervousness among Israel’s backers collectively indicate a strategic defeat for Israel. Hearst said: “A rubicon has been crossed. With this war, Israel has entered the elite rank of pariah states. It is now the ugliest of the ugly. It’s impossible to forgive. It cannot be justified, nor can it be put into context. The entire operation in Gaza is an atrocity.”
Introduction
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in the weeks following the Hamas attack
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on Southern Israel in October last year
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the Israeli Army compiled a 20-minute
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video of the horrors caught on film that
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day from hamus his own body cams and
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other footage it was sent to select
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journalists and governments around the
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world to justify the response the Army
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was planning a much longer video could
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and should now be compiled of the war
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crimes Israeli troops have been
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committing with the full knowledge and
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approval of their officers and the
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backing of most Israelis the kidding of
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FIS Al's pregnant
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mother shot in the corridor of the
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family home along with his father before
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his eyes the summary execution of an old
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man with hearing and speech difficulties
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which the soldier boasted to his unit
War Crimes
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about all respect one of them is heard
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to say the flower Massacre when a tank
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unit opened fire on crowds rushing an
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aid Convoy the routine torture
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executions Mock and real of detainees
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the soldiers are contempt of what the
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rest of the world thinks but the world
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is watching this war is forcing Israel's
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backers to see the full horror of the
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crimes committed in a campaign they
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called a just War just 5 months ago the
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degree of brutality the Glee shown by
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the soldiers as they go about their
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daily killing the starving of Gaza and
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then dropping leaflets in Arabic telling
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gazans to feed the needy killing of 400
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people at the a trucks and then saying
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they will flood Gaza with Aid all this
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is too much to sweep under the carpet
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when this war stops a Rubicon has been
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crossed with this war Israel has entered
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the elite rank of pariah states it is
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now the ugliest of the ugly it's
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impossible to forgive it cannot be
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justified nor can be put in context
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liberal Zionism has become a
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contradiction in terms the Jewish state
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has quickly become synonymous with
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Jewish supremacism the natural he to
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White supremacists they have totally
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dehumanize the population of Gaza kill
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them with contempt in their eyes this is
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having a transformational effect on
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jeury worldwide in whose name these
Transformational Effect
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crimes are being committed you can see
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it in the words of Jonathan Glazer the
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British director of the film zone of
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interest when he said in his Oscar
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acceptance speech right now we stand
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here as men who refute their jewishness
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and the Holocaust being hijacked by an
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occupation which has led to Conflict for
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so many innocent people Emily a Jewish
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activist member of naod UK said I think
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there's been a quiet Reckoning in our
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community and you can see this because
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the block keeps growing the movement
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keeps growing the constituency
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organizations keep getting bigger and
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bigger I've never been so sure that I
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will see a free Palestine I believe it
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is my solemn Duty not just as a Jew but
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as a human being to stand here and
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demand for an immediate ceasefire and to
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show that these marches aren't an unsafe
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place for Jews there are hundreds of us
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here today in solidarity with
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Palestinians ask what she thought of her
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government's attempts to Brand these
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marches as the work of extremists she
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said I'm very very tired of being told
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how to feel as a Jewish person by people
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who are not Jewish I'm tired of being
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told to feel afraid when these marches
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are by and llarge peaceful and people
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are so lovely to us and so thankful to
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us it really shows the ignorance of
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Jewish opinion outside their very small
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Zionist Rabel Israel and its apologists
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are right to be scared of what a new
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generation of American and British Jew
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is telling them for the last eight
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decades Israel governed a consensus
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about its existence identity and purpose
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which is much more powerful than all the
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arms money and the migrants the state
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received the weaker this consensus
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becomes the quicker Israel will lose its
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influence in the centers of Western
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power already the compulsive addiction
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of support for Israel is upending the
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West's own attempts to explain to itself
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that it is a moral force a Force for
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good in the world under the British
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government's latest definition of
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extremism it is somehow within British
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values to support a government that
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flouts the genocide convention starves
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the population under occupation and
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kills unarmed mothers and children at
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will but it is extremist to protest
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against that on the Streets of London
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this is a patent absurdity it is left to
Consequences
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the likes of South Africa to show
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Britain the way it is now going to
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prosecute its citizens who return having
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fought in the Israeli Army add to this
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prime minister Benjamin netanyahu's
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profound reluctance to conduct a
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prisoner exchange which his own
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negotiators agreed at at the Paris talks
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and the continuing daily Carnage of Gaza
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is having a profound effect on those who
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supported and continue to arm Israel Joe
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Biden's Rift with Netanyahu is now open
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and in the public the US leader who said
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so loudly that Israel had every right to
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defend itself 5 months ago now says
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Israel cannot kill another 30,000
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Palestinians in the name of self-defense
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I don't for one believe Biden has had
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some dramatic change of heart or that
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the scales have fallen from his eyes if
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Biden is confronting the consequences of
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having given Israel the brightest of
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green lights to invade Gaza after the
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Hamas attack on October the 7th those
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consequences are primarily electoral
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Biden's team has been shocked by the
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extent of the uncommitted vote hundreds
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of thousands of Voters across the US
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voted for no candidate in the Democratic
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primaries on super Tuesday as the
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movement urging voters to vote
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uncommitted gathers Pace in protest at
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Biden's handling of the war in Gaza
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there is now a deliberate shift in tone
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the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
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the highest ranking Jewish official in
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the US was full throated in his support
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for Israel after the Hamas attack last
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week he said support for Israel World
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worldwide was at a historic low and that
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Israel could not survive if it became a
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pariah State the loss of public opinion
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in the west the continued case in the
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international court of justice for
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genocide the erosion of the Jewish
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consensus and the nervousness of
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Israel's backers all this points to a
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strategic defeat for Israel even if the
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war stops now the price Israel has paid
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for the reoccupation of Gaza would have
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been higher than it could possibly have
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imagined 5 months ago it is yet to
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realize this but it will
