History Is Indispensable to Journalism Re Gaza and Israel

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

Great historical read on Israeli and Palestinians,
With comments by Chief of Israeli general staff Moshe Dayan……


https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/06/history-is-indispensable-to-journalism/

(…….skipped…….)

In 1956, Moshe Dayan, then chief of the Israeli general staff, looked into both the recent past and to today to warn:

“What cause have we to complain about their fierce hatred to us? For eight years now, they sit in their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we turn into our homestead the land and villages in which they and their forefathers have lived. … We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and gun barrel, we shall not be able to plant a tree or build a house. . . . Let us not be afraid to see the hatred that accompanies and consumes the lives of hundreds of thousands of Arabs who sit all around us and wait for the moment when their hands will be able to reach our blood.”

Dayan understood the indispensability of historical context, even when it pointed to his own side’s guilt.

It’s a history of the still ongoing process of the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Arabs by Israel, in the face of the foundational myth of a land without people for a people without a land. It’s a history understood by student protestors across the U.S., which is why the state and the media want them silenced.

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

1. Israel's critics are always accused of anti-Semitism , a charge that serves to silence even the mildest questioning of t

“Israel’s critics are always accused of anti-Semitism , a charge that serves to silence even the mildest questioning of that country’s policies.”

— US Senator Abourezk, South Dakota


See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Abourezk


"This is a 75-year-old story, a story of overwhelming death and displacement to the Palestinian people. It is a story of an occupation under apartheid regime that occupies lands, demolishes houses, confiscates lands, military incursions, night raids.”

—- Jordon’s Queen Rania, (CNN interview broadcast Oct 24, 2023)

[Beastly Boy]

15. Not always. Only when criticism of Israel is punctuated by overt antisemitism.

[JohnSJ]

2. Consortium News Is a left wing piece of garbage. They blame Ukraine and

the US for Russia invading Ukraine.

and with the Middle East they are equally bias and one-sided. It’s always Israel’s fault, and their arrogance in justifying the oct 7 attacks, tells you exactly where the Consortium is.

Their convenient versions of history, and against “the establishment media”, which is anyone who has a different viewpoint.

and of course Putin has no territorial ambitions

https://consortiumnews.com/2025/03/14/craig-murray-putin-is-no-hitler/

Being ant-Israel isn’t necessarily antisemitism, but sometimes it is.

[lapucelle]

4. Roger Waters is mentioned on Consortium News's "about" page as a major donor. N/T

[JohnSJ]

7. I guess that says it all. Thanks, I wasn't aware.

https://www.adl.org/resources/article/roger-waters-extends-his-legacy-antisemitic-rhetoric

[lapucelle]

10. Consortium News changed the verb "settle" to the noun "settlers" in their fanciful retelling of Dayan's eulogy.

Consortium News never mentioned the fact that they were referencing a eulogy for an Israeli security officer on a kibbutz who was ambushed, murdered, and dragged across the border into Gaza where his body was mutilated. (That sounds familiar.)

Consortium News took the liberty of changing a key word and cobbling random sentences together to suit their agenda.

And then Consortium News linked to the actual text of the eulogy, confident that their readers wouldn't bother to read what Moshe Dayan actually said.

It's little wonder that News Guard Technologies issued a red shield warning and advises readers to "proceed with maximum caution" concerning when reading or sourcing Consortium News

[Jack Valentino]

5. Consortium News was 100% CORRECT about Bush and the Iraq war...

if they are indeed now somehow Putin-leaning, that would be a big surprise---

but have not read them in many years. If true, to hell with them.

[JohnSJ]

6. Did you read the link I supplied:

https://consortiumnews.com/2025/03/14/craig-murray-putin-is-no-hitler/

[Jack Valentino]

8. No.... that anchor text is disconcerting indeed.

Like I said, they were quite right on Bush and the Iraq war, and the whole "war on terrorism".


How they could have gone so wrong since is beyond my imagination....

However, calling them "far left" as you did is well "beyond the pale"---
if they now support Putin, then they are now by definition "far right".

[JohnSJ]

9. Without question Iraq was a complete setup, and was the perfect example of unintended

consequences.

It is painfully ironic how trump is now calling for an agreement with Iraq on nuclear weapons, while everyone, especially the media ignores the fact there WAS an agreement with Iraq on nuclear weapons, and it was trump who unilaterally walked away from that.

[lapucelle]

11. Consortium News is rated left wing by both News Guard and Media Bias Fact Check.

===============================

It maybe that Consortium News has gone the way of the horseshoe left.

A lot can happen in 20 years. Look at Tulsi Gabbard. Her shift from Fellow at The Sanders Institute to Putin's plant as Trump's Director of National Intelligence didn't even take a decade.

[lapucelle]

3. How odd of Consortium News to actually change a key word and conflate decontextualized

sentences from different parts of Moshe Dayan's eulogy for Roi Rutenberg into one bizarre paragraph. Why would Consortium News do such a thing?

You did know that this was a eulogy for an IDF soldier patrolling the border where he was ambushed, shot, and dragged into Gaza where his body was mutilated, right?

----------------------------------------------------------

Twenty percent of Israel's citizens are Israeli-Arab. Israeli-Arabs sit in the Knesset. An Israeli-Arab sits on Israel's Supreme Court. That's a pretty odd way to conduct an "ethnic cleansing of Arabs".

[malaise]

12. The usual folks won't like this

That is all

[lapucelle]

13. If by "usual folks" you mean DUers who object to changing words,

cobbling random, decontextualized sentences together, and presenting it as something someone said, you're right.

Why would Consortium News do such a thing and then provide a link to the actual text of the eulogy? I guess they take it for granted that their readers never check primary sources.

The parallel between how, in 1956, Roi Rutenberg was ambushed and murdered on a kibbutz, his body dragged into Gaza to be degraded and mutilated and what happened on October 7, nearly 70 years later is stunning, and Moshe Dayan's eulogy is a remarkable read in 2025 for just that reason.

How bizarre that Consortium News framed a eulogy for someone who had been murdered the day before as Moshe Dayan's random comments on the "recent past". How disgusting that Consortium News erased the murder victim that the eulogy commemorated.

[Bettie]

24. They already don't

even the suggestion that Palestinians might be....human, seems to be "antisemitic" for some.

[malaise]

25. THIS

Rec

[lapucelle]

26. Of course DUers don't like what is typically a right wing tactic.

Changing words, rearranging sentences, and removing context in the service of advancing an agenda are disinformation strategies and frankly disgusting.

[Beastly Boy]

14. For context, which is entirely absent from your article:

Moshe Dayan's speech was made in 1956, when Gaza was annexed by Egypt. It was a eulogy for Roi Rutenberg, a security guard in an Israeli Kibbutz by an Egyptian policeman who illegally crossed the border (then the border was between Egypt and Israel) with other Egyptian subjects of Gaza and ambushed Roi. Roi was shot off his horse, beaten and shot again, then his body was dragged into Gaza. Rothberg's attackers included an Egyptian policeman and a Palestinian farmer. Badly mutilated, his body was returned on the same day after United Nations intervention.

In this context, here is the full text of Dayan's eulogy for Roi Rutenberg:

Early yesterday morning Roi was murdered. The quiet of the spring morning dazzled him and he did not see those waiting in ambush for him, at the edge of the furrow.

Let us not cast the blame on the murderers today. Why should we declare their burning hatred for us? For eight years they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we have been transforming the lands and the villages, where they and their fathers dwelt, into our estate.

It is not among the Arabs in Gaza, but in our own midst that we must seek Roi's blood. How did we shut our eyes and refuse to look squarely at our fate, and see, in all its brutality, the destiny of our generation? Have we forgotten that this group of young people dwelling at Nahal Oz is bearing the heavy gates of Gaza on its shoulders?

Beyond the furrow of the border, a sea of hatred and desire for revenge is swelling, awaiting the day when serenity will dull our path, for the day when we will heed the ambassadors of malevolent hypocrisy who call upon us to lay down our arms.

Roi's blood is crying out to us and only to us from his torn body. Although we have sworn a thousandfold that our blood shall not flow in vain, yesterday again we were tempted, we listened, we believed.

We will make our reckoning with ourselves today; we are a generation that settles the land and without the steel helmet and the canon's maw, we will not be able to plant a tree and build a home. Let us not be deterred from seeing the loathing that is inflaming and filling the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who live around us. Let us not avert our eyes lest our arms weaken.

This is the fate of our generation. This is our life's choice - to be prepared and armed, strong and determined, lest the sword be stricken from our fist and our lives cut down.

The young Roi who left Tel Aviv to build his home at the gates of Gaza to be a wall for us was blinded by the light in his heart and he did not see the flash of the sword. The yearning for peace deafened his ears and he did not hear the voice of murder waiting in ambush. The gates of Gaza weighed too heavily on his shoulders and overcame him.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/moshe-dayan-s-eulogy-for-roi-rutenberg-april-19-1956

Dayan, and the generation of settlers he was addressing, are long gone. So are the Palestinian subjects of Egypt who perpetrated the atrocity. What is left is the existential threat to Israel from the hateful enemies it is surrounded by and the absolute necessity of defending the sovereign State of Israel's right to exist, by force or otherwise.

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

16. Genocide is not the answer

Slaughter of 51,000 Civilians in Gaza by Israel
Is a massive War Crime.

Netanyahu is an international wanted war criminal.

https://apnews.com/article/icc-israel-hamas-warrants-netanyahu-palestinian-arrest-73c854d072e0a1a41b19b2cb2cdd07fa

Top war-crimes court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and others in Israel-Hamas fighting

[Beastly Boy]

17. "Genocide" is the strawman concocted by anti-Israel propagandists long before the Gaza war.

It is being used gratuitously and repeatedly out of the context of the established definition of genocide, which only serves to belittle the real victims of genocide worldwide.

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

19. UN defines genocide, is exactly what Israel is doing in Gaza

The United Nations defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children to another group. This definition is codified in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_Convention

[Beastly Boy]

22. What you cited is the incomplete definition of genocide,

and certainly, neither the UN nor the ICC are bound by what is being contributed to Wikipedia by the general public.

[lapucelle]

28. It is NOT what Israel is doing in Gaza,

and no amount of stubborn insistence will make it so.

From your post:

with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group

------------------------------------------------------

From an internal link in your wiki citation:

To establish genocide, perpetrators must be shown to have had the dolus specialis, or specific intent, to destroy a particular national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, in whole or in part. Unlike broader war crimes or crimes against humanity, genocidal intent necessitates a deliberate aim to eliminate the targeted group rather than merely displace or harm its members

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocidal_intent

-----------------------------------------

From the UN:

The intent is the most difficult element to determine. To constitute genocide, there must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Cultural destruction does not suffice, nor does an intention to simply disperse a group.

It is this special intent, or dolus specialis, that makes the crime of genocide so unique. In addition, case law has associated intent with the existence of a State or organizational plan or policy, even if the definition of genocide in international law does not include that element.

Importantly, the victims of genocide are deliberately targeted - not randomly – because of their real or perceived membership of one of the four groups protected under the Convention (which excludes political groups, for example). This means that the target of destruction must be the group, as such, and not its members as individuals. Genocide can also be committed against only a part of the group, as long as that part is identifiable (including within a geographically limited area) and “substantial.”

https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/definition

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

31. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

Over 11,000 bodies are estimated to be buried in
the rubble.

All slaughtered by Israeli forces.

Unspeakable horror.

Mass slaughter of civilians

GENOCIDE

[lapucelle]

32. It's clear from your citation of the Geneva Convention that it is not genocide.

The specific intent to destroy a people as such is clearly absent. That's the reason why both Ireland and Amnesty International want a new definition of genocide. Even they know that this isn't genocide as defined by the Geneva Convention.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin today secured government approval for Ireland to intervene in South Africa’s International Court of Justice case against Israel under the Genocide Convention.

Following today’s Cabinet meeting, the Tánaiste said:

- "There has been a collective punishment of the Palestinian people through the intent and impact of military actions of Israel in Gaza, leaving 44,000 dead and millions of civilians displaced.

- "By legally intervening in South Africa’s case, Ireland will be asking the ICJ to broaden its interpretation of what constitutes the commission of genocide by a State.

- "We are concerned that a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimised.

- "Ireland’s view of the Convention is broader and prioritises the protection of civilian life – as a committed supporter of the Convention, the government will promote that interpretation in its intervention in this case.

https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-foreign-affairs/press-releases/t%c3%a1naiste-announces-irelands-intervention-in-proceedings-at-the-icj/

-------------------------------------

ICJ asked to broaden definition of genocide over 'collective punishment' in Gaza

Ireland is to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to broaden its definition of genocide - claiming Israel has engaged in the "collective punishment" of people in Gaza.

https://news.sky.com/story/icj-asked-to-broaden-definition-of-genocide-over-collective-punishment-in-gaza-13271874

------------------------------------

Ireland backs bid to include blocking of aid in definition of genocide

Ireland is to seek to widen the definition of genocide to include blocking humanitarian aid in a landmark international court of justice (ICJ) case against Israel.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/27/gaza-ireland-joins-battle-to-include-the-blocking-of-vital-aid-in-definition-of-genocide

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

33. Dec '24: Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza

Dec 2024: Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel committing Genocide in Gaza

Currently today, there are estimated 11,000 bodies buried under the war rubble
in Gaza, all 11,000 bodies were slaughtered by Israeli forces

——

And from 20th Jan 2025

'In every street there are dead': Gaza rescuers reckon with scale of destruction

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn8x00mgjxmo

On the first full day of peace in Gaza on Monday, rescue workers and civilians began to reckon with the sheer scale of the destruction to the Strip.
Gaza's Civil Defence agency – the strip's main emergency response service – said it feared there were more than 10,000 bodies still buried under the vast sea of rubble.
Spokesman Mahmoud Basal told the BBC that they hoped to recover the dead within 100 days, but were likely to be delayed by a deficit of bulldozers and other essential equipment.
New images from Gaza following Sunday's ceasefire showed scenes of total devastation wrought during 15 months of Israeli offensive, particularly in the north of the enclave.

————-

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/amnesty-international-concludes-israel-is-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza/


Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza

5 December 2024

Amnesty International’s research has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, the organization said in a landmark new report published today.

The report, ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, documents how, during its military offensive launched in the wake of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity.

“Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International. 

“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.

“States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide. All states with influence over Israel, particularly key arms suppliers like the USA and Germany, but also other EU member states, the UK and others, must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end.”

More

[lapucelle]

34. Amnesty admits on page 101 of their report that the war does not fit the definition of genocide.

They go on to airily dismiss the definition articulated in in the Geneva Convention as “an overly cramped interpretation of international jurisprudence".

Amnesty forced readers to wade through 101 pages of spin before getting to a discussion of the Geneva Convention's clear parameters for a finding of genocide. Amnesty helpfully make the case for this not being a genocide by its own admission on page 101 and in its footnotes for the discussion that follows which include case citations for the following cases.

In 2007, in Bosnia v. Serbia, the International Court of Justice found that genocidal intent can only be established when it is the only plausible inference to be drawn from a nation’s pattern of conduct. The court reaffirmed this standard in 2015 in Croatia v. Serbia.

Why did Amnesty cite the cases despite the fact that the rulings were contrary to Amnesty's claims concerning an "overly cramped interpretation of genocide"? Amnesty cited the cases to cherry pick quotes from a dissent that they saw as helpful to their dubious claim.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/8668/2024/en/

==========================

The Geneva Convention is an international treaty with clearly articulated definitions, provisions, and conditions. There is a a body of case law supporting the specific intent requirement for a finding of genocide. This war does not fit it.

The fact that Ireland and Amnesty are seeking to redefine the term "genocide" in order to make their case against Israel underscores the weakness of the genocide claim.

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

20. Trying individuals for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression

Trying individuals for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression


https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu

Netanyahu

About Defendant
Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, born on 21 October 1949, Prime Minister of Israel at the time of the relevant conduct.

Arrest warrant issued on 21 November 2024

Accused LastName
Netanyahu

Accused FirstName
Benjamin

Charges
Allegedly responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.

Primary Accused
Off

Accused Crime

War crimes
Crimes against humanity

Accused States
At large

Situation Name Colloquial
State of Palestine

Defendant site URL
https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges

Initial Order
Warrant of arrest

[Beastly Boy]

23. Accusing, or even chargung, is not trying.

Anyone can accuse. An ICC prosecutor can bring charges.

Only a full Internation Criminal Court can try. Or not.

[yagotme]

27. They know where he lives.

Why haven't they arrested him, and put him in jail? I'm guessing, lack of evidence.

[lapucelle]

29. So the ICC arrest warrant is not for genocide?

Good to know.

From your link:

Charges

Allegedly responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

18. countless families across Gaza, their lives shrouded in darkness of this genocide

(cont…)

Guardian UK:


My family’s story echoes those of countless families across Gaza whose lives have been shrouded in the darkness of this genocide. I believe that to tell their stories is to defy the darkness. To demand justice is not to ask for charity – it is a moral obligation. My family was not collateral damage. They were teachers, doctors, students, engineers, social workers, mothers and children – each one snuffed out too early.

What offers me solace is that, in the face of this unimaginable cruelty, Palestinians still run to save one another. In pitch darkness, even amid falling rubble and suffocating dust, the light of Palestinian dignity refuses to be extinguished. These lights call all of us to be witnesses to the brutality, and are lights of hope that the suffering of Palestinians can be brought to an end immediately.

—Ghada Ageel, a third-generation Palestinian refugee, worked as a translator for the Guardian in Gaza from 2000 to 2006. She is visiting professor at the department of political science at the University of Alberta

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/24/gaza-khan-younis-strikes-on-civilians

[Beastly Boy]

21. What does this response have to do with my post, or the invokation of Dayan inyour OP?

And of course, you would never consider posting anything that would even hint of Hamas palestinians cynically and purposely exposing their own people and exploiting their misery to advance their long history of murderous plans and actions against the State of Israel which far precedes the current war.

[lapucelle]

30. Why would somebody born in Gaza be a "third generation Palestinian refugee"?