Transmitted below is a NEW YORK TIMES report on an Israeli minister's saying yesterday that Israel "had no duty to alleviate hunger in the territory and was seeking to expel its population" -- a statement of unvarnished honesty about the Israeli government's plans for Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel's plans for the rest of Palestine have been publicly confirmed by yesterday's overwhelming vote in the Knesset in favor of Israeli annexation of the entire West Bank (https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250724-israeli-knesset-votes-by-overwhelming-majority-to-annex-occupied-west-bank-and-jordan-valley).
For how much longer can political "leaders" of the Global West continue to pretend not to see the obvious and what polling makes clear is seen by large majorities of their own citizens -- that Israel is not waging a "war" against Hamas or "terrorism" (which could make concepts of a "ceasefire" and "humanitarian aid" relevant) but, rather, "actively pursuing a final solution consisting of genocide and ethnic cleansing on a massive scale" (https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/11/27/two-solutions-for-the-question-of-palestine), in which the starvation of a civilian population is not an unfortunate collateral consequence but a consciously intended objective?
For how much longer can political "leaders" of so-called "democracies" continue to ignore not only human decency and international law but the clear wishes of their own citizens, self-servingly obeying instead the wishes of foreign countries and their wealthy partisans who have purchased their services and/or frightened them into submission and subservience and, thereby, either actively supporting or passively tolerating pure, unadulterated evil?
NOTE: In his letter yesterday to President Abbas, President Macron stated that he would declare France's diplomatic recognition of the State of Palestine "when I go to the General Assembly of the United Nations in September."
The "General Debate", at which heads of state and government address the General Assembly, will only commence on Sepember 23. Macron has therefore postponed his officially intended diplomatic recognition of the State of Palestine by a further two months. Why?
In light of Israel's publicly proclaimed plans for both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, one may legitimately wonder whether there will be anything left to recognize in two months.
Does Macron believe that it is critically important to convince the United Kingdom to join France in simultaneous diplomatic recognition of the State of Palestine and that it will take two months to convince the British government to do so?
Or is he consciously offering Israel a two-month window of opportunity in which to "finish the job".
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/world/middleeast/israel-minister-gaza-driving-out.html
As Starvation Rises, Israeli Minister Says Israel Is ‘Driving Out’ Gazans
Amichay Eliyahu’s comments came amid growing hunger in the territory, where Israel controls the delivery of food.
By Patrick Kingsley and Johnatan Reiss
Amid rising starvation in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli government minister said on Thursday that Israel had no duty to alleviate hunger in the territory and was seeking to expel its population.
Amichay Eliyahu, a far-right lawmaker who leads Israel’s Heritage Ministry, said in a radio interview that “there is no nation that feeds its enemies,” adding that “the British didn’t feed the Nazis, nor did the Americans feed the Japanese, nor do the Russians feed the Ukrainians now.” He concluded that the government was “rushing toward Gaza being wiped out,” while also “driving out the population that educated its people on the ideas of ‘Mein Kampf,’” an antisemitic text written by Adolf Hitler.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment on whether Mr. Eliyahu’s remarks had represented the government’s official position. Hours later, the Israeli Embassy in Washington said in a statement that Mr. Eliyahu’s comments did “not reflect the policy of Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government,” which, it said, had provided aid to Gazan civilians “with determination and commitment.”
Mr. Eliyahu oversees historical and archaeological sites and institutions in Israel and has no authority over the Israeli military. He does not participate in meetings of a small group of ministers who oversee security decisions. His office did not reply to requests for clarification.
Though government officials took hours to react, Mr. Eliyahu’s comments were swiftly condemned by Israeli opposition politicians, who said the minister did not represent the Israeli mainstream. Polling suggests a majority of Israelis favor reaching a cease-fire to release hostages held by Hamas.
Mr. Eliyahu’s interview came amid increasing cases of starvation in Gaza. Israel — which controls all access to Gaza — blocked all food deliveries to the enclave between early March and late May.
While Israel now allows some food into Gaza, it has drastically reduced the number of places from which food is distributed, forcing Palestinians to receive food aid from a handful of sites that are hard to access. In a crude form of crowd control, Israeli soldiers have repeatedly shot and killed scores of Palestinians along routes leading to the new food distribution sites, forcing civilians to choose between the risk of gunfire and the risk of starvation.
After initially dismissing the reports of starvation, Mr. Eliyahu appeared to recognize its occurrence by blaming Hamas for it. “We are starving them? They are starving them!” Mr. Eliyahu said in an interview with Kol Barama, a radio station popular among ultra-Orthodox Jewish Israelis.
“The day they return the hostages, there will be no hunger there,” he said.
While Mr. Eliyahu’s comments echo some made by other members of Mr. Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, they were criticized by politicians outside the government.
Yair Lapid, the centrist leader of Israel’s political opposition, said in a public statement that Mr. Eliyahu’s comments were “a moral stain and a public diplomacy disaster. Israel will never convince the world of the justness of our war against terror as long as we are led by an extremist minority government with ministers who glorify blood and death.”
Mr. Lapid added that Israeli soldiers “do not fight, die, and get injured to erase a civilian population. They fight to return the hostages and ensure Israel’s security.”
A large majority of Israelis support a diplomatic deal to free the hostages held in Gaza, instead of continued military efforts to defeat Hamas, according to recent polling. Protesters were expected to gather in Tel Aviv on Thursday night to call for an immediate cease-fire and hostage release deal.
Early in
the war, Mr. Eliyahu attracted global attention for
suggesting that Israel might drop a nuclear
bomb on Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu condemned those
comments and suspended him from the cabinet, before
swiftly reinstating him.