You know, at several points in this whole fiasco I've looked at how things have just come together in the worst possible way for the pro-genocide crowd. Stuff like the truce in November ending and then just one week later, the IDF shoots three hostages that had escaped. Or the ICJ ruling coming down and Israel responding by choking the already insufficient supply of aid into Gaza. Or the US declaring the Security Council demand for a ceasefire as "non-binding" a few days before the WCK aid workers were hunted to death. But really - since it's just a constant stream of atrocities out of Gaza, there will always be something that makes Israel look especially bad given the other things going on.
This current set seems especially egregious. Hamas has agreed to a ceasefire deal - and Israel's response is to invade Rafah, the one thing that Biden has said is not allowed (but also committed to not doing anything about it if Israel violates this red line). The Rafah crossing is now an IDF facility, meaning that no humanitarian aid is getting into Gaza anymore - and this comes just after Cindy McCain, in her role as head of the World Food Program, declared northern Gaza to be in a state of "full-blown famine".
"Full-blown famine" means that the death toll from malnutrition now exceeds 2 per 10K population per day. Some 300,000 people remain stranded in northern Gaza - so this means that at least 60 people are dying from starvation every day. And now, the already insufficient trickle of food has been cut off.
Eastern Rafah is under expulsion orders. Many people here, starving and wounded, have been already been displaced multiple times. They don't have the resources to move again - but they are being told that the place they are sheltering will be turned into an official war zone shortly. And there is nowhere for them to go. Rafah itself has now swelled to something like six times it's normal population. Note - this behaviour is the basis for the IDF's claim to be the most moral army in the world - they are so moral that they will tell people they are about to slaughter that the slaughter is coming soon.
Israel has also escalated their crackdown on "enemy" media. Al Jazeera has been banned from Israel and their offices were raided, with their equipment confiscated. You know, the type of behaviour one would expect from "the only democracy in the Middle East".
Shit is super bad and it looks super bad. It seems like Israel is committed to acting like a cartoonishly evil supervillain. But that's not it. No one does stuff "to be evil" or whatever. This is all just stuff that Israel thinks is right and proper. It is their moral duty to invade Rafah - not doing so is an abdication of their commitment to fight terrorism. It is entirely reasonable to use the power of the state to attack media organizations - that it has taken so long is the actual violation of common sense and international norms. Cutting off food and aid to hundreds of thousands of people already experiencing famine is just good tactics and strategy.
They actually believe this shit. They still unironically claim the IDF as the most moral army in the world, and would do so even if you were to show them the snuff videos IDF soldiers uploaded to social media. Stuff looks super bad because it is super bad. And that context such as "Hamas has agreed to the ceasefire deal" or "northern Gaza is in full-blown famine" do not play any role in Israeli decisions. They have even told us this before! That the invasion of Rafah is happening regardless of whether there is a deal or not.
What this all means is that I will continue sounding like a broken record. It means that shit is going to get worse. A lot worse. And Israel is going to continue doing what they are doing - actually they will do it harder, they will escalate even more than they already have. Because they believe that what they are doing is just and righteous. They are acting in accordance to their stated convictions and beliefs. And what we are seeing unfold is the actual results of all of that.
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