Chewbacca’s Right to Defend Himself

 So there’s this thing in international law that a people under occupation may, in some circumstances, resort to violence. The right to self-determination is one of thise foundational ones and it’s seen as super important. This is sometimes raised in response to the statement that “Israel has a right to defend itself” - which I will note has morphed under the Biden regime to “Israel has the absolute right to defend itself.” Which is pretty fucking sick and disgusting given the context, but unsurprising for the racist fucking old man asshole. 

Anyways, I bring this up to dismiss it. I’m not an international law guy - the question of whether Israel actually has a right to defend itself from people whose land it is occupying - people whom it is subjecting to blockade, siege, and apartheid - I’m not getting into. Because it is not relevant. 

What Israel is doing in Gaza is not self-defense. It is beyond ludicrous to frame it as such. Israel is the aggressor here. Even if you accept the bullshit idea that all of history begins on October 7th and the generations of racist bullshit leading up to it does not count, Israel is still the aggressor. That anyone sees it differently is just their racism showing. It’s like - cops beating the shit out of handcuffed prisoners while shouting “Stop Resostin!” Are obviously the aggressors even if the prisoner kicked a cop beforehand. But that’s not even what’s happening here. Here, the cops are visiting the prisoner’s home and then beating shit out of his family and neighbours. That’s the analogy we have here. 

What is Israel defending itself from? Another October 7th? It took Hamas over a year to plan that attack and the damage done only reached the levels it did because the IDF and the Israeli intelligence community are fucking useless pieces of garbage. Hell, some of the civilians killed that day were killed by the IDF! And all told - 1,139 killed and 251 hostages. A surprise attack that will not work again (until the Israeli security community gets overtaken by another round of hubris) and would take years to rebuild to. OTOH, Israel’s genocide has strengthened Hamas’ influence - perhaps they could recruit a larger force next time. But even assuming that’s true - what can they really do? Hypothetically, some future attack might kill a couple thousand?

There are over twenty times that many death certificates issued in Gaza already. The actual death toll is multiple times higher than this. “We need to kill 20 to 100 people to protect one of our own” is not self-defense. It’s preposterous. 

As I said at the beginning - the question of Israel’s “right to self-defense” being in a gray zone under international law is irrelevant. The underlying sentiment - that Israel has a right, and actually a duty, to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks - that is something I agree with. Israel is obligated to provide security to its people. BUT this is the Chewbacca Defense. It’s not relevant. Israel is not defending itself - very clearly and obviously. It really is not and claims to the contrary shoukd be acknowledged as justifications for genocide.