Israel defeated in Gaza, declares the US, as ceasefire declared
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken casually declares Hamas has recruited almost as many militants as it lost, destroying the entire rationale for mass murder
As a ceasefire due to begin this Sunday is finally announced, a basic truth: Israel has lost in Gaza. That is according to the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has played a pivotal role in facilitating one of the worst crimes of our age. Now he hasn’t said ‘Israel has lost in Gaza’ in those words, but what he says means the same thing.
Instead, on Tuesday, he casually announced:
"Indeed, we assess that Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost. That is a recipe for an enduring insurgency and perpetual war."
OK, let’s just take stock. It is 16th January 2025. Israel’s genocidal onslaught against Gaza began 467 days ago. Gaza is a tiny strip of land no bigger than east London, it is 360 square kilometres, and about 25 miles long. Israel has one of the most sophisticated militaries on the face of the earth. It is armed to the teeth and aided in multiple ways by the United States, the last superpower on earth. It has spent 467 days razing Gaza from the face of the earth, exterminating tens of thousands of people, mostly women, children and the elderly, whilst engaging in multiple war crimes such as deliberate starvation, the destruction of the healthcare system, mass enforced disappearance, rape, torture, you name it.
Israel stated that it had two war aims at the beginning of this genocidal frenzy. That was to bring the Israeli hostages captured on 7th October 2023 back by military means, but the absolute overriding key aim that was articulated over and over again in public was to completely eliminate Hamas.
On the first count, that’s clearly a failure: the Israeli state has killed far more hostages than it has rescued by military means, with the only mass hostage release taking place because of a previous ceasefire and an exchange of detainees. That includes so many Palestinians who are de facto hostages, who are in many cases detained at length without any charge, subjected to hideous torture and indeed sexual violence, and that includes children - that is, hostages in all but name.
Now Antony Blinken has just declared that Israel has not only failed to defeat Hamas, but that after 467 days of utter carnage and death, he has said that Hamas “has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost.”
So almost in passing, he tells the world that Hamas’ armed wing is essentially no smaller than it was when Israel’s genocide began. The key driving rationale to justify what a study in The Lancet medical journal recently estimated was 64,260 violent deaths by last June - excluding what may be far greater numbers of indirect deaths - that key driving rationale is a total failure, according to the administration which more than any other facilitated this crime of biblical proportions.
Well let’s go back to what President Joe Biden, Blinken’s boss, said back in October 2023. Biden was asked if he thought Hamas must be eliminated entirely, and he said - “yes I do”.
So let’s be clear, that was official US policy. Biden’s administration facilitated the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza on the grounds Hamas must be eliminated entirely. And now, after giving Israel $22billion worth of weapons since October 2023 alone, which have been used to incinerate, slowly cook and suffocate under rubble thousands of Palestinians, including children, including toddlers, including newborn babies - the US just casually comes out and says - the key so-called war aim is a total indisputable failure.
Who could possibly have predicted this would happen? Oh: we did. We predicted this. We said this would happen.
Let’s go back to a video which I recorded on the 2nd November 2023, that is 26 days into this genocidal onslaught, and 440 days ago. It was entitled ‘The Argument Against A Ceasefire Torn Apart’. Here’s a relevant clip:
In that video, I said the idea that Hamas could be defeated by military means was “lunacy”. I noted how Palestinians on a daily basis watching their loved ones being murdered, picking up the charred limbs of their children, would create endless new militant recruits.
I wasn’t a genius. I wasn’t a prophet. I was stating the obvious. And many many others said the same. How did we know? Because it was obvious. We had a basic grasp of history, context and human nature. And yet apparently the rulers of the world’s only superpower, with its vast, state of the art intelligence services couldn’t predict what we knew to be true.
It was obvious and predictable and indeed predicted. You cannot defeat an idea by military means. If you unleash utter depravity against entire people, then you will create an endless pool of recruits determined to fight you to the death.
As it happens, the US and its leaders do not have the excuse of ignorance. They knew what was happening all along. On 9th February 2024, nearly a year ago, the New York Times reported that US intelligence officials told members of Congress that Israel was “not close” to defeating Hamas.
The New York Times went on to say
“American officials have also raised doubts about whether the destruction or elimination of Hamas is a realistic objective, given it operates like a guerrilla force, hidden in a network of tunnels that are difficult to penetrate. Weakening the combat strength of the group may be a far more achievable goal, U.S. officials have said.”
This really is crucial. It goes to the heart of all of this, and specifically the naked criminality. The rationale given by the US for the onslaught was - look, this suffering and death is all very sad and unfortunate, cue some empty meaningless handwringing about the need to protect civilian life, but it is all for a purpose - to defeat Hamas, so there can be “peace”.
The US government was told by its intelligence agencies that wasn’t going to happen - they instead talked about weakening the combat strength of Hamas as a more realistic goal. That hasn’t happened either.
So the Palestinian people are subjected to unimaginable murderous mayhem - and then the entire justification for this slaughter is then casually tossed aside, as though it’s no big deal.
All we are left with is mass murder for its own sake. That’s literally what this means. What other interpretation is there? If the justification for murder on an industrial scale is null and void, what is left? Industrial scale murder - for its own sake!
As I have said throughout, no crime in history has been so confessed to on so many occasions, so shamelessly and so unapologetically.
Both Antony Blinken and Joe Biden belong in jail. They belong in the same category as any other monster. And indeed at this press conference, a heckler was there to remind Blinken of who he really is, calling him “bloody Blinken” and “Secretary of Genocide.”
A genocide committed in plain sight. That is a fact which must never be forgotten - this has not been subtle, it has not been disguised, there is infinitely more evidence than is needed to establish the depth and gravity of this crime. No excuses - nowhere to hide.
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C’mon—those supposed aims were bullshit. They wrote off the hostages; they know they can’t kill an idea. They’re not even against Hamas: divide and rule!
They wanted to make Gaza permanently unlivable. They have succeeded. They wanted to Make Netanyahu Great Again. They have succeeded.
The second Hamas (ie, anyone) says boo, presuming the Israelis don’t scuttle the hostage deal (as of now, it’s not on), they’ll kill more. No better way to try to heal internal divisions than killing Palestinians, now the national pastime. They’ll never fully lift the siege. The US will never stop backing them, and they know it.
Yes, someone at some point will kill a bunch of Israelis. It’ll be spun as an injunction to literally kill or exile them all. You’ll see.
Sure looks like winning to me. And I hate them. But we must deal with reality.