• The majority of Israelis are still opposed to ending the genocide.
• Israeli mobs attack Palestinian aid vehicles. What is the mainstream opinion on humanitarian aid to Gaza?
After more than 30,000 deaths and the entirety of Gaza in a state of starvation, it may seem unambiguous that the opinion on an immediate halt in fighting would be a majority. In the UK, 73% of Brits support an immediate permanent ceasefire, with 55% wanting an end to arm sales to Israel during the duration of the genocide. In the US, it’s about 50% wanting a ceasefire, with 15% unsure and 35% voting no. Although the number of Americans calling for a ceasefire is demeaning, it is nothing compared to the numbers from within Israel itself.
A poll conducted by the Israeli Democracy Institute in mid February found that the majority of Jewish Israelis had opposed a political agreement for the end of the war in Gaza, despite the hostage situation in which more than one hundred Israeli hostages lives are at risk from the continuation of the genocide. What’s worse is that within this same study, 68% of Jewish Israelis opposed the idea that Israel should allow the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza, even if the aid was transferred to international bodies that were not linked to Hamas or UNWRA.
Even when the entirety of Gaza is in a state of starvation with famine imminent and inching closer with the ongoing Rafah invasion, for the majority of Israelis to be against food and medicine reaching the civilian population is a worrying thought that falls nothing beneath the shackles of extremism. On Friday, aid trucks heading to Gaza from the West Bank were attacked by Israeli settlers, with at least one vehicle set on fire and Israeli settlers throwing boxes of essential supplies at others. Both drivers and contractors were targeted, and the Israeli soldiers who escorted the envoy did nothing to prevent the assault.
Israelis settlers continue to block aid entering Gaza
The fact is, if the majority of Israelis are of the opinion that aid must be prevented from entering the mouths of millions who are starving in Gaza, as well as the opinion that the ongoing genocide in Gaza that has had the highest kill rate since the Rwanda genocide shouldn’t end, that is enough evidence to suggest that Israel is indeed a genocidal nation and thus a nation of extremism and terror. Just imagine for one second that someone with ISIS-aligned views had been allowed to preach and teach in the desolate sand dunes of Iraq. It’s likely that regardless of whether the individual had been involved in direct action or not, he would have been on a hit list, assassinated by a drone strike, or taken prisoner by a US allied force. Unfortunately, Israel’s Zionist terror values seem to be widespread among its population and have become a majority.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media in the west have tried time and time again to blame only Netanyahu and the extremists within the government for the atrocities in Gaza, when the extremism that gave birth to Netanyahu under a democratic system has only grown throughout the decades.
Journalist Abbery Martin sheds light on the reality of the extremist views of every day Israelis
Israel, a colonial outpost
Israel is the biggest recipient of US military aid, along with favourability among both the left and the right of western democracy. The left believes it is a bastion of Jewish life after the atrocities of the Holocaust, along with being the ‘only democracy in the Middle East,’ while the right harvests support from Christian Zionism and a concept of the only culturally similar nation to the west in the Middle East. Israel is by far protected by the western world, with the US and UK saving the nation from UN condemnation and exposure of war crimes for decades. Israel would not exist if it were not for the UK, and it would not have survived multiple wars if it were not for western aid.
Under the guise of democracy and the secular cultural similarity between the west and Israel, Israel has been able to maintain its legitimacy as an ally and a massive trading partner with the west. A privatised healthcare system with the EU and the US being two of the biggest trading partners of Israel, with the US having at least one military base stationed there.
There can be no popular uprising in the Arab lands that can win without denying Israel and opposing its war crimes. If ever one day the Arab lands were to have a domino of revolutions that led to populist leaders, it would undoubtedly put them at odds with Israel, for the Arab people are heavily opposed to Israel’s continuous violations of human rights and the continuous massacres of their Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel’s existence and continuous support from the west are intended to prevent any true Arab revolution from surviving. Israel is the last colonial outpost of the West that is stationed to destroy any populist Arab uprising through espionage and even direct conflict. If ever a populist leader in neighbouring Arab countries comes into power, his inevitability of threatening Israel will give the West a reason to get involved in the Middle East and thus a reason to exploit. Israel’s existence is an existence of terror, and thus an existence to block change and unity in the Middle East.
