Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reported this week that the civil administrator of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank and the minister of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, broached the subject of whether it is legal and moral to starve over two million people to death.
Smotrich, the head of the fascist Religious Zionism Party, was addressing a conference of supporters of bringing back the Gush Katif Israel squatter-settlement on Palestinian land in Gaza, which was closed by right wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Smotrich said, “I did not demand that renewed settlement in Gaza be described as one of the war goals. But I am permitted to express my heart’s desires. Where there is no settlement, there is no security. The head of government says that this is not true, but I disagree with him on this issue.”
He expressed the view that Hamas cannot be destroyed from either a military and civilian point of view unless control is asserted over humanitarian aid. He blamed Netanyahu for being unwilling or unable to do so.
The monstrousness of Smotrich’s remarks can be seen if we consider that in the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazi high command also wanted to starve its battlefield enemies. The Nobel Peace Center notes,
- “As Germany was planning the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, acquiring food for German soldiers was a central to their grand strategy. The minutes from Nazi meetings makes apparent what their expectation for the Soviet invasion was; millions of local civilians would likely die of hunger when German troops confiscated the food supply. This, however, was not seen as a problem. A month later, tanks rolled into Soviet territory, and proceeded with what became known as Der Hungerplan. Approximately 7 million Soviet civilians, Jews and gentiles alike, died as a consequence of Der Hungerplan.”
It should be noted that Smotrich personally sequestered grain aid trucks last spring and did not allow them to go to Gaza until Biden administration pressure caused him to release them.
Smotrich blamed Netanyahu’s civilian control over the food aid for what he saw as leniency, and implied that the military should take over.
He said it would have been desirable for the Israeli military to assume responsibility for all the aid into Gaza. He said he recognized that the aid had to go into the Strip given current world opinion.
He complained, “It is not possible in the world situation of today to administer a war.”
“No one,” Smotrich added, “will allow us to kill two million citizens with hunger — even though perhaps that is just and moral as long as they do not return the hostages — one humanitarian step for another — and that is right morally. [But] this war needs international legitimacy.” He blasted the Biden peace proposal for getting out only a few hostages and so was not just and was, indeed, a threat to national security.
Smotrich’s remarks about the possible moral and legal basis for starving two million people show how corrupt and rudderless the Israeli Right wing has become, which controls the whole contry.. There are no longer any guard rails.
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Bonus video:
The Young Turks Video: Israeli Minister Advocates For Starving 2 Million Palestinians
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