Members of the armed wing of Hamas and other groups entered Israel on October 7, 2023, and slaughtered more than one thousand Israelis and foreigners, most of them civilians including 36 children, 20 of them under 15 years of age, and injured many.  They also fired thousands of rockets into Israel.  One of the fatalities of these rockets was a 5-year-old boy.  They took captive more than two hundred, among them, children, foreign workers, soldiers, women, men, and the elderly. There are several reasons/excuses that the Hamas fighters and others might cite for their actions on October 7, 2023.   One of these reasons would be their answer or resistance to the decades-long occupation, the suffering, the often-brutal subjugation and oppression, the indignities, the dispossession, the more than 15-year brutal and inhumane blockade by sea and air and partially by land meted out and imposed on Palestinians by the Occupying Power of Israel.  There is never any reason or excuse for any group to wage war on non-combatants which includes civilians, the sick, the infirm, men or women and especially children.  No one should condone or accept this no matter who the perpetrators or victims are.  War is to be waged on and between combatants.

A second reason for Hamas carrying out this attack under the watch of the self-proclaimed “only he can protect Israel” King of Security, Mr. Netanyahu, according to the experts, was to stop the normalization of ties between Arab and Sunnif Muslim states and Israel.  Normalization meant that the plight of a dispossessed people, and I will use the term of Franz Fanon “wretched of the earth” in this go-round would be forgotten and that their suffering, the injustice heaped upon them would continue in perpetuity.  Living in and with peace, security and prosperity with our neighbours is a very good thing for humanity is a brotherhood.  We are all Brothers in this Brotherhood of Man.  We should be our Brother’s Keeper.  However, it does matter how we reach that welcomed state especially in a region that has known too many conflicts over too many millenia, always centered around some mask like religion.  Noble ends do not justify ignoble means. History teaches us that where there exists injustice, peace and security will only be but for a short while. That which I do unto my Brother, I do unto myself for I am my Brother’s Keeper.

In Hamas’s attempt to derail this normalization process with the attack on October 7, 2023, the politicians and profiteers involved, never ones to miss an opportunity, saw this as a golden one.   With my uneducated mind, for I know nothing about geopolitics (geopolitricks) and politics (politiricks), international relations, diplomacy, law or business, I have indulged my mind to imagine what took place when the Power Players involved in this normalization process hereby known as the Big Boys and Big Girls met in the Backroom to plan how to capitalize on this sad and tragic but golden opportunity and plan their strategy going forward.  This was a “when life serves you lemons, make lemonade moment.”  Nothing was going to derail normalization. Everyone was clear-eyed and focused.  Each one had their reason or reasons to see this process through to the end.   These reasons could include a place in history of having solved what appears to have been the unsolvable Middle East problem; lots of future profits from larger markets, free trade; peace and security for Israel but not necessarily so for the Palestinians; satisfying the vampire that is revenge with its bloodlust that is a bottomless pit; and showcasing live and direct from the laboratory that is Gaza and its people the lab rats and guinea pigs, all the innovations and the power and precision of new weapons of destruction, the AI decision-maker, and subjugation technology.  Indeed, there was something for everyone.

A bonus of this golden opportunity that October 7, presented was a faster path to Palestinian statehood to quiet this troublesome child who was locked in a cage with no food, water or dignity.  They now had the opportunity to impose a settlement on Palestinians by removing their demands from the negotiating table.  In other words, Palestinians would make all the compromises.  How would the Big Boys and Big Girls accomplish this?  One way of imposing the conditions of a settlement in any future negotiations on Palestinian statehood would be to undermine UNRWA and get rid of it.  UNRWA’s existence legitimizes the refugee status of Palestinian refugees including those in Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere, giving them the right of return to the homeland from which they had been displaced. For Palestinians this is a key demand, an inalienable right.  UNRWA provides for much of the needs of Palestinian refugees. Almost the entirety of the Gazan population of 2.3 million relies on UNRWA for necessities including water, food, and hygiene supplies.  

For years, the State of Israel has tried to undermine UNRWA and now with the active participation and complicity of The Biden Administration, (like the previous Republican Administration) and the witting or unwitting participation of the mob of sheep that is the United Kingdom (to be expected), some European countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Mr. Netanyahu might indeed get his wish.  Many of these countries would appear to have been privy to the plan because of the speed with which they decided to cut funding without evidence to an organization they knew was crucial to the existence and well-being of more than 5 million people.  No evidence except for the torture-coerced statement of at least one employee (weeks after the smear and after the cutting of fund) has been provided by Israel to back up its claim that less than 30 employees of UNRWA out of a total of 30,000 were involved in the events of October 7, 2023.  Note that the United States has officially barred any funding of UNRWA through March 2025, no doubt with the hope that the organization will have been strangled or starved to death by then with a lack of funds.  It would not be too much of a stretch to allege that the Biden Administration is fully engaged in the war Gaza, not only in the weapons and intelligence but as a full partner, no holds bar in the methods and actions of the State of Israel and the excuses for smears and actions of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and of course diplomatic cover for its blatant flouting of all international and humanitarian laws to which all other countries especially those in the Global South are expected to adhere.

With FRONT-PAGE twice “highly, highly likely credible” evidence declared by the American pretend fireman with the empty water hose that has never been connected to a hydrant who carries a replenished gas can behind his back, a man who has given away the jig with the tiresome refrain of “blame Hamas” and “This is personal”, the mob of sheep knowingly or unknowingly have gone along with this immoral and despicable charade, with nary an ounce of care, empathy or shame.   They have declared a death sentence on millions of people in Jordan, Lebanon, the occupied West Bank with more than 2 million in Gaza at least one million of them children who are already destitute and on the brink of famine and widespread disease, based on the mere words of proven liars that Mr. Netanyahu and members of his government, his armed forces, and the complicit Biden administration.  They did not care about the damage that they would inflict on people already suffering.  Even if they planned to undermine UNRWA, they should have had another agency waiting in the back to replace it without delay.  For some of these Big Boys and Big Girls this was also an opportune moment to punish the people of Gaza.  As far as they were concerned, the people of Gaza had brought this calamity upon themselves by voting for Hamas in 2006.  Hamas was elected by Gazans, but because the results did not suit the West, they decided to punish them, with Israel besieging the enclave for more than 15 years.  Who would have guessed that people are punished because the advocates of democracy do not like who they voted for. This was payback time. 

The second way the Big Boys and Girls decided to impose a settlement on Palestinians in any future negotiations (or one-sided non-negotiations) was to slaughter and punish them into submission settling once and for all the seemingly intransigent issue of what to do with “this troublesome child” or for Israel, “this pest”.  In slaughtering and punishing the Gazans into submission, it was, the Big Boys and Big Girls accepted going to be very bloody, indeed, not for the faint of heart, but worth it.  In the final analysis, the suffering of Palestinians would be so great that they would take anything that was offered in a settlement.  The Big Boys and Big Girls concluded that they could use one stone to kill many birds.  Many Palestinians would lose their lives, but that was how it had to be. Israel could satisfy its bloodlust and craving for revenge and in so doing, bring the people in Gaza to their knees.  They would “give up Hamas”, disclose where the hostages were, a conclusion that could only be based on the belief or assumption that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, which we would have to assume includes premature babies.  Mr. Herzog, the Israeli President based on his public statement on October 13, 2023, is of the view that the entirety of the population is guilty because they did not revolt against Hamas.  By this reasoning, one might also assume that the people in the West Bank deserve the daily indignities, oppression and subjugation under which they live in the apartheid state that Israel has imposed on them because they have not risen up and revolted against their Israeli guards, overseers, overlords and masters. 

I will indulge my mind a little further.  These plans would be perfect, but for some lessons that history teaches.    One lesson that history teaches us is that there is no honour among thieves.  In Jamaica, they say, “Teef an teef, God laugh” (God laughs when he sees two thieves in cahoots). Firstly, the Big Boys and Big Girls did not take into account the fact that they had a very unreliable partner in Mr. Netanyahu, a true supremacist, a desperate politician in his ninth life who believes in his supremacy and invincibility, and believes he is smarter than all of them because he had taken all these craven politicians for a ride all these years with his slick polished car salesman demeanor. In fact, Mr. Netanyahu believes that he holds the handle of the knife, and the president of the United States holds the blade.  He was never interested in a Palestinian state.  Unlike, most of the Big Boys and Big Girls who view Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank as the “troublesome child” who should be quieted and placated, Mr. Netanyahu and his fellow supremacists including members of the Biden Administration, see them as a “pest” to be exterminated.   Secondly, Mr. Netanyahu, is a man who understands that prolonging the war could revive his more than sagging political fortunes.  War is always the go-to solution for sagging political fortunes, because everyone rallies around the flag.  A forever war would also potentially spare him from going to prison if convicted of corruption charges.   Mr. Netanyahu, in his ninth life, was prepared to go all the way.  It was all or nothing.  This was it.  This was Bibi unhinged in the-all-or-nothing, do-or-die scenario, inherent in all cults and supremacist ideology and practices.  The second lesson that history teaches us is that when supremacist ideology and practices gain power, when left unchecked or cuddled, aided and abetted it will lead to NEVER AGAIN MOMENTS.

Thirdly, Mr. Netanyahu know that Americans are averse to wars and if he can drag America into a forever war, Mr. Biden will more than likely lose to his predecessor.  Although, there is not an iota of daylight between this Democratic Administration and that of the predecessor, Mr. Netanyahu knows that he could have whatever he wants in the candy store including the explicit theft, the usurpation of Palestinian lands in the West Bank.  He would be able to exterminate the people in Gaza just like that, without any consequence and perhaps even congratulations on a job well done.  Mr. Biden still does not get it. He just does not realize that he is of minimal use to Mr. Netanyahu right now.  Mr. Netanyahu is now focused on sinking Mr. Biden.  He smells blood in the water, Mr. Biden’s blood.  He sees that this war threatens to derail Mr. Biden’s reelection chances because the longer this war goes on and the more Palestinians slaughtered by bombs, bulldozers, dogs, bullets, man-made starvation, thirst and disease, the more Mr. Biden’s rainbow coalition will ditch him.  These voters are crucial in swing states he needs to be victorious. The upwards of 100 “little, little shipments make plenty” of weapons to bypass Congressional oversight and other arms from America’s Middle East storerooms has probably provided the State of Israel with enough weapons to last them until after the elections when, hopefully, a new administration takes over.  Being the intelligent and shrewd man, wily coyote and cunning fox that he seems to be with craven politicians and people of his ilk is, Mr. Netanyahu knows that this is his final chance to realize his messianic dream and to ensure that there will indeed be no Palestine state if there were no Palestinians to inhabit it.  This is Mr. Netanyahu’s do-or-die moment.  He could have it all, his place in history as the combination of Moses and Joshua rolled into one, freedom from prison, retention of power, expulsion or extermination of the pest and his reign as King and Emperor of Israel free of rules, an absolute monarch indeed, free to engage in as much corruption as he desires.

A third lesson that history teaches us is that revenge is a vampire whose bloodlust is a bottomless pit who is usually accompanied by its loyal foot soldiers, who number among them psychopaths and sadists unleashed, sanctioned by the halls of power.   All American administrations have always allotted Israel time to satisfy the bloodlust of that vampire before shutting down the clock after about three months; however, this time, they did not take into account the fact that Mr. Netanyahu was a man in his ninth life who was prepared to go all the way.  It is now approaching 6 months and that clock is registering more than 30:1, thirty Palestinian lives for every one Israeli life and 40:1 for hostages, 40 Palestinian hostages taken in the West Bank since October 7 for one Israeli hostage.

Israel claims that it has the “most disciplined and moral” of armies.  We witness what is unfolding in front of our eyes and we must wonder what an undisciplined and immoral army would be like.  Once again, they are gaslighting us.  If indeed, the Israeli Defense Forces are as they claim to be, then obviously they have let loose the most undisciplined amoral and immoral units in Gaza to create as much destruction and commit unimaginable vile and horrific acts that can only be enacted by sadists and psychopaths.  Such is what is required to execute the commands, the orders of Mr. Netanyahu to annihilate the Amalekites, men, women and children and everything that belongs to them including the birds and animals.  Where is PETA when we need them?  These sadistic and psychopathic acts include sending the Innocents including children on so-called safe roads and then ambushing them; running over children and other displaced civilians with bulldozers killing, crushing, mutilating and mangling their remains as if one is cooking a stew;  setting hungry dogs on the elderly; targeting dehydrated children standing in line for scarce water and mutilating them;  using aid trucks with flour as a bait to corral and massacre the Gallant-designated “human animals” (ANIMALS ARE NOT TO BE TREATED WITH CRUELTY OR VIOLENCE) with shots to their heads and legs; locking civilians in their homes and lighting them afire; sniping innocent sheep crossing the street; sniping women and children, hunting them as if they are birds, picking them off one by one; and using social media including Tik Tok and the racist propaganda “Snuff” channel of the Israeli Defense Forces to display the trophies, including women’s underwear and some of their vile and horrific acts. We might wonder what happened to those women to whom the underwear belonged, and if the US Ambassador to the UN would consider that those women, if sexual violence was visited upon them, are to compare to Israeli victims of sexual violence by Hamas fighters.  Clearly, this is not a disciplined and moral army but a rogue army, a marauding one that has been let loose like wild animals to exterminate the Palestinian people.   Who among the Big Boys and Big Girls will bring Mr. Netanyahu, the man who seems to hold the handle of the knife and his rogue marauding army to heel?

These are mere speculations, but perhaps very accurate indeed.  I, like most of the world, do not understand the complexities of geopolitics and the Backroom dealings of the Big Boys and Big Girls.  We simple folks only understand the suffering, pain, injustice and the cruelty that we see being imposed on a defenceless people who have been robbed of the nothing that they have, corralled like the Himmlerian human animals they were designated as, hunted, baited with flour so that they can be culled, forced to eat animal fodder and grass, if they can find it or if they are not shot while looking for it, for that is also denied them by the paragons of virtue and Self-appointed Guardians of civilization,.  What we can see, hear and understand without interpretation are the vile horrific and inhumane acts and all the smoke comprised of mirage and optics,  deceit, the bellicosity of bullying, and the cacophony of lies and hollow words of saving lives, hollow words that belie thoughts that actions reveal.  What we can hear are the distractions of plans for tomorrow and the future when there is neither today nor present for the Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank . What we can see, hear and understand is that Israel the fourth most powerful army in the world has been dropping thousands of multi-ton (one ton is equal to 2000 pounds) US bombs round the clock for more than 155 days and shelling, using exploding drones and missiles furnished by the United States of America, the most powerful army in the world, the UK, Germany and other Self-appointed righteous Guardians also possessing powerful armies, to slaughter and maim defenceless children and civilians, even newborns, 24 hours a day, decapitating little girls and their dolls, causing death from land, death from the sea and death from the air. 

It makes simple folks wonder how Israel would take on Iran and Hezbollah when it has used so many bombs, multiple times more than what was used on the big city of Dresden.  Gaza is a tiny enclave. Even with the softening-up that America has started for Israel; we still have to wonder how? Or perhaps not, America is there. All is not what it seems, and talk is cheap when the bully has its backer.  Mr. Netanyahu needs to tell the citizens of his country how it has taken him so long, backed by the most powerful set of countries in the world to defeat 30,000 men and rescue, by force, the captives that Hamas should not have taken.  Indeed, we cannot understand the complexities of what the Big Boys and Big Girls do.  Another lesson that history teaches us that lies find many hiding places in complexity and that the truth is to be found in simplicity.

In Jamaica, they say, “Ol’ ooman a plan fih guhma and guhma a plan fih run ar belly” (The old woman is planning to eat callaloo and callaloo is planning to give her diarrhea). No matter how carefully we plan, things can and often will go awry.  Such is the best laid plans of mice and men. This is yet another lesson that history teaches us.  Hamas planned to stop normalization dead in its tracks but might have indeed accelerated it in the eyes of the Big Boys and Big Girls.  It more than likely never envisioned the devastation that now faces Gaza.  It should have considered who was in power.  Mr. Netanyahu, like others before him and many who will come after him, believe that brute force works in controlling their fellow man.  He and his fellow supremacists believed and still believes that an entrenched military state of apartheid will control the Palestinian people in perpetuity. He also believed that if he divided Hamas and Fatah, Israel could continue on this road of brutal subjugation of a people in perpetuity.  Nothing lasts forever but salvation, and only the good kind.  On both counts, Mr. Netanyahu was wrong.  True to his supremacist beliefs, he is both arrogant and overconfident.  And then October 7 happened on his watch.  Brute force only lasts until people get over their fear and will strike back with a brute force equal to or greater than the force to which they have been subjected.  Divide and conquer also has a finish date until enemies get over their cravenness for power and realize that there is strength in unity when they face a common enemy.

Also, Mr. Netanyahu, in trying to extinguish the lights of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank with the complicity of the United States, has turned the bright headlights on the State of Israel’s very open on-flagpole dirty secret of its inmates on whose necks it has had its boots and yoke and on whose ankles and wrists it has had handcuffs and shackles in the largest open air prison in the world that is Gaza and the world’s largest half-way house that is the West Bank.  And while we should not forget the events of October 7, 2023, the State of Israel has dimmed the lights  on those events with its myriad of over-the-top unspeakable and unimaginable horrendous, horrific atrocities against the civilians and especially the children.  The same bright lights have also shone on the big lie that the State of Israel is a beacon of democracy surrounded by countries, according to the Self-appointed Saviours and Guardians of Civilization, that violate human rights and keep their people in bondage.  This means that Israel is no different from its neighbours.  It oppresses and subjugates millions of Palestinians in such a way that it can even dictate when its inmates can smile.  Two more lessons that history teaches us is that which I do unto my brother, I do unto myself for I am my brother’s keeper and that to keep a man down you must stay down with him.  In this case, not even the modern branding irons can liberate you from the task of staying down with those you subjugate.  As long as Israel oppresses the Palestinians it will never be secure.  More than seventy-five years of forever wars, and with each one Israeli losses increase is proof enough. Once again, Brute force and fear will last only as long as the oppressed gets over that fear and develops methods to overcome it. One more lesson that history teaches us is that only mad men keep doing the same thing and expect different results. 

As of now, only Mr. Netanyahu seems to have come out ahead and so he has left everyone in the dust. He will try to prolong his forever war by lighting fires on every front, hoping to drag America in with perhaps boots on the ground against Iran.  Mr. Biden is the one who now has a clock that he has to worry about.  His time is running out to ensure that the protest votes in his primaries do not become real votes in November.  If he loses in November, he will surely take America’s democracy with him and might very well have his named etched not in the annals of history but of infamy with the name of Genocide Joe erasing much of the good that he has done domestically.  He will also be known as the American President who squandered American democracy on the behalf of a racist supremacist.  After so much destruction and slaughter and injuries of especially children, the Biden Administration’ State Department, no matter the outcome, will be known as one of, if not the most amoral and immoral in decades, rivalling his predecessor’s. The other Big Boys and Girls including some in the Arab and Muslim world will probably have to indeed cool the normalization plans if the Palestinians are butchered en masse.  Mr. Netanyahu will have further isolated Israel not just from its neighbours but from much of the world and begun a disintegration and destruction of Israel doing a much better job than any of its enemies could have ever dreamed to do.  He might succeed in becoming the Emperor of Israel, able to engage in as much corruption as he chooses.  America, most of the E.U., Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand will also go down in the annals of history and its dungeon of infamy as having actively and tacitly supported some of the most heinous acts committed by one group against another and a genocide of the People of Gaza. The entirety of the Jewish people all over the world, whether they agree or not with what Mr. Netanyahu and his government are doing, will now be known, not as victims but also perpetrators of one of history’s largest genocide.  When the citizens of Israel awaken from their somnolence induced by the trauma of October 7, 2023, and the blinders of that vampire of revenge whose bloodlust is a bottomless pit and the smoke of that raging out-of-control fire that threatens us all, they will probably return to that state of somnolence once more when they realize the unimaginable horrors that their government enacted with what seems to be explicit or implicit approval of the majority of the population, if we are to believe the polls.  In fact, the genocide of Palestinians might unfortunately dim the glare of the lights on that committed by the Nazis as the older generation bids goodbye to the world.  And because this Never Again moment was done with the complicity of or silent acquiescence of the Powerful in the glaring sun of broad daylight, step by step in front of our eyes, those of the United Nations including its impotent legal arms that only seem to work for those in the Global South, and not behind camp walls and fences of Nazi Germany, humanity, all of us, Brothers in this Brotherhood of Man will be left with an indelible stain, a stench that no deodorizer will neutralize and a wound so deep and wide that no cauterization will ever seal.

But as we prepare for the worst, the NEVER AGAIN MOMENT, let us hope for the best.  Let us hope Mr. Netanyahu’s cravenness, the wanton destruction, man-made famine and other privations, sadistic and psychopathic slaughter of tens of thousands, one-half of them children that he has wrought upon Gaza and the  people of Gaza and with the sanctioned help of his paramilitary marauding gangs, the land thefts, kidnappings of children, wanton destruction and the slaughter of hundreds in West Bank will push his accomplices to atone for their complicity by genuinely helping to create a long overdue truly independent functioning State of Palestine where Palestinians will have no master, guard, overlord or overseer.  All hands should be on deck.  We cannot leave this task to America for it is only interested in Israel’s interest.  America is not an honest broker as much of the world already knows.  People from the Global South should be involved with these negotiations along with the Big Boys and Big Girls.  People in the Global South have walked many a mile in the shoes of Palestinians.  The world needs to be at that Table, former oppressed peoples and former and current oppressors.  Let us hope that the Big Boys and Big Girls, especially Germany, will learn that atonement does not mean that we should give carte blanche, and be complicit in helping victims perpetrate the same crimes for which we atone.  Let us hope that on this the third genocide in which it has either led or helped to facilitate, Germany will finally learn. Victimhood and war have no descendants. Never again means never again for all of us.  It is indeed time to change the old ways of mad men with their brute force.  Let us try something new.  Violence begets violence.  More violence begets more violence. 

The State of Israel is not going anywhere, so it is also time for extremists among Palestinians to accept this fact and make a genuine effort for peace. Let us hope that Hamas and any Palestinian extremists will stop trying to seek the destruction of Israel.    Let us hope that the State of Israel might now become, in practice, a beacon of light and hope as it free its Palestinian hostages, slaves and inmates and take its boots off their necks in Gaza, the world’s largest open air prison and the West Bank the world’s largest halfway house.  There have been so many unimaginable horrors, so much brutality, violence, pain and suffering that there will never be enough years, or generations to avenge.  It is too much even for the vampire that is revenge. When hate becomes this great, it must give way to love and forgiveness.  Let us hope, for the sake of all our children that the mad men who govern the world will regain the sanity of civilized beings and give all their children the chance to prosper in peace and love.  Let us hope that all the children in Israel and a truly free and functioning Palestine can play and move forward together.

May we never try to flee our conscience so that we will always do correct actions. May we learn to walk a mile in our Brother’s shoes so that we can see the humanity in each other. May we respect the differences in each other and know that our Creator has no chosen few. May we find comfort in the knowledge that each of us is slated for redemption and none is excluded. May we find solace in the knowledge that it is not a question of if but one of when each of us shall return to our Father. May we know that we are just tenants on this earth and take care of each other, the earth and all the creatures that dwell thereon. May we always adhere to the Divine Principles of The Fatherhood of God and The Brotherhood of Man, doing unto others as we would have them do unto us, LOVE. May we know that which I do unto my Brother I do unto myself for I am my Brother’s Keeper. May the tiny shrouds of light forever illuminate our path through the dark. May peace forever reside within us and between us. ONE DIVINE UNIVERSAL LOVE!

**Note that the United States has officially barred any funding of UNRWA through March 2025, no doubt with the hope that the organization will have been strangled or starved to death by then with a lack of funds.

Written by W. Davis February-March, 2024.  Parts are excerpts from the books, Thoughts on the Past,  Copyright © 2024 by Winnifred Davis