"There is no obvious stopping point": On the Bureaucratization of Death
aronwander.substack.com
It is a truism that war breeds Orwellian thinking, and perhaps the more brutal the war, the more damage one must do to one’s intellect and soul to defend it. From the beginning of Israel’s response to Hamas’ horrific massacre on October 7th, there has been a popular fantasy among some liberal Zionists: the possibility of Israel fighting a “just war” in Gaza — that is, a war that would protect Israeli civilians while also taking the utmost care to protect Gazan civilians, too. Of course, no one honestly assessing the history of Israel/Palestine could have believed — without willful ignorance — in such a possibility: Israeli human rights organizations have extensively documented human rights abuses and war crimes in Israel’s previous operations in Gaza, and Israel’s first move in the war was to impose a strict siege on food, electricity, and water. Beyond that, Israel is currently being run by a far-right government who, even before the war, was happily committed to permanent occupation and apartheid. And finally, that same army that some liberal Zionists keep hoping will act morally in Gaza — on a battlefield, after the worst massacre in Israeli history, and with little to no journalistic accountability — is committing daily human rights abuses in the West Bank.
"There is no obvious stopping point": On the Bureaucratization of Death
"There is no obvious stopping point": On the…
"There is no obvious stopping point": On the Bureaucratization of Death
It is a truism that war breeds Orwellian thinking, and perhaps the more brutal the war, the more damage one must do to one’s intellect and soul to defend it. From the beginning of Israel’s response to Hamas’ horrific massacre on October 7th, there has been a popular fantasy among some liberal Zionists: the possibility of Israel fighting a “just war” in Gaza — that is, a war that would protect Israeli civilians while also taking the utmost care to protect Gazan civilians, too. Of course, no one honestly assessing the history of Israel/Palestine could have believed — without willful ignorance — in such a possibility: Israeli human rights organizations have extensively documented human rights abuses and war crimes in Israel’s previous operations in Gaza, and Israel’s first move in the war was to impose a strict siege on food, electricity, and water. Beyond that, Israel is currently being run by a far-right government who, even before the war, was happily committed to permanent occupation and apartheid. And finally, that same army that some liberal Zionists keep hoping will act morally in Gaza — on a battlefield, after the worst massacre in Israeli history, and with little to no journalistic accountability — is committing daily human rights abuses in the West Bank.