Editor’s note: We are using this week’s column space to run a piece concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by Edward Qubain. He is a Rockbridge County resident of Jordanian descent who describes his family background as “Palestine-adjacent.” He has been an activist in opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza, including appearing before all three Rockbridge area governments to ask them to adopt resolutions condemning the actions as “genocide.”
“Truth is the first casualty of war.” Mike Lowry forgot this rule when he wrote his column last week about the Israel-Palestine issue, when he uncritically repeated Israeli propaganda. Here are some of his claims that are controversial or have been discredited: 1.) “Israel launched an assault on Gaza to destroy Hamas and also secure the release of 251 hostages.” Israeli officials have made numerous genocidal statements about Gaza, as discussed in the article https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Intent_and_incitement_ in_the_Gaza_ genocide, tracked by Law for Palestine and documented in publications like Al Jazeera, Genocide Watch, Journal of Genocide Research, and Waging Nonviolence. The intent of the Israeli government does not stop at Hamas, but at “annihilatory intent,” according to genocide scholar Zoé Samudzi.
2) “The Hamas attack included … rapes … and even killing of babies.” The canard about killing babies is a hoax, as discussed in Marc Edge’s investigatory piece in Canadian Dimension: https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Hamas_baby_beheading_ hoax. Many of the sexual assault accusations have been debunked as well. See Ali Abunimah’s exposé in The Electronic Intifada about this, such as in this article: https://electronicintifada.net/ content/israeli-commission-7-october-rape-claims-exposed- fraud/45401.
If these atrocities did happen, why is Israel preventing the UN from investigating this issue?
3) “a high estimate of 67,000 being killed in Gaza.” This figure from the Gaza Health Ministry is mostly based on reports from hospitals, most of which Israel has destroyed. It does not make sense. If a monthly tally is made from the difference between the cumulative fatalities for subsequent months, I find the monthly tallies for the first year were 8,005, 7,202, 6,978, 4,946, 2,904, 2,747, 1,753, 1,749, 1,616, 1,545, 1,293, 877, and 1,589. Why do these numbers fall off when Israel was bombing city blocks with U.S.-supplied 2,000-pound bombs? Israel has dropped more then six Hiroshimas of bombs on Gaza, including the use of fuel-air explosives, which vaporize bodies. A more accurate figure can be inferred from a comment Netanyahu made during a White House visit that Gaza’s population was 1.7 million. Since its population before Oct. 7 was 2.3 million, this implies 600,000 deaths at that time.
4) “Hamas and other militants played havoc with those trying to help refugees. The UN reported that 9 out of 10 trucks were robbed by Hamas or other groups.” Israel has been arming criminal gangs in Gaza which have been looting aid and creating anarchy, as reported in articles such as Mahmoud Mushtaha’s article in +972 Magazine: https:// www.972mag.com/gaza-social- collapse-criminal-gangs/.
5) “Hamas released a video showing … hostages near starvation.” Lowry implies Hamas was deliberately starving these prisoners. However, the entire Gaza Strip has been under a food blockade by Israel.
6). “Trump … negotiate(d) a ceasefire.” T he “ceasefire” has been anything but that. Israel continues to murder Palestinian civilians every day, and occupies about 60% of Gaza, beyond the agreed withdrawal lines, with plans to occupy 70%. Israel has banned NGOs from Gaza, and only allows about 110 aid trucks per day to enter Gaza, and a larger number of commercial trucks carrying commercial goods, resulting in a food shortage: https://www. refugeesinternational.org/perspectives- and-commentaries/ six-months-into-gaza-ceasef i re - set t ing- the- record-straight about-aid/.
7). “Campuses across the country have been taken over by antisemitic students and faculty.” This is a straw man argument. The student protests have been against the Gaza genocide, not Jews. This claim keeps being made despite the fact that many protestors are Jewish. All Americans should be concerned about the arrest, expulsion, and blacklisting of students for their political speech, and the threat by the White House to illegally withhold federal grant funding from universities if they do not act against these protestors. The American Association of University Professors has made several statements about the situation: https://www.aaup.org/ issues-higher-education/campus- protests.
8) “(Jews) have found themselves unwelcome (in the Democratic Party).” This is the same straw man argument as in No. 7. Many rankand- file Democrats, including Jewish members of the parties, oppose the Gaza genocide and not Jews, while the establishment supports Israel’s actions. Should the large number of Americans that oppose the Gaza genocide have a voice in our political system?
Lowry also makes some comments about the Democratic Party and Bernie Sanders. The emergence of the Democratic Socialists of America is a symptom of the growing inequality and falling living standards in this country, not a cause. What is Lowry’s solution to this problem? Bernie Sanders resembles a traditional New Deal Democrat. Since the 1980s, the New Deal has been rolled back, and the Democratic Party has been taken over by “New” corporate Democrats like Joe Biden and Bill Clinton. Sanders is an echo of that party’s New Deal past.
