This Is What Evil Looks Like

It looks like Benjamin Netanyahu and the society he represents.

Twitter

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing some domestic political difficulties right now. No, no, not because he’s carrying out yet another escalation of the genocide in Gaza and killing hundreds and hundreds of Palestinians every day. Don’t be silly. That’s a campaign photo-op for Netanyahu. His people love that.

No, Netanyahu is a little jittery right now because he has committed what is apparently the worst possible offense an Israeli prime minister could commit: he has consented to allow a thimbleful of humanitarian aid into Gaza, which is in the grips of an ever-worsening starvation crisis thanks to a months-long blockade by Israel.

To be clear, this is not anywhere near enough assistance to actually resolve the crisis. The phrase Israel keeps throwing around is “a basic amount”—which, presumably, means just enough to technically keep people alive and nothing more. And Netanyahu is only doing this bare minimum because things are so dire that even the United States thinks it’s a bad look.

No matter. The fact that even a single scrap of aid may be going into Gaza was enough to agitate some of the fascist psychopaths circling around Netanyahu. From the Times of Israel:

“Every humanitarian aid that enters the Strip, and definitely all parts of it, will fuel Hamas and give it oxygen while our hostages languish in tunnels,” laments National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who earlier this year bolted the government over the announcement of a ceasefire-hostage deal, and then returned when fighting resumed.

“The prime minister is making a grave mistake with this move, which doesn’t even have a majority,” Ben Gvir argues in a statement. “We must crush Hamas and not simultaneously give it oxygen.”

[…] Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, of Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, says: “This is our tragedy with Netanyahu’s approach. A leader who could have led to a clear victory and been remembered as the one who defeated radical Islam, but who time after time lets this historic opportunity slip away. Letting humanitarian aid in now directly harms the war effort to achieve victory and another obstacle to the release of the hostages.”

[…] Criticism also comes from the ranks of Netanyahu’s own Likud party.

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” says MK Avichai Boaron. “We mustn’t hand humanitarian aid to the enemy, we mustn’t hesitate.”

Letting in a trickle of food assistance is “insanity.” Keeping people one inch from total famine is a “grave mistake.”

So what did Netanyahu do? He put out a big video in which he assured fellow monsters that he shares their fervor for genocide—and that this is all just a way to keep the show on the road. “There is a lot of criticism from the right this morning regarding the humanitarian issue — and that’s understandable,” he said. In other words, yeah, listen, I totally get it—I would want to starve all these people to death too. But it’s these stupid “allies” making me pull back.

From the AP:

In a video statement posted to social media, Netanyahu said that Israel’s allies had voiced concern about “images of hunger.”

Israel’s “greatest friends in the world,” he said, including senators but without mentioning specific nationalities, had said there is “one thing we cannot stand. We cannot accept images of hunger, mass hunger. We cannot stand that. We will not be able to support you.”

Netanyahu said the situation was approaching a “red line” and a “dangerous point,” but it was not clear if he was referring to the crisis in Gaza or the potential loss of support from allies.

“Therefore to achieve victory, we need to somehow solve the problem,” Netanyahu said.

For good measure, Netanyahu also promised that Israel would occupy the entirety of Gaza. Just in case anyone thought he wasn’t itching to kill more.

The prime minister then dispatched some of his key genocidal backers to give him support. Top fascist Bezalel Smotrich, for instance, offered these soothing words:

“What will come in the coming days is a little bit to the bakeries that distribute pitas to people and public kitchens that provide a daily ration of cooked food. Civilians in Gaza will receive a pita and a plate of food and that is it.”

Whew, and here I was thinking they might get two meals a day. Crisis averted.

Just look at what we are witnessing. A country so immersed in hatred and cruelty that averting a famine is politically controversial. Endless death and destruction are not enough—starvation and torture and misery must be endless too.

If evil looks and talks and acts like anything, it is surely this: a political leader rushing to the cameras to pledge his loyalty to a policy of extermination. What else can you call it? Evil, evil, evil, evil, from beginning to end. May Netanyahu and everyone in his orbit face even a modicum of justice for the evil they’ve done.