Netanyahu's 'Crackdown': Same Script, Different Genocide
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently vowed a 'crackdown' on Jewish settler violence in the West Bank, a declaration Bloomberg deemed 'unusual.' Oddly, this 'unusual' pledge feels eerily familiar to anyone not suffering from acute historical amnesia. Netanyahu first made similar promises of controlling settlers in 1996, then again in 2005, 2009, 2014, and practically every time international
pressure mounts or a Palestinian child is filmed being assaulted. The 'crackdown' has consistently translated into either no action or increased support for the very settlements they supposedly aimed to curb, with settler populations exploding under his various tenures. Meanwhile, US politicians who champion 'stability' in the region, like those who accepted $3.7 million from AIPAC in the last
election cycle, seem content to swallow this narrative whole. One might charitably assume these 'pledges' are a novel attempt at diplomacy, if one also believed in Santa Claus and unicorns. The reality appears less diplomatic and more like damage control theatre for a global audience growing weary of documented systemic violence. How many times can a leader 'vow' action, only to oversee its direct
opposite, before the media finally calls it what it is: a cynical, transparent lie designed to deflect and distract? The 'post-war Gaza Strip' they seek to 'stabilize' is still being annihilated, with settler violence a crucial component of the larger ethnic cleansing strategy the US taxpayer funds.