Letter to the 54 Nobel laureates who supported the 2021 Peace Dividend Campaign for a 2% reduction in military spending
The Day After May 8
On the verge of exhaustion, and beyond.
“At this crucial moment, while a tangible opportunity for the release of the hostages is on the table, it is of the utmost importance that your government manifest its strong support for such an agreement, This is the time to exert your influence on the Israeli government and all other parties concerned to ensure that the agreement comes through which will finally bring all our loved ones home.”
the Hostages and Missing Families Forum
In December 2021, you signed up for the visionary Peace Dividend Campaign, based on the fact that « world military spending has doubled since 2000 […] approaching 2 trillion US dollars per year, increasing in all regions of the world.
Individual governments are under pressure to increase military spending because others do so. The feedback mechanism sustains a spiralling arms race – a colossal waste of resources that could be used far more wisely. Past arms races have often had the same outcome : deadly and destructive conflicts. »
Two months later, war started, tearing Ukraine apart, with its toll now of 250,000 killed (30,000 civilians ; 150,000 Russian soldiers ; 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers or more, an official estimate although Kiev keeps the number of its military deaths as a state secret). An average of 40 civilians are killed or wounded every day.
« All of this for what ? » asked the youngest French minister of Foreign Affairs of all times (a Millenial, born in 1985). « This can be summed up in two words, pour rien, for nothing ».
Except, of course, for the profit of the major corporations of the arms industry. French arms exports have kept climbing, while Russian arms exports halved, securing the smaller country the second rank among the world’s arms exporters.
Whereas you, peace-minded researchers, rightly pleaded for a reduction, by all states, of barely 2% in military spending over the years 2022-2027, the American share of total global arms exports rose from 34% to 42% in the last five years, and the U.S. and Western Europe combined have accounted for 72% of all arms exports in that period, compared to 62% in 2014-2018. France alone increased by 47% in the latest period, whereas Russia fell by 53%.
So much for les vœux pieux, wishful thinking.
Fact checking leaves political speeches and declarations of intentions way behind.
Thus, you could say that, in the latest « round » triggered by Hamas from Gaza on October 7, 2023, the miltary leaders South and North, Sinwar, Deif, Nasrallah, actually have acted like salesmen for both IAIO (Iran Aviation Industries Organization) and IAI (Israel Aerospace Industries), not to mention Elbit Systems (ex Israel Military Industries). Not just Elbit, but Rafael, IWI (Israel Weapon Industries), and the whole cohort behind (Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop, Raytheon & co), as was demonstrated on April 13, 2023, when Iran launched an unprecedented attack of war drones and ballistic missiles on Israel, thus inaugurating the first Space War of humankind.
Don’t call it a war of nations, Iran vs Israel, but some insane competition IAIO vs IAI.
Using proxies of all kinds, Hizballah, God’s Party in Lebanon ; Palestinian Islamic Jihad & the Movement of Islamic Resistance in Gaza ; Ansar Allah : God’s Partisans in Yemen. Moving under the mask of religion.
The motto of Ansar Allah being so explicit :
God is the Greatest
Death to America
Death to Israel
Jews be Cursed
Victory to Islam
A free press provides us with all the relevant information we may need :
Seth J. Frantzman, Breaking Defense, March 13, 2024 : Israel’s 3 biggest defense companies take stock after 5 months of war.
The Jerusalem Post, March 14, 2024 : Israel Aerospace Industries see 49% in net income in 2023. Navit Zomer, Ynet News, April 15, 2024 : Global clients flock to Israeli defense firms following Iran attack ; April 20, 2024 : Israeli defense industry sees impressive rise after Iranian attack.
So, forget about all the fiery rhetoric of God’s Partisans, and other Jihadis, be they in Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza, or Sinai : they’re actually good for business. Needed for profit progress.
This could be the first indictment against the leaders of these « jihad » groups, if ever there were such a thing as an International Court of Justice in a position to be heard, and to act.
Forget about wishful thinking as well. Far too abstract, « over the top ».
What is not abstract is the fate of people, now trapped in the field of ruins that Gaza has become, and underground – as in the whole Gaza Envelope, where communities were devastated, more than decimated, on October 7.
“…there’s a huge cheapening of life. The sanctity of life, its sacredness, this is being undermined in ways we couldn’t have imagined. When a minister isn’t able to say the number of hostages, it’s disheartening. But it’s also disheartening for me to see the way people are unperturbed about what’s happening in Gaza.” Sharone Lifshitz, Oded’s daughter. Oded, 83, was brutally kidnapped in Nir Oz, a small, rural, peaceful community by the Gaza border, on October 7.
What is not abstract is the message received from Rafah, on May 8, 2024 :
« Displaced in a different place. Still in Rafah. Sad week and days. One of my sisters passed away, and another lost two of her children. Killed in Rafah, and her third child is seriously wounded. »
It has come from one of the many non-involved families in Gaza City, displaced to the South, and then displaced again, living under makeshift tents, with little access to water and food.
The man’s main source of interest, as a university teacher committed to English literature, was John Donne, H.G. Wells, Jerome K. Jerome, Mary Shelley… [by the way, in his 1941 military science fiction novel, H.G. Wells stated his epitaph should be : « I told you so. You damned fools ».]
The measure of Absurdity being filled to the brim with this ultimate war started by the Gaza jihadis. On Monday, May 6, 2024, the Islamic movements of Gaza proposed a cease-fire with the gradual release of hostages, as close to surrender as it could be, and the people of Gaza celebrated in the streets, crying with glee. In the night of Monday to Tuesday, May 7, Israeli tanks entered Rafah, for another « limited operation ». Now, as of May 11-12, there is talk of another « limited operation » in Jabaliya, in the North – since it appears the dreaded enemy has regrouped there.
We are no experts in strategy, and COIN (Counter Insurgency), but we take it from a variety of professional observers that this war has been over for months now. One of them, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (May 11, 2024, The Gaza War’s Final Scene, and Beyond) :
In fact, the war actually ended over three months ago. Only two combat brigades remain in Gaza out of the massive force, unprecedented in its scale, of 28 brigades, in addition to the air power – drones, helicopters and jet planes – that was there at the peak of operations.
There is no reason to pretend that the war continues. It’s over.
Take it too from one of the most seasoned journalists, in The Jerusalem Post, Yonah Jeremy Bob : Israel is winning the war if you ignore original unrealistic goals set by the gov’t.
For us, a small humanitarian n.g.o., committed on the ground since 2000 – twice in Nir Oz this year, in March, and April, there is no higher priority than the hostages. Considering that the whole people of Gaza has been held hostage by its jihadi rulers too.
We would like you to hear another voice from Nir Oz. Maya Goren’s son. Maya*** was the kindergarten teacher. Her husband, Avner, was killed first. She was abducted and killed.
“There is nothing I want more than to bury my mother next to my father. Bury her in Nir Oz, so I can finally emotionally get to the only place that I ever called home, to the kibbutz I saw go through hell, to get some closure, to let a wound that’s been open for seven months heal, become a scar.”
“It’s been over 30 weeks, and I don’t understand how we’re still here, still having to demand the obvious, that they let our loved ones out of hell, rehabilitate the living and bury the murdered, and let us, the families and the community, the opportunity to begin healing,”
THE JERUSALEM AND NABLUS CALL FOR THE RELEASE OF ALL HOSTAGES
Halas ! Khlass ! Hebrew like Arabic : ENOUGH !
Enough torture for the hostages and their families !
Enough torture for the displaced, Israelis and Palestinians !
Let them all go home now, to heal the wounds.
Eighteen countries* call for the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza, starting with the women, the wounded, the elderly, the sick.
The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza has become one.
With the eighteen we whole-heartedly support the ongoing negotiations.
“We’re talking about people, and we all need to act, right now, to end this story.”**
*Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States
**in one of the hostages’ parent’s words
**************************************************************************
*** On July 24, 2024, Maya Goren’s body was recovered by troops down some tunnel in Gaza and could finally be laid to rest in Nir Oz. Her husband was killed in Nir Oz on October 7, and the killers took his body away to Gaza. Nobody knows where.
The couple is survived by their four children—Assif, 25; Bar, 23; Gal, 21; and Dekel, 18. Bar and Dekel were in Kibbutz Nir Oz when Hamas attacked but could escape and survive. Asif and Gal were not in Nir Oz then.
Maya Goren was the teacher of 1-year-old Kfir Bibas, the youngest Israeli hostage, who has been in Hamas captivity for almost 300 days.
This is the last picture that was taken of her taking care of Bibas. Bibas and his brother Ariel, along with their parents, were taken to Gaza, and nobody knows whether they’re still alive.
