Israel Follow-up – Whistleblowers, Protests and Resignations

Kit Knightly

Two weeks ago I wrote a piece, “Are the powers-that-be preparing to cut Israel loose?”, speculating on the future of the Israel/Gaza narrative and suggesting that Israel’s days in the “good guys club” might be over soon.

I just wanted to do a brief follow-up on this, adding some more interesting evidence that’s come to light since, and highlighting some of the best comments we got on the previous piece.

The Whistleblowers Wrecking Israel’s Narrative

Firstly we should point out how many leaks and whistleblowers have come out recently.

Before our previous article was published, there had already been an anonymous CNN whistleblower who had told The Intercept about the “disturbing” practice the network has over letting an Israeli censor vet their Gaza coverage.

A week or so after that, a group of IDF whistleblowers “revealed” that the IDF had been abusing Palestinian prisoners at a detention centre. That torture centre is now the subject of a major court case.

A week after we published the article, yet another whistleblower came out when Stacy Gilbert, a US State Dept employee, resigned in protest claiming the US was covering up Israeli war crimes.

Seemingly unabashed by the avalanche of negative media attention from their usually-captive Western allies, last week the Israeli armed forces decided to further discredit themselves by launching an attack on a UN-run school in central Gaza, killing dozens of innocent people in front of dozens more witnesses.

Again, this attack received widespread mainstream media coverage.

Bye Bye Bibi?

Whatever the planned fate of the nation of Israel, it seems Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s days are probably numbered.

Last week, Benny Gantz – the so-called “centrist” voice in the war cabinet – resigned in protest over the “lack of plan for postwar Gaza”.

Four days ago a retired Israeli general told the media the war in Gaza is “pointless” (not ‘evil’, you will note, not ‘abhorrent’, just pointless) and that Netanyahu must resign.

Over the past weekend there were mass protests in Tel Aviv against Netanyahu’s government and demanding resignations. Protest leaders have promised a “week of resistance”.

Gantz and protesters have both called for early elections, and these requests have even been echoed by members of Netanyahu’s own party. Likud MK Eliyahu Revivo told the Times of Israel that his government has “no achievements” and that elections might be needed.

Then early this morning, Bibi formally dissolved the War Cabinet completely.

According to the Guardian this means Netanyahu can “solidify his grasp on decision-making” regarding the war.

It’s easy to forget that Netanyahu was already on his last political legs before the October 7th attack. His covid and judicial reform policies had made him incredibly unpopular and there was longstanding political unrest and protests against his government.

All this initially went away when the “war” started (wars can be handy like that), and however the war ends, Netanyahu’s political career is very unlikely to survive it for long.

From the comments

I just wanted to highlight some great comments we got on my previous Israel article.

Firstly, there’s this…

All interesting observations Kit but in my opinion Israel is still Teflon. All this wishful thinking amongst people with a conscience about justice being served will never come to pass. It never does. During the second invasion of Iraq there was plenty of criticism in the media and even politically but it changed nothing. The invasion went ahead and millions of us felt good because at least we protested it. An important job of the media is to give voice to the genuine feelings of the public. When the “powers that shouldn’t be” lose control of a narrative and the public see through their lies the controlled media is used as pressure valve to give voice to that public outrage. It changes nothing but it gives the illusion that the controlled media is listening and supports public opinion.
BoredNow

This definitely does happen. But I don’t think that is what is happening here – it feels more directed and narrative driven – but of course it could be part of it.

Regarding the post-war Gaza, Uncle Walrus had this to say…

Well Kit, Jesse Zurawell showed a clip on his telegram where [PAL President] Mahmoud Abbas was spotted at the Riyadh WEF meeting waxing on about how “Israel has a right to exist”, if you ask me this whole affair is building the UN and “international collaboration”/global centralization more than anything, and I suspect that they are going to start by turning Gaza into a “rebuilt” technofascist shithole, with Abbas and crew as the new prison wardens, it’s a perfect double play.
UncleWalrus

This is a great point. He’s totally right about Abbas talking at the WEF, and there have already been “leaked” documents on Israel’s plans for rebuilding Gaza, and it would be astounding if “sustainability” didn’t play a massive role in that.

It’s not hard to see both Hamas and Bibi being kicked to the curb to make way for a couple of “progressive” WEF Young Global Leaders to forge a two-state solution under the auspices of the UN (and win a Noble Peace Prize), thus showing us all why nations are bad and globalism is great.

Then Gaza gets rebuilt as a “green city” with off shore wind farms and a total ban on cars and who knows what else.

Other commenters picked up on the suggestion that the fall of Israel is potentially tied to greater collapse of the US empire:

All part of the transfer of power from the USA to a global government. Need to first destroy the power of the USA, including Israel, then the WEF owners come to the rescue like knights on horseback, or so they imagine.
aspnaz

The controlled demolition of the US (and Israel) is to kill the notion of “the American Dream”, the desire of all individuals to strive for a middle class quality of life… a three-bedroom house, a car or two, a family. These basic expectations have been decided by the powers that burn natural resources on extravagant lifestyles and wars to be too lofty, unsustainable for the planet.
Straight Talk

There were some interesting thoughts about the possibility of WWIII expressed too, including this from Tilly Peterson:

More likely “ww3” in quotes. A fake near-miss Armageddon to follow up the fake pandemic and usher in global government “to make sure we never get that close to nuclear catastrophe again”.

It will be all narrative and cgi and emotive anecdote designed to shut down any questions, and the only things blown up will be derelict stuff scheduled for demolition or similar, and the nuclear fallout will magically disappear in a few days, but if you ask how that could happen you will be told ‘the science’ can explain it all so shut up.
Tilly Peterson

This is an interesting idea. I have suggested a staged “nuclear near-miss” before, and I know some other alt-media figures have postulated the same idea as well. It could happen, or something similar, to segue the narrative back into “globalism would mean no more wars” stage of the narrative.

Whatever direction they choose to go, it feels like the “war” portion of Gaza narrative might be drawing to a close – good news (probably) for the suffering people of Gaza being used in the sickest of geopolitical games. The PTB may be feeling the world has watched the torture porn and mass slaughter for long enough. They want to move on.

We’ll just have to wait and see where it goes from there.