Religious misrepresentation and Israeli bloodlust in Rafah

 Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for the obliteration of Rafah, Deir al-Balah, and Nuseirat. 

In the dark ages one could, to an extent excuse bloodlust and calls for the eradication of an entire race of a particular people. People of that day and age were primitive. Bloodthirsty men of the cloth called for the eradication of particular peoples whom they saw as their enemies. They used God’s name as a cover for their hatred.
The fear of so-called ‘Holy men’ who had private discourses with the deities led them to follow the dictates of those crazed characters.
So it is quite surprising, to hear modern-day rulers of Israel spout blood-thirsty calls for the killing of an entire people -in today’s context the Palestinians- because of what some misguided old men called for in bygone ages. 

 Israel’s Finance Minister was referencing passages in Israel’s ‘Holy  Book’ where early religious leaders called for the total destruction of  the Amalek people. 

Complex system 

The Middle East Eye, citing an unnamed senior Western official has reported Israel is setting up a complex system of checkpoints that will prevent men of “military age” from fleeing Rafah in preparation for its (Israel’s) offensive on the Southern Gaza border city.
According to the report, “The checkpoints are designed to allow some women and children to leave Rafah ahead of an expected offensive, but unarmed, civilian Palestinian men will likely be separated from their families and remain trapped in Rafah during the assault.”

Addressing Netanyahu, Smotrich said, “Don’t wave a white flag. Don’t let  Yahya Sinwar humiliate us again and win the war. A government that  submits to international pressure and stops the war in the middle will,  at that moment, lose its right to exist.

Ground invasion 

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that the Israeli army will move ahead with a ground invasion into Rafah, “Whether or not there is a [ceasefire] deal”

that would include a prisoner swap.

Israel’s extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, reportedly warned Netanyahu that if the Rafah invasion did not happen it would mean the dissolution of the prime minister’s government. On Tuesday he was pleased with Netanyahu’s statement.
Ben-Gvir said he had “warned the prime minister [of the consequences] if, God forbid, Israel does not enter Rafah.If God forbid, we end the war. If, God forbid, there will be a reckless deal.”

“The prime minister heard my words, promised that Israel would go into Rafah, promised that the war would not end and promised that there would be no reckless deal. I welcome these things. I think the prime minister understands very well what it will mean if these things do not take place,” he added. 
Ben-Gvir’s colleague, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, called for the “total annihilation” of Gaza on Tuesday, adding that Israel’s war Cabinet should not agree to political concessions in any ceasefire negotiation.

The Middle East Eye, citing an unnamed senior Western official has  reported Israel is setting up a complex system of checkpoints that will  prevent men of “military age” from fleeing Rafah in preparation for its  (Israel’s) offensive on the Southern Gaza border city.

White flag 

Addressing Netanyahu, Smotrich said, “Don’t wave a white flag. Don’t let Yahya Sinwar humiliate us again and win the war. A government that submits to international pressure and stops the war in the middle will, at that moment, lose its right to exist. 
Smotrich added “We must obliterate Rafah, Deir al-Balah, and Nuseirat. 

The memory of the Amalekites must be erased. No partial destruction will suffice; only absolute and complete devastation.”
Israel’s Finance Minister was referencing passages in Israel’s ‘Holy Book’ where early religious leaders called for the total destruction of the Amalek people. 

Smotrich’s quote ‘memory of the Amalekites’ refers to: 

In the Book of Exodus, where in Deuteronomy (25, 19) God supposedly says (Exodus17,14) – “I will     utterly wipe out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven”. 
Israelis believe in the Book of Deuteronomy (25, 19).It is a commandment incumbent upon the people of Israel to wipe out the memory of Amalek – “You shall wipe out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven”. 
This commandment has been widely misunderstood, as a commandment to exterminate the Amalekite people. 

Jeffrey Radon, a teacher of Jewish studies and the author of the internet site - www.orthopraxjudaism.com - comments:
This is indeed the way that Samuel the prophet understands the command in telling Saul, the first king of Israel (1Samuel 15, 3) – “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass”. 
In the Book of Samuel (1 Samuel 15, 2), though, it is written that Samuel says that God has commanded the extermination of the Amalekites – but, the Book of Samuel does NOT say that God has so commanded.

It was not very long ago, another madman -Adolph Hitler by name- called for the extermination of the Jewish people. Sadly many people from Germany believed in the reasons Hitler put forward blaming Jews for the problems that affected Germany in that day.
Resultantly millions of innocent Jewish people suffered horrors and died in concentration camps during World War II.
Sadly, we are witnessing today, the Jewish state and people attempting to do the Palestinians, what Hitler tried to do to them during World War II -exterminate them as a people.

Acolytes 

Hitler had as his acolytes Himler and Eichman who activated his murderous ‘Final solution’ to the Jewish problem. Today as the world watches, the Israeli triumvirate -Netanyahu, Gavir and Smotrich- are attempting a similar genocidal massacre in Rafa
During World War II, the so-called great powers did nothing to stop the slaughter of the Jews by Hitler and his henchmen. Today these same great powers are doing nothing to stop the slaughter of innocent Palestinian men women and children by the state of Israel and its military machine.
Just as at the end of the World War German leaders were charged, found guilty and punished at War Tribunals, today the same fate awaits the present leadership of Israel, its ‘Israeli Defence Force’ and other armed civilians who are committing genocide and other war crimes atrocities against the Palestinian people.