The Wild Reed: Israel’s Actions in Gaza: “A Clear and Present Moral Collapse”

Sunday, July 27, 2025

Israel’s Actions in Gaza: “A Clear and Present Moral Collapse”

Above: The body of a young Palestian man randomly shot and killed by Israeli soldiers at a food distribution site operated by the U.S. and Israel in Gaza. (Photographer unknown)

I’ve watched the 1993 film Schindler’s List only once. Because once was enoungh.

Along from the sheer enormity of the horrors the film depicts, what haunts me to this day is it’s depiction of the sickening randomness of much of the violence meted out to Jewish people by those embodying the vision and goals of Nazi Germany.

No one needs to watch Schindler’s List today to be informed about such random and ideologically-inspired violence. We can readily see it live-streamed every day on social media in images and video footage coming out of Gaza. These images and this video footage is not depicting but showing both the enormity of mass starvation of a civilian population and the sickening randonmness of the violence being meted out to Palestinian people by those embodying the vision and goals of Zionist Israel.

I know, without a shred of doubt, that one day there will be movies and documentaries that highlight the horrors of the holocaust in Gaza in the 2020s in the same way that Schindler’s List highlights the horrors of the holocaust in Europe in the 1940s.

I was reminded of this conviction of mine when I read the following commentary by political analyst and social commentator Tony Pentimalli, a commentary that Pentimalli shared last Friday (7/25/25) on Facebook and BlueSky (@tonywriteshere.bsky.social).

I consider it an an essential read for all who are concerned and yearn to speak out about what’s ongoing on in Gaza – and those who need to awaken to their need to be concerned and speak out.

______________________

This Isn’t a Debate. It’s a Crime

By Tony Pentimalli
July 25, 2025
There are moments in history when the very act of framing atrocity as a “debate” becomes an atrocity in itself.

What’s happening in Gaza is not a conflict of opinions. It is the systematic denial of food, water, and medical aid to a trapped civilian population, followed by live gunfire as they attempt to survive. These are not tragic accidents or “unfortunate collateral damage.” They are acts of intentional violence, occurring in full view of the world.

As of mid-July 2025, more than 875 people have been killed at or near humanitarian aid distribution sites in Gaza. That number includes at least 674 civilians gunned down while attempting to receive food or water. On June 1, 32 people were killed and over 250 wounded in Rafah while standing in line for flour. The wounds were concentrated in the head, neck, and chest, indicating deliberate targeting rather than crowd control gone wrong. Médecins Sans Frontières confirmed many of the injuries were “designed to kill.”

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, created to facilitate aid under extreme blockade conditions, has now become a death trap. Armed contractors, drones, and military personnel operate near the sites, sometimes firing into the crowds and sometimes dropping leaflets warning civilians not to approach at all. Survivors have described these locations as “killing fields.”

One Israeli soldier, speaking anonymously to Haaretz, put it bluntly: “It’s a killing field. Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. . . . No crowd-control measures, no tear gas—just live fire with everything imaginable. Our form of communication is gunfire.”

Another described the operation’s nickname as “Salted Fish,” a grotesque play on the phrase “Red Light, Green Light,” where civilians are signaled through bursts of lethal force. These are not isolated incidents. They are systemic patterns.

This isn’t chaos. It is policy. The consistent use of live fire, the obstruction of aid convoys, and the militarization of distribution centers all point to a grim and intentional design. Under international law, such design is not ambiguous. The Genocide Convention defines genocide not by death toll alone, but by intent to destroy a group in whole or in part through “conditions of life calculated to bring about its destruction.”

That intent does not require a signed order. It can be inferred from conduct.

What clearer signal is there than starving children being shot at while reaching for food?

In early July, Layan Harb, a five-year-old Palestinian girl, died of starvation in Gaza. Her name briefly made international headlines when her uncle revealed that she had collapsed in a UN shelter, clutching a can of powdered milk she was too weak to open. She was buried in a shallow grave near a destroyed school, next to dozens of other children whose names never made the news.

She is one of at least 112 children confirmed to have died from starvation since March, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and corroborated by reporting from Time Magazine and the Washington Post. The true number may be far higher. Aid convoys are regularly blocked, delayed, or bombed. Civilians are funneled into dangerous, overcrowded zones where Israeli forces have been documented firing on crowds.

According to the Financial Times, 28 nations including Ireland, Norway, and South Africa have condemned Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian access as violations of international law. UN human rights investigators have repeatedly sounded the alarm.

“When aid is deliberately obstructed and civilians are killed trying to access food, this is not collateral damage – it may constitute a method of extermination,” said Balakrishnan Rajagopal, a U.N. human rights reporter on housing and humanitarian conditions.

This is not merely a war crime. It may be genocide in motion.

Yet despite the overwhelming documentation, much of the Western media continues to host panel discussions, “balancing” this nightmare with euphemism and deflection. This genocide is not being denied. It is being televised, pixelated, and algorithmically buried. Between influencer content and campaign coverage, starving children are flattened into “community guidelines violations.” The violence persists not in the shadows, but in plain sight, packaged, edited, and forgotten between ads.

And here is the question that haunts all of it: If this were happening in Kyiv, would we still be debating it?

If the children starving were blond-haired and English-speaking, would we still be searching for the right terminology?

When the same governments that cried “Never Again” after Rwanda now fund, arm, and diplomatically shield these atrocities, their hypocrisy becomes another weapon. It isn’t just what’s happening. It’s who’s enabling it, laundering it, and normalizing it.

This is not a complex moral dilemma. This is a clear and present moral collapse.

We don’t need more conversations about whether this is genocide.

We need to admit that it looks exactly like one.

This is not a debate.

It’s a crime.

And history is watching.

– Tony Pentimalli
“This Isn’t a Debate. It’s a Crime”
via social media
July 25, 2025

The Wild Reed

Sunday, July 27, 2025

Israel’s Actions in Gaza: “A Clear and Present Moral Collapse”

No comments:

About Me

Translate

Blog Archive

Most Popular Posts

From the Archives . . .

Search This Blog

Labels

Essential Reading from Around the Web

.

Film

The Sufi Path

Readers write . . .

Followers