For nearly two years people of conscience have been warning about the trajectory of Israel’s assault on Gaza. Begging people to pay attention and speak out while being accused of antisemitism for daring to oppose an obvious genocide.

Those of us who have been writing about human rights long before this were not fazed. We understood this cynical, baseless and insidious tactic of the apartheid state. We knew the difference between Judaism and Zionism and that conflating them is the real antisemitism.

Now much of the media and several Western governments are beginning to realize what they have been funding, supporting and whitewashing. Genocide, the very worst crime against humanity. But for tens of thousands of people, it is too late. And what broke the camel’s back?

The carpet bombing of apartments and entire city blocks wasn’t enough. The biggest population of child amputees in the world wasn’t enough. The largest mass murder of journalists in any conflict in history wasn’t enough. The rape and torture of surgeons, physicians and nurses wasn’t enough. The shooting of toddlers in the neck by Israeli snipers wasn’t enough. Leaving a young man with Down’s Syndrome to die alone in fear and agony without his family wasn’t enough. Detaining healthcare staff and leaving new born babies to die in incubators wasn’t enough. Murdering little Hind and the paramedics coming to help her wasn’t enough. Countless genocidal statements from Israeli politicians and media figures wasn’t enough. Scores of TikTok videos posted by IDF soldiers documenting their crimes wasn’t enough. The total destruction of bakeries, desalinization plants, shelters, hospitals, cafes, tents, ambulances, universities, cancer treatment facilities, farms, kindergartens, mosques, churches wasn’t enough. And for a very long time, mass imposed starvation wasn’t enough.

Now that Gaza is in stage 5 for famine, many are speaking out. And this is welcome. But the arms keep flowing. The blockade is still in effect. And there have yet to be sanctions on Israel.

When will that turning point be reached? Or have we come to a point where the world finally acknowledges the worst crime of the 21st century and shrugs its shoulders?

Kenn Orfanos, August 2025

*Photo is of nine-year-old Maryam Duvvas. She is currently receiving treatment at Patient Friends Association Hospital in Gaza City. She is in critical condition from severe malnutrition and not expected to survive due to Israel’s continued blockade of medicines and IV nutrition.

Recently, two of the leading Israeli human rights organizations (B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel) concluded that Israel was, in fact, committing genocide against the Palestinians. This is a conclusion already reached by the world’s leading scholars on genocide, as well as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. How many more voices does it take for Western leaders to take the necessary action to stop this? How many more scholars, and physicians, and human rights organizations?

As Gaza enters the 5th stage of famine, one manufactured and implemented by the Israeli regime with the support and assistance of the United States, we are witnessing the complete hypocrisy, shallowness and corruption of Western institutions and norms. Even though there have been weak public relations gestures, like certain nations recognizing a Palestinian state, the money and weapons are still flowing.

In fact, while fascism grows in the US thanks to the Trump regime, the bloodlust becomes more obvious and depraved. From repugnant ghouls like Senator Randy Fine posting tweets welcoming the murder of Palestinian children to the fascist monster-in-chief, Donald Trump, demanding Palestinians express gratitude for food they either never received or are shot at while trying to obtain. The far right end of the political class is displaying its sadism in real time. It was always there, but the mask has now been obliterated. And thanks to the feckless arrogance and stupidity of Maga, its reputation will never be restored.

But there are cracks in the edifice of Israeli impunity. Polls show wide disapproval of the Israeli regime and its horrendous crimes. Even far right politicians like Marjorie Taylor Green are denouncing this genocide, outdoing even the supposedly left “squad” member, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The successes of Zohran Mamdani, who gained popularity in one of the most Jewish cities in the US, has been stunning given his open condemnation of Netanyahu and Israeli atrocities. And polling of younger Jewish Americans shows a clear break with support for the apartheid state.

In addition to this, Israelis are beginning to feel the pressure. They have been turned away from a Greek Island and at restaurants in Thailand due to growing anger and disgust at a society that seems to revel in burning, bombing and starving tens of thousands of children. One thing is apparent, most of the world has turned against Israel, even if their leaders are slow to action.

Israel has been one of the most important colonial assets of the American Empire. But as the list of its crimes grow by the day, that asset is becoming a liability. One which the US may not be able to afford for much longer. Especially, given the precarious state of American institutions and its badly damaged economy. It has already lost billions in tourism, as Trump’s disrespectful and belligerence toward other nations grow. As stories of concentration camps and violent border control agents and lawless ICE thugs mount. As it continues to support the genocidal state, its public face will only become more sullied.

But none of this helps the millions of Palestinians now. At this stage of the famine, it is too late for tens of thousands of children, elderly and sick. They will never come back from this. Now, the remaining population, when not being bombed or shot by Israeli snipers and American mercenaries, are being corralled into concentration camps, awaiting death or forced deportation. Israeli politicians dream of a riviera, replete with luxury hotels, marinas and restaurants. But it is more likely that it will eventually replace Gaza with hideous settlements, as seen across the occupied West Bank. Homes devoid of character and devoid of the Indigenous population. Fascist communities full of racist fanatics.

Gaza has sealed the fate of the West, even if the repercussions are not felt for decades. The damage has been done. There is no way to undo what has been witnessed by billions of people, both in the West and in the Global South. No way to forget the scale of this evil or the suffering. It will stay with us all. Whether an apologist, an apathetic nothing, or a person of conscience, the cruelty meted out on its people will impact every single relationship, interaction and transaction we make. It will define us as a society for centuries. But it has also been a clarifying moment.

We now know, beyond the shadow of a doubt where our leaders, institutions, media and public figures stand when it comes to the most heinous crime against humanity on the books. And for that, we should be grateful. Because we know that those who have either cheer leaded this on or stayed silent to the bitter end will never oppose brutality against any of us. We know they can never be trusted again.

Kenn Orphan, July 2025

Some are praising Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, as well as Kier Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, for saying they will recognize Palestine as a state. For Starmer, it is conditional on Israel agreeing to a ceasefire. If it does, the UK will back down once again and allow Israel to continue its colonial project. But anyone who has followed this issue for any length of time understands how untruthful and unrealistic this proposal is, when one considers the facts on the ground.

Israel has steadily stolen land from historic Palestine since the Nakba in 1948, when Zionist militias violently expelled Palestinians from their lands. In fact, Gaza is largely made up of refugees who suffered from this blatant act of ethnic cleansing. After dismantling its illegal settlements in Gaza in 2005, it blockaded the enclave up to the present day, trapping over 2 million people in a concentration camp where food was restricted and where they were routinely bombed and surveilled by the Israeli occupation forces.

Israel has funded and supported illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank for decades which has carved up the territory into isolated islands. Palestinians there have been terrorized by violent settlers for years. Separated from their farmlands and other villages by checkpoints and walls. Forced to use separate roads from Jewish Israelis. Subjected to military tribunal, night raids, random abductions and pogroms led by settlers and protected by the IDF.

So, what will this Palestinian “state” look like? Israel has already said it would not recognize a Palestinian state. But even if it did, it would be an ungovernable group of Bantustans. And Israel would still enforce its will over the land and the skies. Is this what they mean by sovereignty?

The two state “solution” has always been a lie. It has always been a way to justify colonial dispossession of the Palestinians. Since its founding, Israel has been illegal. It has no right to the land. And its construction of an elaborate apartheid system that rivels apartheid South Africa is a testament to this. The international players, which operate from the mindset of European colonial empire, have used this supposed “peace process” as a ruse to allow Israel to complete its own colonial settler project.

Let’s be clear, Carney and the other European leaders do not care about the mass murder of civilians in Gaza by the Israeli and American regimes. They care about their reputations and the very real possibility that they will be found complicit in this genocide. After all, it took them nearly two years to finally make a peep. Two years of carpet bombing, shootings of toddlers and mass starvation. Two years of complete destruction of hospitals, bakeries, shelters, universities and nearly every structure in the enclave. Two years of Israeli politicians and media openly using genocidal rhetoric. Two years of Israeli soldiers brazenly posting their crimes online for all to see. And it was the most feeble and mealymouthed peep imaginable.

It is time for the two state lie to be buried in the dustheap of history where it belongs. The only solution is a one state solution. And this is not a pipedream. Israel and Palestine are already one state. An apartheid state that is engaging in genocide of its indigenous population. The solution is to end this genocide and dismantle the infrastructure of apartheid. The solution is for there to be a reckoning for war criminals and genocidaires. For a Truth and Reconciliation process. And for all residents of historic Palestine to have full citizenship with equal rights. The solution is for Western political leaders to finally listen to their own constituents and end this charade once and for all. Anything less than this is a cynical ploy aimed at whitewashing the political image of the few, while millions of people stand on the precipice of annihilation.

Kenn Orphan, July 2025

Why are so many apologists for Israel’s genocide in Gaza suddenly changing their tune now? Why are political opportunists like Hillary Clinton suddenly choosing to highlight the human-made famine? Because they have seen the photographs of skeletal babies too. But this is not about empathy or solidarity. This is about reputational damage control.

Clinton has said nothing about Israel’s blockade, or the flattening of Gaza, or the thousands killed or maimed by Israeli carpet-bombing which far outdoes previous wars. She has said nothing about her own complicity or her condescending condemnation of student protestors as they spoke out against an obvious genocide.

Clinton, along with Barrack Obama, Keir Starmer, Mark Carney, Emmanuel Macron and Hakeem Jeffries know that their tepid lamentations will have absolutely no material effect. Strongly worded tweets mean nothing when policy remains virtually unchanged. When there are no sanctions or consequences to actions. They know that Israel enjoys unprecedented impunity as it carries out the Final Solution in Gaza. They know that it is already too late for thousands of Palestinian children who can never recover from this imposed starvation even if food and formula were allowed in. The only thing they care about are their rancid reputations.

Media figures like Piers Morgan and Bari Weiss are also doing reputational damage control. Their ghoulish complicity in the 21st century’s worst crime against humanity is on the record. The internet never forgets. But they desperately want us to do just that as they construct a facsimile of a humanity they never possessed to begin with.

No one is saying that people can’t change their minds or that those with enormous influence should remain silent. But there is a difference between changing your mind based on learning the facts and changing your message based on reading the room.

All of these people knew exactly what Israel was doing from the very start. They heard Israeli politicians openly using genocidal language and incitement. They saw the mass graves and rubble. They witnessed the torture of Palestinian prisoners, the targeting of medical staff and journalists, the bombing of hospitals, bakeries and water treatment facilities. They heard the cries of little Hind as she called emergency services to save her from an Israeli tank that murdered her family and eventually murdered her.

The role these people played in providing cover for genocide, or even cheering it on, should never be forgiven. They must never have a days rest as long as they live. And in a sane world, they should face charges for their complicity in this genocide, the very worst crime imaginable against humanity.

Kenn Orfanos, July 2025