Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomine Domini, part twenty-three

Chutzpah: (Yiddish) unbelievable gall; insolence; audacity.

A dictionary entry for the word chutzpah might also feature a photograph of the genocidal and racialist Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the Zionist State of Israel, who had the unmitigated but completely believable gall recent to contend that, despite empirical evidence showing the destruction of Gaza City by Israeli bombings and ground troops every single building in Gaza City had actually “booby-trapped” by Hamas:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel intends to take control of the entire Gaza Strip. He blamed Hamas for every humanitarian concern brought up by FNC's Bill Hemmer during an interview on Thursday.

He says Hamas is keeping the civilian population inside conflict zones, and "the reason you see flattened buildings is because Hamas booby-traps every single building."

"They are the ones who are doing the shooting," Netanyahu said when asked about reports of civilians being shot in and around aid distribution sites. "We are doing everything we can to avoid civilian casualties."

BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS: Will Israel take control of all of Gaza?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: We intend to. In order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza and pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas, and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel. That's what we want to do. We want to liberate ourselves and the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas.

BILL HEMMER: Are you saying today that you will take control of the entire 25-mile Gaza Strip, as it was 20 years ago, this month, in 2005?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Well, we don't want to keep it. We want a security perimeter. We don't want to govern it; we don't want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to Arab forces that govern it properly without threatening us and that give Gazans a good life. That's not possible with Hamas.

BILL HEMMER: There are 20 hostages that the Israelis believe are still alive. In recent events, the closer the IDF got to them, many of them were killed. Are you prepared?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: We're doing everything in our power to get the hostages. I think with a combination of international pressure, we can get all of them - certainly most of them - out.

BILL HEMMER: We were in the southern town of Rafah near the Sinai Desert in Egypt. That town has been flattened, and you have been accused of genocide. How do you respond?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: I mean, if we wanted to commit genocide, we wouldn't give 2 million tons of food to the population. The reason you see flattened buildings is because Hamas booby-traps every single building. So when we come in, we first have the population moved - even though Hamas tries to keep them in the combat zone.

BILL HEMMER: You are saying all of these buildings were booby-trapped and not hit by the Israeli Air Force? Because it is building after building, house after house.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Remember, these houses are empty of population. They booby-trap the streets and the buildings. So we go in and clear it away. That's what you did in your war zones, too.

BILL HEMMER: The reason why this point is important for me to understand is, we only saw one part of Gaza. We did not see the rest of it.

Your own soldiers have been accused of killing innocent Gazans who are in line for food - that's the accusation - almost on a daily basis. Can you defend that?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Yeah, I can deny it because it's a Hamas accusation. They are the ones doing the shooting and waiting for our soldiers to respond - and, in fact, very often they don't respond. All these stories are repeated ad nauseam and people don't even bother to check the facts. We are doing everything we can to avoid civilian casualties.

BILL HEMMER: Will you allow more independent reporters to go into Gaza and see it for themselves?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: That's my conclusion, in fact, that's my instruction as of this morning to the military. I said that's exactly what you should be doing. Those who are lying will continue to lie, but give journalists the ability to see the truth. (Netanyahu: Hamas "Booby Trapped Every Single Building In Gaza," Hamas Is Shooting Civilians At Aid Sites.)

This is what happen to men whose souls are captive to the devil by means of Original Sin. Such men can kill with impunity, steal with impunity, starve those they consider to subhuman with impunity, and then to lie about it with utter impunity and complete shamelessness.

Benjamin Netanyahu wants journalists to see the truth?

Then why did he authorize the killing of four journalists from the Al-Jazeera network by lying that they were members of a Hamas cell?

• Here’s a quick look at the latest developments:
• The Israeli military has killed at least 46 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn today, including six aid seekers, according to medical sources.
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has added his voice to international condemnations of Israel’s killing of Al Jazeera journalists, also calling for an independent investigation.
• Gaza’s Civil Defence reported that at least 2,500 wounded Palestinians have been killed since March as a result of Israel’s refusal to allow an overwhelming majority of rescue missions.
• Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund said it is cutting ties with asset managers in charge of its Israeli investments, after it launched an ethical review last week.
• Gaza’s Health Ministry said five more people, including a child, died of malnutrition over the past day.Martyrs of continuous and courageous coverage: Al Jazeera director general

Below is an internal email sent to staff by Dr. Mostefa Souag, director general of the Al Jazeera Media Network, about the latest killing of Al Jazeera journalists by Israeli forces in the besieged Gaza Strip:

Dear Colleagues,

On August 10, 2025, our colleagues Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, and Mohamed Noufal were assassinated in cold blood by the Israeli occupation forces. They were carrying out their duties as journalists, making this another deliberate and blatant Israeli attack on freedom of the press.

This attack comes amid the horrific humanitarian catastrophe that the Israeli assault on Gaza is causing, resulting in the massacres of civilians, forced starvation, and wholesale destruction of entire communities.

The journalists’ killers – the Israeli army, as per an official statement it made – targeted the tent where they were staying that was stationed opposite al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza.

Ordering the killing of Anas al-Sharif, one of Gaza’s bravest journalists, and his colleagues is a desperate attempt to silence the voice of truth before the implementation of the plot to invade Gaza.

Anas and his colleagues were among the last remaining voices from within Gaza, providing the world with unfiltered, on-the-ground coverage of the devastating realities endured by its people. They boldly and courageously documented the plight of Gaza and its people since the onset of the war.

Al Jazeera’s journalists remained in a besieged Gaza, experiencing the hunger and suffering they documented. Through their courageous coverage, they delivered searing eyewitness accounts of the horrors unleashed over 22 months of bombing and destruction.

On behalf of the Network and all our colleagues in Al Jazeera, I extend my deepest condolences and sincere sympathy to the families of our martyrs, the martyrs of the free press, and to all our teams in Gaza.

I renew the call on the international community and all humans with conscience to take decisive, immediate measures to halt this ongoing genocide and end the deliberate targeting of journalists in Gaza, and to bring the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to justice.

To Allah we belong and unto Him we shall return.

Dr. Mostefa Souag
Director General

If Israel had evidence to support al-Sharif allegations, it would release it: UN official

Irene Khan, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, said that Israel killed Anas al-Sharif over his work as a journalist and that Israeli claims he was a Hamas member are totally unsubstantiated.

“If they had real evidence [of this], do you not think that they would put it out, up front, right away in the international arena? Of course they would. But why are they not doing that? Because they don’t have that evidence,” she told Al Jazeera.

“They simply [say] that any journalist who is reporting on Gaza must be a ‘Hamas member’, just as anyone who criticises Israel has to be ‘anti-Semitic’.

“That’s the way that Israel silences the world from criticising them or holding them to account.”

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UN chief Guterres condemns Israel’s killing of Al Jazeera journalists

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has added his voice to international condemnations of Israel’s killing of Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza.

“The secretary-general calls for an independent and impartial investigation into these latest killings,” said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

“At least 242 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began. Journalists and media workers must be respected, they must be protected and they must be allowed to carry out their work freely, free from fear and free from harassment.” (Global outrage grows after Israel kills Al Jazeera staff in Gaza.)

Despite Dr. Mostefa Souag’s excellent statement about the Israeli assassinations of the four Al-Jazeera journalists, he does not realize that, unless he converts to the true Faith before he dies, he will be belong his false god for all eternity in hell, where he will tormented by the adversary and his demons with everlasting hellfire, pain, and the knowledge that he has lost the glory of the Beatific Vision of the Most Holy Trinity forever. Compounding Dr. Souag’s torture will that he will be a companion of the likes of Benjamin Netanyahu and everyone who has been involved in the genocide of the Palestinians if they do not convert to the true Faith before they die.

Undeterred by the global condemnation of his genocidal actions, including the starvation of women and children, Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he is going to expand operation of the Israeli Defense Force in Gaza, take control of Gaza City, and “re-locate” the city’s residents to southern Gaza on a “voluntary” basis:

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said Friday it will intensify its 22-month war with Hamas by taking over Gaza City, stirring fears for Palestinian civilians and Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, and renewing international pressure for an end to the conflict.

Israel’s air and ground war has killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza, displaced most of the population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory toward famine. The timing of another major ground operation is unclear. It will likely require mobilizing thousands of troops and forcibly evacuating civilians, almost certainly worsening Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.

An official familiar with the plans to take over Gaza City said the operation would be “gradual” and that there is no start date. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The U.N. Security Council announced an emergency meeting on Israel’s plans was rescheduled to 10 a.m. EDT on Sunday after originally being scheduled to take place at 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday.

The U.N. Mission of Panama, which holds the council presidency this month, provided no details, but Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath and Israel is certain to want to speak at the meeting.

Mediators from Egypt and Qatar are preparing a new framework that will include the release of all hostages — dead and alive — in one go, in return for an end of the war in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the strip, two Arab officials told The Associated Press.

Before Israel’s Security Cabinet approved the plan to take over Gaza City, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had outlined more sweeping plans Thursday in an interview with Fox News, saying Israel planned to take control of all of Gaza. Israel already controls around three-quarters of the territory.

Hamas rejected Israel’s plans. “Expanding of aggression against our Palestinian people will not be a walk in the park,” the group said in a statement.

Netanyahu had signaled plans for even broader war

International powers, including Israeli allies France, Britain and Canada, have stepped up criticism of the war amid mounting shock over media reports showing starvation.

Germany said Friday it would not authorize the export of military equipment that could be used in Gaza until further notice.

Tensions could rise further if Netanyahu follows through on the more sweeping plans to take control of the entire territory, two decades after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal.

Israel’s new plan may be aimed in part at pressuring Hamas to accept a ceasefire on Israel’s terms.

It may also reflect the reservations of Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who reportedly warned that expanding operations would endanger the remaining 20 or so living hostages held by Hamas and further strain Israel’s army after nearly two years of regional wars.

The military “will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement after the Security Cabinet meeting.

Amir Avivi, a retired brigadier general and chairman of Israel’s Defense and Security Forum, estimated it would take less than three months to mobilize some 30,000 troops, evacuate Palestinian civilians and take over Gaza City.

Hamas-led militants triggered the war when they stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 251 people. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals but 50 remain inside Gaza. Israel believes around 20 of them to be alive.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals.

The United Nations and independent experts view the ministry’s figures as the most reliable estimate of casualties. Israel has disputed them without offering a toll of its own.

Mediators try again to end the war

The efforts for a new ceasefire have the backing of major Arab Gulf monarchies, according to two officials who spoke anonymously due to the sensitivity of the discussions. One is involved directly in the deliberations and the second was briefed on the efforts. The monarchies are concerned about further regional destabilization if Israel fully reoccupies Gaza, the officials said.

The yet-to-be finalized framework aims to address the contentious issue of what to do with Hamas’ weapons, with Israel seeking full disarmament and Hamas refusing. The official directly involved in the efforts said discussions are underway about “freezing arms,” which may involve Hamas retaining but not using its weapons. It also calls for the group to relinquish power in the strip.

A Palestinian-Arab committee would run Gaza and oversee the reconstruction efforts until the establishment of a Palestinian administration with a new police force, trained by two U.S. allies in the Middle East, to take over the strip, the official said. It is unclear what role the Western-backed Palestinian Authority would play.

The second official said the U.S. administration has been briefed on the broad lines of the framework.

A senior Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to brief the media, said the group has yet to receive details on the latest efforts to revive ceasefire talks.

AP reached out to the governments in Qatar, Egypt and Israel as well as the White House for comment.

Wishes for an end to the war

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff told hostage families during his recent visit that Israel was shifting its approach to pursue a comprehensive “all-or-nothing” deal aimed at ending the war and securing the release of hostages, a person who attended the meeting told the AP, speaking on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak about the private meeting.

Israelis united behind the war in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, but dissent has steadily grown as hostages have languished in captivity. Some families of the hostages and their supporters have staged large protests calling for a ceasefire with Hamas that would bring their loved ones home.

“All of Israel wants a comprehensive deal and an end to the war,” Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, said in a statement on Friday. “For the State of Israel to guarantee the security of its citizens, we must end this injustice that has been done to our loved ones for 22 months.”

‘There is nothing here to occupy’

Israel has repeatedly bombarded Gaza City and carried out numerous raids there, only to return to neighborhoods again and again as militants regrouped. Today, it is one of the few areas in Gaza that hasn’t been turned into an Israeli buffer zone or placed under evacuation orders.

Umm Youssef from Gaza City said she had left the city for over 16 months before returning to her home.

‘The area is all rubble. Rubble is an overstatement, it is a sandpile. There is nothing here to occupy. There is no life here,” she said.

A major ground operation there could displace tens of thousands of people and further disrupt efforts to deliver food to the hunger-stricken territory.

At least six Palestinians were shot dead and more than 140 were wounded on Friday at the Israeli-run Zikim Crossing in northern Gaza, where U.N. aid convoys enter, according to Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, the director of Shifa Hospital, which received the dead and wounded. He said all six were killed by Israeli gunfire. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

It’s unclear how many people are still in Gaza City. Hundreds of thousands fled under evacuation orders in the opening weeks of the conflict, but many returned during a ceasefire earlier this year. (Israel plans to seize Gaza City in escalation of war with Hamas.)

Netanyahu has confirmed reports that Israel plans an extreme escalation in Gaza which will entail the total military occupation of the entire enclave and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, which the Israeli spin machine has termed “voluntary migration”.

To be clear, anyone who says the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza would be “voluntary” is lying. Starving a population and deliberately making their land uninhabitable is exactly the same as forcing them out at gunpoint. Saying “leave or you’ll starve” is not meaningfully different from saying “leave or I’ll shoot you in the head”. Israel’s planned mass expulsion will be as forced and involuntary as any in recorded history.

President Trump has fully signed off on this move, washing his hands of the mass atrocity he is cosigning by telling the press that it’s going to be “pretty much up to Israel.”

Trump is lying. It’s up to him. That’s why more than 600 former senior Israeli security officials from Mossad and Shin Bet just sent Trump a letter urging him to compel Netanyahu to make peace in Gaza. They understand that the US president has always had the power to end the Gaza holocaust; numerous Israeli insiders have said that this mass atrocity would not be possible without US assistance.

Trump could end all this at any time, and chooses not to. This makes him one of the most evil people in the world.

This whole genocide is powered by lies. Netanyahu just told Fox News that the horrifying aerial footage of the destruction in Gaza that we’ve been seeing is because every single building in Gaza was booby trapped with explosives by Hamas.

“The reason you see the flattened buildings is because Hamas booby traps every single building,” Netanyahu said. “So when we come in, we first have the population moved even though Hamas tries to keep them in the combat zones. But after they move, and we start to move into the neighborhoods that are now populated only by terrorists, they ignite these booby traps. So what we do is we put in an APC, an armored personnel carrier, with a lot of explosives. Detonate it. It sets off all the booby traps and the buildings begin to collapse as a result of that. They’re empty buildings, they’re not populated buildings.”

Absolutely nobody believes this is true. Not one single person alive on this earth sincerely believes that Gaza now looks like a gravel parking lot because Hamas placed explosives inside every single building. Netanyahu doesn’t believe it. Israel’s most venomous supporters don’t believe it. It’s just part of the nonstop fountain of lies they are spewing to avoid acknowledging what we all know we’re looking at. They’ve told so many lies by now that they’ve got to keep lying and lying just to stay afloat, like a man desperately treading water to avoid drowning.

This genocide is one nonstop insult to our intelligence. It’s actually degrading at this point. The lies Israel and its supporters have to pretend to believe are getting so ridiculous that supporting Israel is now an act of public humiliation and self-debasement.

Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett has a long rant on his social media accounts complaining that Israel’s “status in the United States is collapsing”, including among Republicans, with public sentiment turning against them because of what is happening in Gaza. 

As you might expect, Bennett does not frame this as a sign that Israel should stop committing genocide in Gaza, but rather complains of a crisis of “antisemitism” in the United States, and accuses Netanyahu of failing to adequately propagandize Americans.

“Jews in the United States are subject to a torrential wave of anti-Semitism, like him I don’t remember in my life,” Bennett moans, adding, “Antisemites increase to compare the ‘hunger’ in Gaza to the Holocaust, and thus reduce the memory of the Holocaust. They act that the hunger accusation will haunt israel its citizens, our soldiers, for generations.”

“If Netanyahu’s propaganda men worked against the enemies of Israel *outside* a tenth of the talent, speed and dedication with which they operate the propaganda machine against their political rivals *inside* Israel our situation would be amazing,” Bennet writes, saying he wants to “re-establish a rapid and synchronized explanation headquarters”.

“Explanation” is the literal translation of the Hebrew word “hasbara”, i.e. pro-Israel propaganda.

Meanwhile the term “hasbara” itself is reportedly being abandoned by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, as westerners have come to associate the term with genocide propaganda.

The Times of Israel reports:

“Long referred to as hasbara, a term used to denote both public relations and propaganda that has been freighted with negative baggage in recent years, the ministry now brands its approach as toda’a — which translates to ‘awareness’ or ‘consciousness’ — an apparent shift toward broader, more proactive messaging.”

So they’re not abandoning the genocide, and they’re not abandoning the genocide propaganda, they’re just abandoning the word for the genocide propaganda because people have come to associate that word with propaganda in support of genocide.

The entire Zionist project is built on a foundation of lies. And their lies are starting to catch up with them. They’re now at a point where the lies are beginning to damage the public image they’re intended to protect.

When a liar is recognized as a liar, his lies will forevermore work only as an antidote to his past lies, and as a light to further expose his intent. From that point on any lie he tells just shows people how ugly his character and intentions really are.

There is no other weapon that works that way. No other weapon which when it’s seen immediately stops working, actively disarms the attacker, starts fixing what he broke, and starts attacking him.

Truth will win in the end.  (Israel Is Beginning To Choke On Its Own Lies.)

No, no kind of naturalistic truth can triumph, at least for long, without the help of Sanctifying Grace won for us by the Devine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus and that flows into hearts and souls of redeemed creatures through loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces, by the power of the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost.

As I noted eight months ago in Ever At the Service of Those Who Deny Christ the King Before Men, part two, the Zionist lobby has worked overtime in the United States of America and around the word to invoke the word “holocaust” stop all criticism of Zionism in general and the Zionist State of Israel’s policies in particular. All criticism of Jews, Judaism, Zionism and the policies of the State of Israel is considered to be “antisemitic,” and those who engage in “antisemitism” must be deemed as unacceptable participants in public life and even subject to government surveillance as potential fomenters of “hate crimes.” Both United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio and United States Attorney General Pamela Bondi have said that all criticism of Israel and Zionism is antisemitic.

Thus, no one is permitted to call a genocide by its proper name as the targeting of innocent civilians and even Catholic churches by the Israelis in Gaza and Israeli squatters in the West Bank as criminal activity. This effort to control speech is truly Orwellian, something that secular Jewish writer who grew up in a Zionist family recently noted as follows:

Correct nomenclature, as I have long argued, is essential for our understanding of things, people, events. Unless we name something properly we will not know how to judge it or what the right course of action may be in response to what it does. This is why our public discourse is so mixed up in the matter of what to call things: Naming something rightly is powerful; so is naming something wrongly, or refusing to name it all.

We are now urged — and required by law in many jurisdictions — to accept a definition of “antisemitism” that is beyond preposterous. With the assistance of various committees and Jewish groups, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance has crafted a “working definition” of this term that, to sum up its many clauses, makes criticism of Israel or Zionism antisemitic. This is an absurd misnomer — purposeful and very consequential.

Roughly three dozen states now accept the IHRA definition; as Chris Hedges reported this week, New Jersey is currently debating a law to this effect. An increasing number of institutions, notably but not only universities, are also using the IHRA definition. As Hedges asserts in the above-linked piece, this is a straight-out attack on free speech. Taking the IHRA definition to its logical conclusion, we are headed in the direction of thought control.

There are other cases — many, indeed — wherein the accepted nomenclature is critical. If you do not call the United States an empire you won’t be able to see why and how it has become, for some decades now, the No. 1 most violent, destructive and disruptive force in global affairs. And since we are not supposed to see any such thing, you cannot call the United States an empire and expect to be taken seriously in what is quaintly known as — another misnomer — polite company.

We come now to the question of Israel’s terror campaign in Gaza (and its escalating terror campaign in the West Bank). What shall we call these daily depravities? Do we or do we not witness a genocide?

If there is a more contentious case of getting the name right, I cannot think of it. Call Israel’s assault on Gaza a genocide and you will understand the Zionist state one way and there will be legal ramifications; reject this term and you are wading around in “the right to defend itself” and other such notions — all of them as flimsy as that IHRA definition of antisemitism — and there will be no legal ramifications. It amounts to enabling justice or apologizing for limitless impunity.

I have never found the world to be very honest with itself. And it has been grossly dishonest since the autumn of 2023. For maybe 21 of these past 22 months, many people have insisted that Israel’s daily barbarities against the Palestinian people amount to a genocide. But the Gaza crisis has brought populations across the West face to face with their political impotence. In the seats of global power and among the media that serve them, Israel’s military aggressions and abuses of international law have gone unnamed. The consequences of this refusal can be measured any number of ways. The deaths of at least 60,000 Palestinians — and we can count this a conservative figure — are one of them.

Whether or not Israel is guilty of conducting a genocide should not be a question as the reality of its conduct enters its 22nd month. But it has been made a question, and at last this question-that-is-not-a-question begins to lose its power, its utility as a curtain drawn over Israel’s atrocities. This marks a significant advance, needless to say, in the right direction.

I have never found The New York Times to be very honest with itself, either. But when the once-but-no-longer newspaper of record takes to publishing opinion pieces (plural as of this week) that forthrightly accuse the Israelis not only of genocide but of genocidal intent, it is safe to conclude something of significance is in the hot summer winds.

We must be careful not to overstate what may come of a now-evident shift of opinion on Israel in high places — what and when. But in my read we are amid a sea change, a prelude to concerted action — legal, diplomatic, political, economic — against the Zionist regime.

Let us begin at the beginning. (And I do not mean to dismiss the long century of Israel’s aggressions against Palestinians prior to the afternoon of Oct. 7, 2023, when Israel began its assault on Gaza.)

In January 2024 the International Court of Justice found that it was “plausible” Israel was in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. I remember how disappointed I was to see the ICJ use so self-sabotaging a word. But even this ruling — cautious, provisional — prompted an uproar anyone paying attention will recall. Reflecting this — in my opinion reflecting this, I should say — the ICJ has since refrained from issuing a final, binding judgment and there is no telling when it will do so.

The first signs of an incipient change in the limits of acceptable discourse appeared last spring. There was a sudden spate of opinion pieces in the mainstream British press — The Economist, the Financial Times, The Independent, et al. — in which the atrocities of Israel’s war-that-is-not-war were at last acknowledged. “The longer it goes on,” The Financial Times wrote in a very pointed opinion piece signed by the editorial board, “the more those who remain silent or cowed from speaking out will be complicit.”

These pieces anticipated by a few weeks yet more powerful denunciations of the “Jewish state” among various government officials. “I condemn Israel for what it is doing to the Palestinian people in Gaza and indeed in the West Bank,” Mark Pritchard, a Conservative MP, said in the House of Commons May 6, “and I’d like to withdraw my support right now for the actions of Israel…. This is a moment in history when people look back, where we’ve got it wrong as a country.”

The headline atop the commentary I published in this space at the time was “Waves Upon the Sea of Silence.” So these were, but what prominent people were suddenly writing and saying in public places was more in the way of ripples. In all the pronouncements and denunciations one read and heard last spring, I know of no case that included the word “genocide.” The term was still all-but-officially off limits.

Now matters take yet another turn. It is as if the Western world is gradually inching its way toward a truthful judgment, with an implicit confession of past silence, of the Israelis’ sadistic attacks — and I consider them this — on the Palestinian people. Of Israel’s conduct of a genocide, this is to say.

Until now a few Israeli peace advocates and other voices of dissent have spoken honestly of the IDF’s purposefully genocidal atrocities. It is another thing when The New York Times publishes a long opinion piece under the headline, “I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.” As many readers instantly understood, Omer Bartov’s essay, which appeared in The Times’s July 15 editions, was a very big deal, for what it said and where it said it. There it was, the “G” word, right in the headline. That yawning space between the sayable and the unsayable in matters to do with Israel suddenly seemed to get narrower.

A little Times-ology here. Bartov’s piece is typical of an old trick to which The Times resorts on occasions of ideological awkwardness. When something must be said that the paper does not want reported as fact in the news pages and with a Times reporter’s byline on it, it brings in an outside voice to hold forth in the opinion pages. So it is with Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown. I imagine The Times’s editors knew they were detonating a bomb when they published his piece; whether or not they knew, it was an explosion of some magnitude.

After explaining his scholarly caution in the first months following the events of October 2023, Bartov surveys the on-the-ground record and the many statements of intent we have heard from Israeli officials and writes:

My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Having grown up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of my life in Israel, served in the I.D.F. as a soldier and officer and spent most of my career researching and writing on war crimes and the Holocaust, this was a painful conclusion to reach, and one that I resisted as long as I could. But I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognize one when I see one.

Bartov goes on to cite the company he keeps as he declares this judgment: Amnesty International, the South Africans, who brought the above-mentioned  genocide case to the ICJ in December 2023, Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, Amnesty International. This week two big names in Israel’s human-rights scene, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel issued reports, here and here, announcing they have come to the same conclusion. This time The Times reported this in its news pages; it was all over media elsewhere, too.

Curiously enough, The Times ran a long audio interview with Bartov a week after his piece appeared, under the headline, “A Genocide Scholar on the Case Against Israel,” but this disappeared into the archives, so far as I can make out, within a few hours. Then on July 30, another bomb on the opinion page: The Times published “The Death of Gaza in Slow Motion,” another essay denouncing Israel for its genocidal conduct; two of its three authors represent Physicians for Human Rights–Israel. 

All kinds of disgraceful apologists have lately rushed to Israel’s defense. Bret Stephens, the most vigorous defender of Israel in The Times’s stable of columnists, published “No, Israel Is Not Committing Genocide” on July 22, arguing nonsensically that if what we witness were a genocide the Israelis would have gotten it done more quickly. That’s our Bret: Israel could bomb the British Foreign Office tomorrow and he would explain why it was necessary and the right thing to do.

A Briton who self-describes as a journalist and activist, one David Collier, immediately indignantly objected vigorously to a photograph, first published in the British press on July 23, of an emaciated Palestinian child in his mother’s arms. The image of 18–month-old Mohammed Zakariya Ayyoub al–Matouq was widely disseminated, a powerful document as the world faces up to Israel’s weaponization of hunger in Gaza. No, Collier reported: al–Matouq has pre-existing medical conditions, cerebral palsy and hypoxemia, that account for his appearance. “This isn’t the face of famine,” Collier wrote in a piece headlined “The Image That Lied.”  

Can you believe The Times of London published Collier’s objections as if the picture was a fraudulent misrepresentation of reality? What is the suggestion here? That there is no epidemic of starvation in Gaza? Can you believe that media across the West, including The New York Times, in one or another way followed suit? Let us hear all about Mohammed Zakariya Ayyoub al–Matouq’s excellent diet and the top-drawer treatment he gets in Gaza’s hospitals, I will add. 

I use this kind of unseemly junk as a mirror, an old habit of mine. The Zionist state, having wildly overplayed its hand in Gaza, has been increasingly on its back foot these past 22 months. Now the countless images of starving Palestinians — men, women, children, ordinary people, doctors, nurses, aid workers — have pushed matters to the point we can now call genocide by its proper name and begin thinking about what must be done about it. 

Better late than not at all, let’s say. And let’s see where things go from here.

France announced last Thursday, July 24, that it intends to recognize Palestinian statehood at the U.N. General Assembly when it convenes this September. On Wednesday, July 30, Britain did, too. True, Kier Starmer, the prime minister, said the U.K. would withhold recognition if, among other things, the Israelis accept a ceasefire and promise not to annex the West Bank. But as The Times of London reported, “Given Israel’s opposition to these terms, this means recognition of a Palestinian state is almost inevitable.”

The momentum is now obvious. As I was finishing this column Thursday, July 31, Canada and Malta announced that they, too, will recognize Palestinian sovereignty at the General Assembly in September. 

Yes, all of these nations are still talking about a two-state solution, which has been a dead letter for years. And no, none uses the term “genocide” in an official capacity: For the time being and the foreseeable future, the legal implications attaching to this term are simply too enormous for this. Neither is there talk in the councils of government anywhere in the West of a full-on sanctions regime such as apartheid South Africa faced, or of investigations of the Zionist state’s plain-as-day crimes against humanity. 

Authentic justice, to put this point briefly, is not near. But the honest naming of things brings the end of Israel’s barbarism nearer. Let us not miss which way those summer winds are blowing. They blow in the right direction. And we can expect more gusts. (Patrick Lawrence: Yes, It’s a Genocide.)

As has been mentioned on this website repeatedly, the Jews who demanded the death of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, though certainly motivated with fierce hatred of Him, were acting as the agents of our sins having transcended time. Nonetheless, however, the Jews who did cry out “Give us Barrabas! Give us Barabbas! We have not king but Caesar” bore responsibility for their actions.  

Our Lord warned the Jewish leaders of His time the fate that awaited them if they persisted in their blindness and hatred:

Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of them that killed the prophets.  32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.  33 You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell?  34 Therefore behold I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city:  35 That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar.

At that time, Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees, Therefore, behold, I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from town to town; that upon you may come all the just blood that has been shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the just unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Amen I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Jerusalem, Jerusalem! you who kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate. For I say to you, you shall not see Me henceforth until you shall say, Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord! (Matthew 23:34-39.)

Our Lord did indeed forgive His executioners, namely, us, on Good Friday, but those who persist in unbelief, neigh well make warfare upon Him by denying His Sacred Divinity and making warfare upon His Holy Church, stand condemned by His own very words.

Second, Biblical Judaism was superseded by Catholicism as Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ took His last breath on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday and as the earth shook, causing the curtain in the temple to be torn in two from top to bottom to signify the transfer of the Kingdom of God from the Temple to Holy Mother Church:

It [the Holy Roman Church] firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord's coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally. Yet it does not deny that after the passion of Christ up to the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been observed until they were believed to be in no way necessary for salvation; but after the promulgation of the Gospel it asserts that they cannot be observed without the loss of eternal salvation. All, therefore, who after that time observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors. Therefore, it commands all who glory in the name of Christian, at whatever time, before or after baptism, to cease entirely from circumcision, since, whether or not one places hope in it, it cannot be observed at all without the loss of eternal salvation. Regarding children, indeed, because of danger of death, which can often take place, when no help can be brought to them by another remedy than through the sacrament of baptism, through which they are snatched from the domination of the Devil and adopted among the sons of God, it advises that holy baptism ought not to be deferred for forty or eighty days, or any time according to the observance of certain people, but it should be conferred as soon as it can be done conveniently, but so ,that, when danger of death is imminent, they be baptized in the form of the Church, early without delay, even by a layman or woman, if a priest should be lacking, just as is contained more fully in the decree of the Armenians. . . .

It firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart "into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels" [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church. (Pope Eugene IV, Cantate Domino, Council of Florence, February 4, 1442.)

28.That He completed His work on the gibbet of the Cross is the unanimous teaching of the holy Fathers who assert that the Church was born from the side of our Savior on the Cross like a new Eve, mother of all the living. [28] "And it is now," says the great St. Ambrose, speaking of the pierced side of Christ, "that it is built, it is now that it is formed, it is now that is .... molded, it is now that it is created . . . Now it is that arises a spiritual house, a holy priesthood." [29] One who reverently examines this venerable teaching will easily discover the reasons on which it is based.

29.And first of all, by the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished; then the Law of Christ together with its mysteries, enactments, institutions, and sacred rites was ratified for the whole world in the blood of Jesus Christ. For, while our Divine Savior was preaching in a restricted area -- He was not sent but to the sheep that were lost of the house of Israel [30] -the Law and the Gospel were together in force; [31] but on the gibbet of his death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees, [32] fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross, [33] establishing the New Testament in His blood shed for the whole human race. [34] "To such an extent, then," says St. Leo the Great, speaking of the Cross of our Lord, "was there effected a transfer from the Law to the Gospel, from the Synagogue to the Church, from many sacrifices to one Victim, that, as our Lord expired, that mystical veil which shut off the innermost part of the temple and its sacred secret was rent violently from top to bottom." [35]

30. On the Cross then the Old Law died, soon to be buried and to be a bearer of death, [36] in order to give way to the New Testament of which Christ had chosen the Apostles as qualified ministers; [37] and although He had been constituted the Head of the whole human family in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, it is by the power of the Cross that our Savior exercises fully the office itself of Head in His Church. "For it was through His triumph on the Cross," according to the teaching of the Angelic and Common Doctor, "that He won power and dominion over the gentiles"; [38] by that same victory He increased the immense treasure of graces, which, as He reigns in glory in heaven, He lavishes continually on His mortal members it was by His blood shed on the Cross that God's anger was averted and that all the heavenly gifts, especially the spiritual graces of the New and Eternal Testament, could then flow from the fountains of our Savior for the salvation of men, of the faithful above all; it was on the tree of the Cross, finally, that He entered into possession of His Church, that is, of all the members of His Mystical Body; for they would not have been united to this Mystical Body. (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943.)

Judaism is a dead religion in which no one can have any hope of pleasing the true God of Divine Revelation or of saving his immortal soul. It has been rejected and superseded and belongs to the kingdom of the adversary, something that, among others, Pope Saint Pius X, William Thomas Walsh, and Monsignor Joseph Clifford Fenton noted with great clarity:

POPE: We are unable to favor this movement [of Zionism]. We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem—but we could never sanction it. The ground of Jerusalem, if it were not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ. As the head of the Church I cannot answer you otherwise.The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.

HERZL: [The conflict between Rome and Jerusalem, represented by the one and the other of us, was once again under way. At the outset I tried to be conciliatory. I said my little piece. . . . It didn’t greatly impress him. Jerusalem was not to be placed in Jewish hands.] And its present status, Holy Father?

POPE: I know, it is disagreeable to see the Turks in possession of our Holy Places. We simply have to put up with it. But to sanction the Jewish wish to occupy these sites, that we cannot do.

HERZL: [I said that we based our movement solely on the sufferings of the Jews, and wished to put aside all religious issues].

POPE: Yes, but we, but I as the head of the Catholic Church, cannot do this. One of two things will likely happen. Either the Jews will retain their ancient faith and continue to await the Messiah whom we believe has already appeared—in which case they are denying the divinity of Jesus and we cannot assist them. Or else they will go there with no religion whatever, and then we can have nothing at all to do with them. The Jewish faith was the foundation of our own, but it has been superceded by the teachings of Christ, and we cannot admit that it still enjoys any validity. The Jews who should have been the first to acknowledge Jesus Christ have not done so to this day.

HERZL: [It was on the tip of my tongue to remark, “It happens in every family: no one believes in his own relative.” But, instead, I said:] Terror and persecution were not precisely the best means for converting the Jews. [His reply had an element of grandeur in its simplicity:]

POPE: Our Lord came without power. He came in peace. He persecuted no one. He was abandoned even by his apostles. It was only later that he attained stature. It took three centuries for the Church to evolve. The Jews therefore had plenty of time in which to accept his divinity without duress or pressure. But they chose not to do so, and they have not done it yet.

HERZL: But, Holy Father, the Jews are in a terrible plight. I do not know if Your Holiness is aware of the full extent of their tragedy. We need a land for these harried people.

POPE: Must it be Jerusalem?

HERZL: We are not asking for Jerusalem, but for Palestine—for only the secular land.

POPE: We cannot be in favor of it.

[Editor Lowenthal interjects here] Here unrelenting replacement theology is plainly upheld as the norm of the Roman Catholic Church. Further, this confession, along with the whole tone of the Pope in his meeting with Herzl, indicates the perpetuation of a doctrinal emphasis that has resulted in centuries of degrading behavior toward the Jews. However, this response has the “grandeur” of total avoidance of that which Herzl had intimated, namely that the abusive reputation of Roman Catholicism toward the Jews was unlikely to foster conversion. Further, if, “It took three centuries for the Church to evolve,” it was that very same period of time that it took for the Church to consolidate and launch its thrust of anti-Semitism through the following centuries.

HERZL: Does Your Holiness know the situation of the Jews?

POPE: Yes, from my days in Mantua, where there are Jews. I have always been in friendly relations with Jews. Only the other evening two Jews were here to see me. There are other bonds than those of religion: social intercourse, for example, and philanthropy. Such bonds we do not refuse to maintain with the Jews. Indeed we also pray for them, that their spirit see the light. This very day the Church is celebrating the feast of an unbeliever who became converted in a miraculous manner—on the road to Damascus. And so if you come to Palestine and settle your people there, we will be ready with churches and priests to baptize all of you. (Marvin Lowenthal, The Diaries of Theodore Herzl.)

From the later words and acts of Simon bar Jonas, it is plain that his conception of the Messiah, as he advanced toward manhood, was that of the vast majority of the Jewish people. Few could imagine the Holy One coming to suffer in atonement for the sins of the world, much less for the sins of Israel. Everyone knew that Moses had been punished for disobedience, that the Babylonian captivity had been the penalty for connivance with idolatry. Yet the old sense of sinfulness had yielded to a certain proud complacency, born in part, no doubt, of an awareness of very real virtues. The Jewish leaders forgot that they were a Chosen People not through any special excellence of their own, but through God's favor to Abraham. This sort of smugness easily takes possession of classes long established in wealth and power.

The doctrine of original sin in particular had been almost wholly forgotten in Israel. True, it still stood boldly forth on the first pages of the Book of Genesis. This makes it all the more astonishing that no one preached it, and hardly any believed it. Perhaps their recent sorrows had made the Jews forget the primal tragedy which was the beginning of human history. Perhaps the vision of towering wheat fields had little by little come to blot out of their minds the memory of the tree of knowledge, the locked garden, the flaming sword. A future woven out of hopeful dreams had become more real than a past as aching and tangible as the rocks of Judea.

It is a curious fact that this sort of idealizing is sometimes the very stuff of which materialists are made. It is because they love this world, its satisfactions and its power, that they turn away from its imperfections to an imaginary world in which they want those gratifications to be fully realized – but in the flesh, in the here and now. Only a mystery of grace could turn such mundane aspirations into a spiritual hope. (William Thomas Walsh, Saint Peter the Apostle, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1948, pp. 24-25.)

It is highly important to understand that this process is quite complex. The terminus a quo, the undesirable condition, from which men are removed in the process of salvation is basically sin, the status of aversion from almighty God. A man is said to be saved, absolutely and simply, when he is taken out of the condition of original or mortal sin and brought into the status of the eternal and supernatural life of grace. Ultimately that process in achieved and perfected when the person saved comes to possess the life of grace eternally and inamissibly, in the everlasting glory of the Beatific Vision. There is genuine salvation, however, when the man who has hitherto been in the state of original or mortal sin is brought into the life of sanctifying grace, even in this world, when that life of grace can be lost through the man's own fault.

There is, however, a definitely social aspect to the process of salvation. In the merciful designs of God's providence, the man who is transferred from the state of original or mortal sin into the state of grace is brought in some way “within” a social unit, the supernatural kingdom of the living God. In heaven that community is the Church triumphant, the company of the elect enjoying the Beatific Vision. On earth it is the Church militant. Under the conditions of the new or the Christian dispensation, that community is the organized or visible religious society which is the Catholic Church, the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ on earth.

We must not lose sight of the fact that people in the condition of aversion from God, in the state of original or mortal sin, belong in some way to a kingdom or an ecclesia under the leadership of Satan, the moving spirit among the spiritual enemies of God. Hence the process of salvation involves necessarily the transfer of an individual from one social unit or community to another, from the kingdom Satan to the true and supernatural kingdom of the living God. (Monsignor Joseph Clifford Fenton, The Catholic Church and Salvation In Light of the Recent Pronouncements of the Holy See, published in 1958 and reprinted in 2006 by Seminary Press, Round Top, New York, pp, 134-135.)

This is important to emphasize as anyone who is unbaptized, a condition that applies to Jews and Mohammedans and pagans, belongs to an ecclesia under the leadership of Satan, which predisposes them to a hatred of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, His Holy Cross and His Holy Church and predisposes them as well to wage wafare against all to do with Our Lord, His Church, His Divine Revelation and even the binding precepts of the Natural Law. Amorality must be the result of such hatred.

To state all this is not to engage in antisememitism but to defend Catholc truth, which applies to all persons. in all places, and at all times.  The most virulent antisemites in the world are those, including the conciliar revolutionaries, who are content to leave the Jews in their own sins and who do not believe that it is their duty to seek their conversion to the true Faith.

It not to indemnify the murderous Mohammedans of Hamas who have killed, tortured, and starved Israeli hostages and who seem not to be in the least concerned about the suffering of the Gazan Palestinians except as it suits its own propaganda purposes, which is just the way is enablers in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem like things, to call the Israeli actions in Gaza, Syrian, Lebanon and even Iran as being undertaken without regard for innocent life as the genocide that is has been and continues to be. This genocide has targeted the healthcare system in Gaza in a particularly brutal way:

Gaza’s already battered healthcare system is in a state of collapse as blood banks run dry and Israeli forces continue targeting clinics and facilities housing patients and displaced families while maintaining an aid blockade.

Healthcare officials in the besieged enclave reported on Wednesday that there is a severe shortage of blood as many would-be donors are too malnourished due to a severe Israeli-induced hunger crisis that has so far claimed the lives of 193 Palestinians, including five in the past 24 hours.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said blood donations are desperately needed across the remaining operational medical facilities in Gaza – al-Shifa Hospital, Al-Aqsa Hospital, and Nasser Hospital.

“We’ve seen at the blood banks many people who were begging doctors to allow them to give blood donations to save their loved ones, but they had to be turned away because they were not fit to donate blood due to the enforced dehydration and starvation,” Mahmoud said.

Amani Abu Ouda, head of the blood bank at al-Shifa Hospital, said most would-be donors who arrive are malnourished, which affects the safety and quality of blood donations.

As a result, she said, “when they donate blood they could lose consciousness within seconds, which not only endangers their health but also leads to the loss of a precious blood unit.”

More than 14,800 patients in Gaza are still in urgent need of specialised medical treatment, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned, calling on the international community to act swiftly.

“We urge more countries to step forward to accept patients and for medical evacuations to be expedited through all possible routes,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement posted on X on Wednesday.

Israeli attacks have continued to pound Gaza, killing at least 44 people on Wednesday.

An overnight attack in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood injured dozens of people. The attack targeted the Sheikh Radwan Health Centre, previously run by the UN refugee agency for Palestinians.

“Last night, while we were having dinner, we suddenly heard people shouting, calling for evacuation. There was no time to take anything no food, no clothes, no bedding. We just ran,” Ghaleb Tafesh, a displaced Palestinian resident, told Al Jazeera.

Among those killed Wednesday were 18 hungry aid seekers, who were shot dead as they approached UN aid trucks and aid distribution sites operated by the United States and Israeli-backed GHF.

So far, more than 1,560 Palestinians seeking aid have been killed by Israeli forces while trying to receive food since GHF began operating in late May.

This week, a group of UN special rapporteurs and independent human rights experts called for the GHF to be disbanded, saying it is “an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law”.

Israel’s air and ground assault has also destroyed nearly all of Gaza’s food production capabilities, leaving its people reliant on aid.

A new report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN satellite centre found that just 8.6 percent of Gaza’s cropland is still accessible following sweeping Israeli forced evacuation orders in recent months. Just 1.5 percent is accessible and undamaged, it said.

Israel blockade extends to medical supplies and fuel

Hamas, meanwhile, called for protests across the world against the starvation in Gaza.

“We call for continuing and escalating the popular pressure in the cities, capitals and squares on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and all the upcoming days with marches, protests and demonstrations in front of the Zionist and US embassies,” Hamas said in a statement.

Israel’s blockade extends to medical supplies and much-needed fuel – shortages that have forced several medical facilities to shut down in recent months.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, warned that Israel’s continued blockade on the entry of fuel into Gaza is affecting “lifesaving” operations.

“In the past two days, the UN collected some 300,000 litres from the Karem Abu Salem [Kerem Shalom] crossing,” Haq told reporters.

“This is far less than what is needed to sustain operations,” he said. “For example, our partners working in health warned today that the lives of more than 100 premature babies are in imminent danger due to the lack of fuel.”

Haq also said that, since March, more than 100 health workers, including surgeons and specialised staff, had been denied entry into the Strip.

Fears mount over possible plans for expanded military offensive in Gaza

The latest deaths came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to announce further military action – and possibly plans for Israel to fully reoccupy Gaza. Experts say Israel’s ongoing offensive and blockade are already pushing the territory of some 2 million Palestinians into famine.

The UN has called reports about a possible expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza “deeply alarming” if true.

Despite international pressure for a ceasefire, efforts to mediate a truce between Israel and Hamas have collapsed.

An expansion of the military offensive in heavily populated areas would likely be devastating.

“Where will we go?” said Tamer al-Burai, a displaced Palestinian living at the edge of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

“Should people jump into the sea if the tanks rolled in, or wait to die under the rubble of their houses? We want an end to this war; it is enough, enough.”

More than 61,158 Palestinians, including at least 18,430 children, have been killed in Gaza since the war began in October 2023, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Forty-nine captives, including 27 who are believed to be dead, are still being held by Hamas, according to Israeli authorities. (Dire blood shortage in Gaza as deaths from Israeli attacks, starvation grow.)

As horrific starvation in Gaza continues to be, though, what is sadder still is that almost no one involved understands that they have chosen to be starved from the truths of the Catholic Faith, including that God is a personal God, a Trinity of Co-Equal Divine Persons, that the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity became Man in Our Lady’s Virginal and Immaculate Womb by the power of the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, that He was born in anonymity and poverty only to die in ignominy and infamy of the wood of the Holy Cross to redeem the many to make it possible for men to sanctify and save their souls as members of the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no genuine order within nations a truly just peace among them. Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ taught us to love our neighbor as we love God, to forgive wrongs and to treat each other as we would treat Him in the very Flesh, and to the will good of all others, the ultimate expression of which is the sanctification and salvation of human souls. Although is very easy even for baptized Catholics to fail to act as redeemed creatures and to see Our Lord in all others, it far easier unbaptized persons to hate other humans and to treat use violence against them.

Writing in Pacem, Dei Munus Pulcherrimum, which was issued on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 1920, Pope Benedict XV explained how the true peace of Our Divine Redeemer must reign in the hearts and souls of men in the aftermath of the needles and immoral war, the World War (I) as it was called at that time, that had been fought with completely amoral means (aerial warfare, gas warfare, the sinking of passenger ships, etc.) without lingering hostilities.

Pope Benedict XV’s plea for peace was not based on “dialogue” and “mutual understanding but in seeing the Divine impress in all others and to forgive all others as Our Lord forgives us in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance:

Peace, the beautiful gift of God, the name of which, as St. Augustine says, is the sweetest word to our hearing and the best and most desirable possession [1]; peace, which was for more than four years implored by the ardent wishes of all good peoples, by the prayers of pious souls and the tears of mothers, begins at last to shine upon the nations. At this We are indeed the happiest of all, and heartily do We rejoice. But this joy of Our paternal heart is disturbed by many bitter anxieties, for if in most places peace is in some sort established and treaties signed, the germs of former enmities remain; and you well know, Venerable Brethren, that there can be no stable peace or lasting treaties, though made after long and difficult negotiations and duly signed, unless there be a return of mutual charity to appease hate and banish enmity. This, then, Venerable Brethren, is the anxious and dangerous question upon which we wish to dwell and to put forward recommendations to be brought home to your people.

2. For Ourselves, never since, by the hidden designs of God, We were raised to the Chair have We ceased to do everything in Our power from the very beginning of the war that all the nations of the world might resume cordial relations as soon as possible. To that end We never ceased to pray, to repeat exhortations, to propose ways of arrangement, to try every means, in fact, to open by divine aid, a path to a just, honourable and lasting peace; and at the same time We exercised all Our paternal care to alleviate everywhere that terrible load of sorrow and disaster of every sort by which the immense tragedy was accompanied.

3. And now, just as from the beginning of Our troubled pontificate the charity to Jesus Christ led Us to work both for the return of peace and to alleviate the horrors of the war, so now that comparative peace has been concluded, this same charity urges Us to exhort all the children of the Church, and all mankind, to clear their hearts of bitterness, and give place to mutual love and concord.

4. There is no need from us of long proof to show that society would incur the risk of great loss if, while peace is signed, latent hostility and enmity were to continue among the nations. There is no need to mention the loss of all that maintains and fosters civil life, such as commerce and industry, art and literature, which flourish only when the nations are at peace. But what is even more important, grave harm would accrue to the form and essence of the Christian life, which consists essentially in charity and the preaching of which is called the Gospel of peace. [2]

5. You know well, and We have frequently reminded you of it, nothing was so often and so carefully inculcated on His disciple by Jesus Christ as this precept of mutual charity as the one which contains all others. Christ called it the new commandment, His very own, and desired that it should be the sign of Christians by which they might be distinguished from all others; and on the eve of His death it was His last testament to His disciples to love one another and thus try to imitate the ineffable unity of the three Divine Persons in the Trinity. “That they may be one as we also are one . . . that they may be made perfect in one”[3]

6. The Apostles, following in the steps of the divine Master, and conforming to His word and commands, were unceasing in their exhortation to the faithful: “Before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves”[4]. “But above all these things have charity which is the bond of perfection”[5]. “Dearly beloved, let us love one another for charity is God”[6]. Our brethren of the first Christian ages faithfully observed these commands of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. They belonged to different and rival nations; yet they willingly forgot their causes of quarrel and lived in perfect concord, and such a union of hearts was in striking contrast with the deadly enmities by which human society was then consumed.

7. What has already been said in favour of charity holds good for the inculcation of the pardoning of injuries which is no less solemnly commanded by the Lord: “But I say to you, love your enemies; do good to them that hate you; pray for those that persecute you and calumniate you, that you may be the children of your Father who is in Heaven, Who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and the bad”[7]. Hence that terribly severe warning of the Apostle St. John. “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in himself.”[8]

8. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in teaching us how to pray to God, makes us say that we wish for pardon as we forgive others: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against Us.”[9] And if the observance of this law is sometimes hard and difficult, we have not only the timely assistance of the grace of Our Divine Redeemer, but also His example to help us to overcome the difficulty. For as He hung on the Cross He thus excused before his Father those who so unjustly and wickedly tortured Him: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”[10] We then, who should be the first to imitate the piety and loving kindness of Jesus Christ, whose Vicar, without any merit of Our own, We are; with all Our heart, and following His example, We forgive all Our enemies who knowingly or unknowingly have heaped and are still heaping on our person and Our work every sort of vituperation, and We embrace all in Our charity and benevolence, and neglect no opportunity to do them all the good in Our power. That is indeed what Christians worthy of the name ought to do towards those who during the war have done them wrong.

9. Christian charity ought not to be content with not hating our enemies and loving them as brothers; it also demands that we treat them with kindness, following the rule of the Divine Master Who “went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil”[11], and finished His mortal life, the course of which was marked by good deeds, by shedding His blood for them. So said St. John: “In this we have known the charity of God, because He hath laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. He that hath substance of this world and shall see his brother in need and shall shut up his bowels from him: how doth the charity of God abide in him? My little children, let us love not in word nor by tongue, but in deed and in truth.”[12]

10. Never indeed was there a time when we should “stretch the bounds of charity” more than in these days of universal suffering and sorrow; never perhaps as to-day has humanity so needed that universal beneficence which springs from the love of others, and is full of sacrifice and zeal. For if we look around where the fury of the war has been let loose we see immense regions utterly desolate, uncultivated and abandoned; multitudes reduced to want of food, clothing and shelter; innumerable widows and orphans reft of everything, and an incredible number of enfeebled beings, particularly children and young people, who carry on their bodies the ravages of this atrocious war.

11. When one regards all these miseries by which the human race is stricken one inevitably thinks of the traveller in the Gospel [13] who, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves, who robbed him, and covered him with wounds and left him half dead. The two cases are very similar; and as to the traveller there came the good Samaritan, full of compassion, who bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, took him to an inn, and undertook all care for him; so too is it necessary that Jesus, of Whom the Samaritan was the figure, should lay His hands upon the wounds of society.

12. This work, this duty the Church claims as her own as heir and guardian of the spirit of Jesus Christ-the Church whose entire existence is a marvelously varied tissue of all kinds of good deeds, the Church, “that real mother of Christians in the full sense of the word, who has such tenderness of love and charity for one’s neighbours that she can offer the best remedies for the different evils which afflict souls on account of their sins.” That is why she “treats and teaches children with tenderness, young people with firmness, old people with great calm, taking account not only of the age but also the condition of soul of each.”[14] It would be difficult to exaggerate the effect of many-sided Christian beneficence in softening the heart and thus facilitating the return of tranquility to the nations.

13. Therefore, Venerable Brethren, We pray you and exhort you in the mercy and charity of Jesus Christ, strive with all zeal and diligence not only to urge the faithful entrusted to your care to abandon hatred and to pardon offences; but, and what is more immediately practical, to promote all those works of Christian benevolence which bring aid to the needy, comfort to the afflicted and protection to the weak, and to give opportune and appropriate assistance of every kind to all who have suffered from the war. It is Our especial wish that you should exhort your priests, as the ministers of peace, to be assiduous in urging this love of one’s neighbour and even of enemies which is the essence of the Christian life, and by “being all things to all men”[15] and giving an example to others, wage war everywhere on enmity and hatred, thus doing a thing most agreeable to the loving Heart of Jesus and to him who, however unworthy, holds His place on earth. In this connection Catholic writers and journalists should be invited to clothe themselves “as elect of God, holy and beloved, with pity and kindness.”[16] Let them show this charity in their writings by abstaining not only from false and groundless accusations but also from all intemperance and bitterness of language, all of which is contrary to the law of Christ and does but reopen sores as yet unhealed, seeing that the slightest touch is a serious irritant to a heart whose wounds are recent.

14. All that We have said here to individuals about the duty of charity We wish to say also to the peoples who have been delivered from the burden of a long war, in order that, when every cause of disagreement has been, as far as possible, removed, and without prejudice to the rights of justice, they may resume friendly relations among themselves. The Gospel has not one law of charity for individuals, and another for States and nations, which are indeed but collections of individuals. The war being now over, people seem called to a general reconciliation not only from motives of charity, but from necessity; the nations are naturally drawn together by the need they have of one another, and by the bond of mutual good will, bonds which are to-day strengthened by the development of civilization and the marvellous increase of communication.

15. Truly, as We have already said, this Apostolic See has never wearied of teaching during the war such pardon of offences and the fraternal reconciliation of the peoples, in conformity with the most holy law of Jesus Christ, and in agreement with the needs of civil life and human intercourse; nor did it allow that amid dissension and hate these moral principles should be forgotten. With all the more reason then, now that the Treaties of Peace are signed, does it proclaim these principles as, for example, it did a short time ago in the Letter to the Bishops of Germany [17], and in that addressed to the Archbishop of Paris [18].

16. And this concord between civilized nations is maintained and fostered by the modern custom of visits and meetings at which the Heads of States and Princes are accustomed to treat of matters of special importance. So then, considering the changed circumstances of the times and the dangerous trend of events, and in order to encourage this concord, We would not be unwilling to relax in some measure the severity of the conditions justly laid down by Our Predecessors, when the civil power of the Apostolic See was overthrown, against the official visits of the Heads of Catholic states to Rome. But at the same time We formally declare that this concession, which seems counselled or rather demanded by the grave circumstances in which to-day society is placed, must not be interpreted as a tacit renunciation of its sacrosanct rights by the Apostolic See, as it is acquiesced in the unlawful situation in which it is placed. Rather do we seize this opportunity to renew for the same reasons the protests which Our Predecessors have several times made, not in the least moved thereto by human interests, but in fulfilment of the sacred duty of their charge to defend the rights and dignity of this Apostolic See; once again demanding, and with even greater insistence now that peace is made among the nations that “for the Head of the Church, too, an end may be put to that abnormal condition which in so may ways does such serious harm to tranquillity among the peoples.”[19]

17. Things being thus restored, the order required by justice and charity re-established and the nations reconciled, it is much to be desired, Venerable Brethren, that all States, putting aside mutual suspicion, should unite in one league, or rather a sort of family of peoples, calculated both to maintain their own independence and safeguard the order of human society. What specially, amongst other reasons, calls for such an association of nations, is the need generally recognized of making every effort to abolish or reduce the enormous burden of the military expenditure which States can no longer bear, in order to prevent these disastrous wars or at least to remove the danger of them as far as possible. So would each nation be assured not only of its independence but also of the integrity of its territory within its just frontiers.

18. The Church will certainly not refuse her zealous aid to States united under the Christian law in any of their undertakings inspired by justice and charity, inasmuch as she is herself the most perfect type of universal society. She possesses in her organization and institutions a wonderful instrument for bringing this brotherhood among men, not only for their eternal salvation but also for their material well-being to the sure acquisition of eternal blessings. It is the teaching of history that when the Church pervaded with her spirit the ancient and barbarous nations of Europe, little by little the many and varied differences that divided them were diminished and their quarrels extinguished; in time they formed a homogeneous society from which sprang Christian Europe which, under the guidance and auspices of the Church, whilst preserving a diversity of nations, tended to a unity that favoured its prosperity and glory. On this point St. Augustine well says: “This celestial city, in its life here on earth, calls to itself citizens of every nation, and forms out of all the peoples one varied society; it is not harassed by differences in customs, laws and institutions, which serve to attainment or the maintenance of peace on earth; it neither rends nor destroys anything but rather guards all and adapts itself to all; however these things may vary among the nations, they are all directed to the same end of peace on earth as long as they do not hinder the exercise of religion, which teaches the worship of the true supreme God.”[20] And the same holy Doctor thus addresses the Church: “Citizens, peoples and all men, thou, recalling their common origin, shalt not only unite among themselves, but shalt make them brothers.”[21]

19. To come back to what We said at the beginning, We turn affectionately to all Our children and conjure them in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ to forget mutual differences and offences and draw together in the bonds of Christian charity, from which none are excluded and within which none are strangers. We fervently exhort all the nations, under the inspiration of Christian benevolence, to establish a true peace among themselves and join together in an alliance which shall be just and therefore lasting. And lastly We appeal to all men and all peoples to join in mind and heart with the Catholic Church and through the Church with Christ the Redeemer of the human race, so that we may address to them in very truth the words of St. Paul to the Ephesians: “But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, Who hath made both one, and breaking down the middle wall of partition . . . killing the enmities in himself. And coming he preached peace to you that were afar off and peace to them that were nigh.”[22]

20. Nor less appropriate are the words which the same apostle addressed to the Colossians: “Lie not to one another: stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds. And putting on the new, him who is renewed unto knowledge according to the image of Him that created it. Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. But Christ is all and in all.”[23]

21. Meanwhile, trusting in the protection of Mary the Virgin Immaculate, who not long ago We directed should be universally invoked as “Queen of Peace,” as also in the intercession of the three Blessed to whom we have decreed the honour of saints, We humbly implore the Holy Ghost the Paraclete that He may “graciously grant to the Church the gifts of unity and peace”[24], and may renew the face of the earth by a fresh outpouring of His charity for the salvation of all. As an earnest of these heavenly gifts and as a pledge of Our paternal benevolence, We impart with all Our heart to you, Venerable Brethren, to all your clergy and people, the Apostolic Benediction. (Pope Benedict XV, Pacem, Dei Munus Pulcherrimum, May 23, 1920.)

On this Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, therefore, may we beg Our Lady, especially through her Most Holy Rosary, to stop our warfare with her Divine Son by means of our own many sins so that we, being cleansed from our stains in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance, are more able to pray for true peace within souls from comes from being in a state of Sanctifying Grace as members of the Catholic Church to hasten the day for the restoration a true pope on the Throne of Saint Peter who will fulfill her Fatima Request for the consecration of Russia collegially with all the world’s true bishops to her Immaculate and thus inaugurate the Reign of Mary.

We do not when this will happen but we must persevere in our prayers that this will happen sooner rather than later so that men everywhere will exclaim:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dóminus, Deus Sábaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra glória tua. Hosánna in excélsis. Benedíctus, qui venit in nómine Dómini. Hosánna in excélsis.

Our Lady, Queen Assumed into Heaven, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.