By Caitlin Johnstone
9-6-26

In a recent appearance at the Hampton Institute, Hillary Clinton stated that Benjamin Netanyahu's "first and foremost" offense is the damage he has done to Israel and its reputation.

"There should be no doubt in anyone's mind how seriously Netanyahu has damaged, first and foremost, Israel," Clinton said. "And second, the perception that people not just in the United States, but around the world, have of Israel, and that has to be repaired."

She hit that "first and foremost" part especially hard while speaking. Really leaned her ovaries into it.

This is liberal Zionism in a nutshell. The problem isn't Israel damaging Palestinian lives, the problem is Benjamin Netanyahu damaging Israel's public image. The problem isn't the genocide itself, the problem is that the genocide harms Israeli PR interests.

They don't care about human suffering. They don't care about human rights. All they care about is controlling the narrative.

We saw this illustrated a couple of years ago in a rant by then-secretary of state Antony Blinken complaining of the way videos of Israeli atrocities circulating online have "dominated the narrative" and are having "a very, very challenging effect on the narrative." The problem isn't what's happening, the problem is people's STORY about what's happening. All the genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and abuse would be fine if the Zionists could control what narratives people were telling about it. Benjamin Netanyahu is disliked not because he's a genocidal monster, but because his genocidal monstrousness makes it hard to administer effective empire propaganda.

Amid the savagery of the Trump administration it's easy to forget that the lion's share of the killing in Gaza actually happened under Joe Biden. It's easy to forget Biden's lies about seeing pictures of beheaded babies and his false claims that the Gaza health ministry's death counts were untrustworthy. It's easy to forget the way State Department spokesman Matthew Miller always weaseled his way out of press gallery questions about the genocide with an obnoxious smirk on his face. It's easy to forget all the DNC attendees who covered their ears as anti-genocide demonstrators listed names of Palestinian children who'd been butchered by Biden in Gaza.

They fully embraced Israel's genocide. They reveled in it.

And now, just in time for midterms, former senior Biden officials have been telling the press that they regret not doing more to rein in Netanyahu's mass military slaughter.

This was always the plan. They always knew they could just give Israel whatever it wants and then go "Oopsie! We made a mistake!" to cover their legacy after their crime was committed. And now that's exactly what they're doing. They planned this while the bombs were being shipped out.

This happens as House Democrats help Republicans pass a bipartisan bill which essentially forces American universities into partnerships with the state of Israel, stripping them of federal funding if they move toward divestment from the Zionist entity.

Kyle Blomquist (@BlomquistForMI): "This bill effectively prohibits divestment from Israel. Worse yet, it creates a condition where any university not invested in Israel ultimately risks having their funding revoked on grounds of discrimination against a foreign country. Land of the free, by the way."

Quoting Politics & Poll Tracker (@PollTracker2024): "US House passes legislation that blocks federal aid for colleges and universities if they engage in discriminatory commercial or academic boycotts against Israel in 237-169 vote. 33 House Democrats voted in favor, 2 House Republicans voted against."

And now top Israeli officials are openly saying that it is time to complete the ethnic cleansing project in Gaza, with Defense Minister Israel Katz and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir both promoting a plan for a mass purge in recent days. All made possible by the deliberate demolition of Gaza with the full-throated support of the Democratic Party.

This is who they are. Never let them forget it.

Liberal Zionists are just Israel supporters who want Israel to have more public approval. They desire an attractive, charming, Obama-style Israel which murders and abuses Palestinians discreetly while peddling the "two-state solution" myth and uttering flowery prose about equality and peace. They dislike the Trump-style Israel of today which makes no effort to conceal its sadistic nature.

99% Johnny Graz (@jvgraz): "Liberal Zionism: when you draw the line at killing 'large numbers of' Palestinians."

Quoting Shadi Hamid (@shadihamid): "You can be a Zionist and oppose what Israel has done in Gaza, as many liberal Zionists do. There's nothing in the belief that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state that necessitates being okay with killing large numbers of Palestinians."

Unfortunately for them, today's Israel is the only Israel on the menu. Turns out you can't set up a racist state built on a racist ideology without that state coming to be dominated by overt and vocal racists. The Trump-style Israel which has given rise to Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich is the natural culmination of everything that Israel is and has always been.

There is no going back. Your liberal nice guy mask will never fit over the face of Israel again. The world will forevermore see the Zionist project for what it is. That toothpaste is never going back in the tube.

Now it's just a matter of the world coming together to dismantle a genocidal apartheid state. Because we all know that's what needs to be done.

-- Caitlin Johnstone

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