archive.today • Israel wants to obliterate Gaza to deter Iran, Hezbollah, says Dutch memo - POLITICO
According to media report in the Netherlands, Israeli forces are intentionally using 'disproportionate force' in war on Hamas.
November 14, 2023
Israel is deliberately using "disproportionate force" in Gaza and targeting "civilian infrastructure" in an effort to limit its own losses and showcase its "military force," according to a confidential memo from the Dutch Embassy in Tel Aviv.
The memo, drafted by the Dutch defense attaché in the embassy and seen by Dutch outlet NRC, analyzes Israel's military strategy in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been launching retaliatory airstrikes for over a month straight and conducting a ground invasion, killing more than 11,000 people according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza.
The defense attaché said that the Israeli army is using lethal force in an attempt to limit its own losses and "showcase credible military force to show Iran and its proxies [such as Hezbollah] that they will stop at nothing," NRC reported.
This strategy has the "intention of deliberately causing massive destruction to the infrastructure and civilian centers" in Gaza, targeting houses, bridges and roads, and causing massive civilian casualties, which explains the "high number of deaths" among civilians.
Israel's approach violates "international treaties and laws of war" and increases the chance of regional escalation, the memo said.
The embassy's defense attaché also wrote that Israel is trying to completely eliminate the threat of Hamas, a "military goal that is virtually impossible to achieve." Israel is motivated by revenge, the memo said, as "the emotion and anger reverberate in IDF [Israeli army] briefings."
The memo also accuses the Dutch government of being aware of Israel's "ruthless approach," yet failing to condemn it. While Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that Israel "must show that what they are doing is also proportionate," he has not publicly called for a cease-fire.
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that "not every internal document should be viewed as a policy recommendation."
"We do not comment on the wide variety of documents that are drafted at the ministry or at the diplomatic missions as part of the policy-making process," it said in an emailed statement.
The ministry added that the Netherlands is "highly concerned" about the "severity and scale" of the Israel-Hamas conflict and that "further civilian casualties on both sides must be avoided."
"We call for restraint, and we continue to emphasise this in all our diplomatic conversations," the ministry said. "The situation is highly complex. And that only goes to reaffirm the importance of investigating events on the ground."
MSNBC had this doctor on to talk about the horrible situation in Gaza.
I don't know anything about him - I copy and pasted that for context.
I was listening to in the background so I don't know how long the interview was. I think ~7 minutes at least. I noticed something very unusual. Almost zero questions. Stephanie Ruhle was interviewing him. Ruhle isn't rude but it's her habit to pepper guests with questions. She always does that. I've never seen her be so quiet. Also - MSNBC's PR shtick is that they ask questions and it makes you smarter. I forget an recent tagline - it was something like "Never stop asking questions".
It's the norm that anchors/reporters ask a lot of questions. In one way - the lack of questions was really great. He was highly knowledgeable and informed the audience in stark terms about how awful things are. That's the first time I've seen that on CNN or MSNBC. But the producers must have had him on because even though he didn't pull punches about the medical situation - they knew he was very politic and he'd avoid "politics".
The end result was that the agent of the chaos, Israel, hardly came up at all. It was like these horrible unfolding health problems were happening all by themselves due to unknown or poorly understood causes.