Bishara: Gaza war's origins And U.S. responsibility

Oct 7, 2023

Goodman interviews Marwan Bishara about Twelve Days That Shook the Middle East: Origins of a Genocide. He argues the first twelve days revealed a predetermined strategy rooted in ideology, dehumanization and exaggeration. He describes the Hannibal directive and claims its apparent October 7 use may have killed hundreds of Israelis; that estimate is not established. He cites mobilization, lethal targeting systems and official and soldier rhetoric as evidence of intent. Bishara accuses Biden officials of war participation, cites Biden's October 18, 2023 cabinet meeting, and disputes ceasefire-defense narratives. Archival clips show Sherman supporting Israel as an ally while saying Netanyahu and U.S. participation created genocide, and Miller rejecting genocide while asserting war crimes and distinguishing personal opinion from government conclusions. Goodman mentions McGurk's book. Bishara condemns Trump's displacement/redevelopment vision, weaponized aid and attacks on international institutions, and calls Security Council recognition of an undefined Board of Peace illegal while specifying that he is a historian rather than a legal scholar. Intent, responsibility, membership and legality remain his claims; the differing Sherman and Miller positions remain intact.

Kan's third-anniversary retrospective recalls the October 7, 2023 attacks through the breached Gaza-border fence, attackers in Sderot, abductions of Noa Argamani and Ohad Ben Ami and the flight of Nova attendees. Its opening gives 1,200 murdered and thousands wounded. The Nahal Oz reconstruction, the Yahalomi/Brodutch and other families' first-person accounts, and Soroka's reception of survivors add substantive local evidence of the same wider attack and its immediate casualties and abductions. Source-specific recollections, defender timings and initial family beliefs remain attributed. The coordinated massacre is bounded to October 7; the ensuing multi-year war, independent local encounters, later rescues and 2026 memorials retain separate identities. Kan's October 4 accounts independently recount the Sharabi family's attack and abductions, the Yahalomi family's abduction and escape and Noam Ben Shalosh's emergency treatment. Their scoped passages add firsthand local and casualty evidence of the same coordinated attack, while preserving each specific occurrence and source qualification. In the October 6 UN Geneva briefing, Rolando Gómez reads António Guterres's message issued the previous night. Its retrospective attributes the October 7, 2023 attack to Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, recalls more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals killed and 251 people abducted to Gaza, and mourns the victims and those who died in captivity. These are Guterres's source-attributed figures and characterization, compatible with the existing survivor accounts; the ongoing war and the October 5 anniversary message remain separate occurrences. IRINN's October 6 opening editorial offers a materially different retrospective position: it praises Al-Aqsa Storm as a resistance victory that shattered Israel's security image and changed regional equations. This is the broadcaster's strategic and political assessment, preserved alongside Kan's victim and survivor accounts rather than substituted for them. Roi Kais's October 6 regional analysis retrospectively argues that the massacre sought to derail Saudi–Israel normalization as well as kill Israelis, compares it with the Flydubai incident's damage to UAE air links and recalls MBS's pre-attack optimism. This strategic-purpose and diplomatic-consequence interpretation remains Kais's account, separately represented from the firsthand attack and casualty accounts. DD India's October 7 third-anniversary retrospective also recounts the breached Gaza border, attacks on communities, military positions and Nova, approximately 1,200 killed and 251 abducted. This is another compatible source-attributed account of the original 2023 assault; its 2026 memorials and later diplomatic or military developments remain separately scoped. Democracy Now's October 7 retrospective recounts Maoz Inon's parents' deaths and burned home. In a separate current interview, Marwan Bishara calls the attack horrific but alleges apparent Israeli use of the Hannibal directive caused perhaps hundreds of Israeli civilian deaths, as well as Palestinian deaths. This qualified estimate and causal claim are his account, not an established casualty finding, and are retained separately from survivor testimony and other political interpretations.