What Veritas?? Like tossing babies into microwaves? Like hiding their weapons and troops in schools and hospitals? Like throwing homosexuals off of rooftops? Treating women like chattel? Globalize the infatada? No, Veritas, your statement is anything but truth.
FWIW (if it matters to you? For what its worth...) neither ChatGPT5 or GROK4 return any evidence of Palestinians "tossing babies into microwaves" or "throwing homosexuals off of rooftops", or of Hamas doing either of these things, either. As to "chattal", ChatGPT5 notes: "The Phrase “like chattel”
That wording usually comes from political rhetoric, designed to dehumanize a whole people.
In reality, Palestinian women—like women everywhere—live within a spectrum of cultural, religious, and socioeconomic conditions, not a monolithic pattern." And: Here are a (abbreviated)
list of Israelis and Jews outside of Israel, who are speaking up. I encourage your reading them, watching their interviews and online video appearances, and thus coming up to speed with the Genocide underway by Israel, on the Palestinians in Gaza. Again, from ChatGPT5: Israeli Jews (or Israeli-based voices) speaking out
1. Amos Goldberg
Who: Holocaust studies scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
What he said: Described Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, saying, “What is happening in Gaza is a genocide because Gaza does not exist anymore.” He cited indiscriminate killing, infrastructure destruction, forced displacement, and dehumanizing rhetoric as factors meeting the UN’s definition
Why it matters: Academically rigorous and personally courageous—this comes from someone deeply familiar with genocide studies.
2. Omer Bartov
Who: Israeli‑American Holocaust and genocide historian at Brown University.
What he said: Resigned from the editorial board of Yad Vashem Studies, asserting that colleagues treated the killing of thousands of children as if it “is either none of its business or perfectly justified.” By mid‑2024, he declared Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal actions
Wikipedia
.
Why it matters: A scholar of genocide and Holocaust history who has publicly taken a moral stand.
3. Israeli Human Rights Organizations (B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel)
What they said: In July 2025, these groups formally declared that Israeli actions in Gaza constitute genocide—using the strongest legal and moral terminology from within Israeli civil society
Wikipedia
+4
The Guardian
+4
YouTube
+4
Amnesty International
+4
AP News
+4
Al Jazeera
+4
.
Why it matters: These are collective voices rooted in investigative work, not isolated commentary.
4. Ofer Cassif (MP) and protest movement
Who: Israeli Member of Knesset (from Joint List), active in anti-war protests.
What he emphasized: In a Guardian op‑ed, he tied Israeli actions with famine and dehumanizing state policy, and invoked “never again” to warn against atrocities, urging sanctions and accountability
The Guardian
.
Jewish voices outside Israel
5. Norman Finkelstein (American)
Who: Political scientist and outspoken critic of Israeli policy, often charged as controversial but deeply knowledgeable.
What he argues: Labels Israel a “Jewish supremacist state,” accuses it of apartheid, and claims it is indistinguishable, in scale of targeting civilians, from terrorist organizations. His stark, forensic style puts him in the thick of unflinching critique
Why it matters: An articulate, scholarly, relentless critic with a strong moral lens.
6. Miko Peled (Israeli-born, now U.S.-based activist)
Who: Son of an Israeli general turned peace advocate and author.
What he says: Calls Israel a "racist settler regime" conducting ethnic cleansing, brands the IDF a "well-oiled ethnic-cleansing machine," and pushes for a secular, democratic Palestine for all
Wikipedia
.
Why it matters: His voice combines personal history, activism, and emotional clarity.
7. Judith Butler (American philosopher, Jewish)
What she said: Has condemned Israel’s assault on Gaza as genocide and called for mass objection and immediate ceasefire—pointing to long-term systemic violence that needs deeper solutions
Why it matters: A leading philosopher known for profound moral arguments.
Summary Table
Name / Entity Position or Role What They Said
Amos Goldberg Israeli Holocaust studies scholar "Gaza does not exist anymore"—Israel is committing genocide
Omer Bartov Israeli-American genocide historian Accuses Israel of systematic war crimes and genocidal actions
B’Tselem & Physicians for Human Rights–Israel Israeli human rights groups Formally declared Israeli actions in Gaza as genocide
Ofer Cassif Knesset Member Protest rhetoric invoking “never again”; calls for international accountability
Norman Finkelstein American political scientist Calls Israel a Jewish supremacist apartheid state via harsh critique
Miko Peled Israeli-born activist in U.S. Labels Israeli policy as ethnic cleansing, calls for equal democratic state
Judith Butler American philosopher Calls assault “genocide,” urges global voices to object
Final Thoughts — “Tell it like it is”
Those who speak out are often ostracized or accused of betrayal—but their voices are indispensable.
What unites them isn’t ideology but moral clarity: seeing mass civilian suffering, dehumanizing language, and intentional policy outcomes, and calling them by their rightful name—genocide.
If your instinct is to question or dig deeper, that’s healthy. Each statement above comes with sources; reading their detailed arguments is essential before passing judgment.
Let me know if you'd like excerpts, deeper analysis, or other voices I've missed.
This (below) is entirely by ChatGPT5. There is actually now so much more information (I obtained this from ChatGPT5 about 2 months ago) that many are reaching the consensus that it was (clearly) a false flag operation by elements within Israel. (It seems that everyone (or anyone) can at times be trapped in 'echo chambers'. If making that mistake, one can start to think they understand something. My sources are very broad--including The Rod Martin Report.) Ok, from ChatGPT5: 1. Stand-Down Orders, Shitrit’s Testimony, Flynn’s Interviews, and Media Fabrications
Overview
On October 7, 2023, the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel penetrated the border fence at multiple points, inflicting heavy casualties on both civilians and military personnel. While Israeli government and military narratives emphasized surprise and overwhelming force, testimony from within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and statements by foreign observers — including retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — have raised questions about the presence of “stand-down” orders in the hours before the attack began.
This section examines:
1. The sworn testimony of IDF soldier Shalom Shitrit before a Knesset committee.
2. The released recording that appears to corroborate at least one such order.
3. Flynn’s public interviews claiming stand-down orders occurred.
4. The absence of public commentary from Jewish or Israeli analysts on Flynn’s statements, despite intense online speculation.
5. The “40 beheaded babies” fabrication — its origin, persistence in global media, and debunking by Jewish and Israeli sources.
1. Shalom Shitrit’s Testimony
Shalom Shitrit, a soldier in the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, testified before a Knesset oversight committee in July 2025 that his unit received an unusual order from its battalion commander on the morning of October 7.
According to Shitrit, between 5:20 AM and 9:00 AM, all routine patrols along the Gaza border fence in his sector — roughly a 30-kilometer stretch — were to be suspended. No approach to the fence was permitted during that period. This deviated from standard operating procedure, which requires continuous patrols in shifts from before dawn through late morning.
The order came just over an hour before Hamas initiated the attack with pre-dawn rocket barrages around 6:30 AM, followed by breaches at more than 29 confirmed points along the fence. Shitrit’s patrol zone included Nahal Oz base (850 meters from the fence), Kfar Aza, and Be’eri — all sites of some of the most severe civilian and military casualties that day.
2. The Released Recording
Following Shitrit’s testimony, an audio recording surfaced, allegedly capturing communications from Golani Brigade commanders directing patrol suspensions. While the exact identities of the voices have not been confirmed in the public domain, the tone and content matched Shitrit’s account.
Publicly available Israeli media transcripts have not released the commanders’ names, and no official IDF confirmation has been given.
Analysts note that, if authentic, this would imply the entire battalion sector (not just one squad) operated under the suspension order — since a battalion commander’s directive normally applies to all subordinate companies.
3. Michael Flynn’s Interviews
Michael Flynn, former U.S. National Security Advisor, gave at least two recorded interviews with Steve Bannon’s “War Room” program in the days immediately after October 7. In both, Flynn asserted:
- He had direct contacts within Israel who confirmed there was a “stand-down” order on October 7.
- The order had no legitimate tactical rationale given the proximity to the Gaza fence and the heightened risk environment.
- He considered it a critical failure — or possibly a deliberate allowance — that shaped the scale of the Hamas attack.
Despite the provocative nature of these remarks, there is no record of any Jewish or Israeli public intellectual, journalist, or official publicly responding to Flynn’s claims in the Israeli press, Jewish diaspora outlets, or scholarly publications. This silence stands in contrast to vigorous rebuttals often seen when foreign officials level allegations of Israeli military misconduct.
4. “40 Beheaded Babies” — A Fabrication That Lingers
Within days of the October 7 attacks, several Israeli and international media outlets carried unverified reports that Hamas fighters had “beheaded 40 babies” in Kfar Aza. This claim — traced to an on-the-ground comment from an Israeli soldier to the press — was quickly picked up by major U.S. networks and political figures.
However:
- Israeli government spokespeople later admitted they had no evidence of such an incident.
- Jewish and Israeli journalists, including writers at Haaretz, +972 Magazine, and Israeli Channel 12, explicitly debunked the claim.
- No retractions or prominent corrections were issued by many major U.S. or UK news outlets, leaving the false narrative embedded in the broader public consciousness.
5. Comparison Table — Stand-Down and False Narrative Elements
Source / Actor Claim / Event Evidence Type Corroboration Status Public Response from Jewish/Israeli Analysts
Shalom Shitrit (IDF) Stand-down order from battalion commander 5:20–9:00 AM Testimony, July 2025 Knesset Supported by released recording Limited — mostly factual Israeli coverage, no deep op-eds
Released Recording Matches Shitrit’s testimony Audio recording Partially authenticated No public naming of commanders
Michael Flynn Stand-down order confirmed by Israeli contacts Video interviews with Bannon No independent confirmation No public Jewish/Israeli response found
“40 Beheaded Babies” Hamas beheaded 40 babies Eyewitness claim via media Debunked by Israeli/Jewish journalists Persistent in global media without retraction
Key Points
- Shitrit’s testimony and the recording align on timing, scope, and abnormality of the patrol suspension.
- Flynn’s public statements amplify the perception of a deliberate stand-down but remain unaddressed by Jewish or Israeli commentators.
- The “40 beheaded babies” episode shows how a false narrative, even debunked by Jewish and Israeli sources, can persist globally when retractions are absent.
- No direct evidence confirms a border-wide stand-down; the documented case remains localized to the Golani 13 sector — though this area suffered some of the heaviest losses.
There is a growing consensus that this was a false flag event organized by elements within Israel. ChatGPT5 investigates, but since it generated this, more and more information has come out. ChatGPT5: Stand-Down Orders, Shitrit’s Testimony, Flynn’s Interviews, and Media Fabrications
Overview
On October 7, 2023, the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel penetrated the border fence at multiple points, inflicting heavy casualties on both civilians and military personnel. While Israeli government and military narratives emphasized surprise and overwhelming force, testimony from within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and statements by foreign observers — including retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — have raised questions about the presence of “stand-down” orders in the hours before the attack began.
This section examines:
1. The sworn testimony of IDF soldier Shalom Shitrit before a Knesset committee.
2. The released recording that appears to corroborate at least one such order.
3. Flynn’s public interviews claiming stand-down orders occurred.
4. The absence of public commentary from Jewish or Israeli analysts on Flynn’s statements, despite intense online speculation.
5. The “40 beheaded babies” fabrication — its origin, persistence in global media, and debunking by Jewish and Israeli sources.
1. Shalom Shitrit’s Testimony
Shalom Shitrit, a soldier in the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, testified before a Knesset oversight committee in July 2025 that his unit received an unusual order from its battalion commander on the morning of October 7.
According to Shitrit, between 5:20 AM and 9:00 AM, all routine patrols along the Gaza border fence in his sector — roughly a 30-kilometer stretch — were to be suspended. No approach to the fence was permitted during that period. This deviated from standard operating procedure, which requires continuous patrols in shifts from before dawn through late morning.
The order came just over an hour before Hamas initiated the attack with pre-dawn rocket barrages around 6:30 AM, followed by breaches at more than 29 confirmed points along the fence. Shitrit’s patrol zone included Nahal Oz base (850 meters from the fence), Kfar Aza, and Be’eri — all sites of some of the most severe civilian and military casualties that day.
2. The Released Recording
Following Shitrit’s testimony, an audio recording surfaced, allegedly capturing communications from Golani Brigade commanders directing patrol suspensions. While the exact identities of the voices have not been confirmed in the public domain, the tone and content matched Shitrit’s account.
Publicly available Israeli media transcripts have not released the commanders’ names, and no official IDF confirmation has been given.
Analysts note that, if authentic, this would imply the entire battalion sector (not just one squad) operated under the suspension order — since a battalion commander’s directive normally applies to all subordinate companies.
3. Michael Flynn’s Interviews
Michael Flynn, former U.S. National Security Advisor, gave at least two recorded interviews with Steve Bannon’s “War Room” program in the days immediately after October 7. In both, Flynn asserted:
- He had direct contacts within Israel who confirmed there was a “stand-down” order on October 7.
- The order had no legitimate tactical rationale given the proximity to the Gaza fence and the heightened risk environment.
- He considered it a critical failure — or possibly a deliberate allowance — that shaped the scale of the Hamas attack.
Despite the provocative nature of these remarks, there is no record of any Jewish or Israeli public intellectual, journalist, or official publicly responding to Flynn’s claims in the Israeli press, Jewish diaspora outlets, or scholarly publications. This silence stands in contrast to vigorous rebuttals often seen when foreign officials level allegations of Israeli military misconduct.
4. “40 Beheaded Babies” — A Fabrication That Lingers
Within days of the October 7 attacks, several Israeli and international media outlets carried unverified reports that Hamas fighters had “beheaded 40 babies” in Kfar Aza. This claim — traced to an on-the-ground comment from an Israeli soldier to the press — was quickly picked up by major U.S. networks and political figures.
However:
- Israeli government spokespeople later admitted they had no evidence of such an incident.
- Jewish and Israeli journalists, including writers at Haaretz, +972 Magazine, and Israeli Channel 12, explicitly debunked the claim.
- No retractions or prominent corrections were issued by many major U.S. or UK news outlets, leaving the false narrative embedded in the broader public consciousness.
5. Comparison Table — Stand-Down and False Narrative Elements
Source / Actor Claim / Event Evidence Type Corroboration Status Public Response from Jewish/Israeli Analysts
Shalom Shitrit (IDF) Stand-down order from battalion commander 5:20–9:00 AM Testimony, July 2025 Knesset Supported by released recording Limited — mostly factual Israeli coverage, no deep op-eds
Released Recording Matches Shitrit’s testimony Audio recording Partially authenticated No public naming of commanders
Michael Flynn Stand-down order confirmed by Israeli contacts Video interviews with Bannon No independent confirmation No public Jewish/Israeli response found
“40 Beheaded Babies” Hamas beheaded 40 babies Eyewitness claim via media Debunked by Israeli/Jewish journalists Persistent in global media without retraction
Key Points
- Shitrit’s testimony and the recording align on timing, scope, and abnormality of the patrol suspension.
- Flynn’s public statements amplify the perception of a deliberate stand-down but remain unaddressed by Jewish or Israeli commentators.
- The “40 beheaded babies” episode shows how a false narrative, even debunked by Jewish and Israeli sources, can persist globally when retractions are absent.
- No direct evidence confirms a border-wide stand-down; the documented case remains localized to the Golani 13 sector — though this area suffered some of the heaviest losses.
I think it was pretty clearly Iran seeking to disrupt Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, which they achieved at the (to them, irrelevant) cost of sacrificing the Sunni Hamas. And Hamas was happy to oblige, because when they aren't firing missiles into Israeli schools and neighborhoods -- one year, over 5,000 of them -- they're strapping on suicide vests. Or at least, they're paying other people's families if *they'll* strap on suicide vests.
The Dehumanization of Palestinians Through Language
Key Points (Condensed Summary)
• State and political discourse in Israel has long employed securitized and exceptionalist frames that render Palestinians as perpetual threats, enabling policies that suspend ordinary legal protections [1–4].
• Military terminology (e.g., 'sterilization', 'cleansing', 'separation', 'mowing the lawn') appears in testimonies and internal parlance, shaping how soldiers perceive and act toward Palestinian civilians [3, 5].
• School textbooks and curricula have been shown to erase Palestinian presence, normalize military control, and depict Palestinians through deficit and threat frames, especially in geography/civics materials [6].
• Israeli media framing during uprisings has repeatedly backgrounded Palestinian personhood and foregrounded Israeli security, producing a habitual 'threat script' that normalizes harm [7].
• Bureaucratic-legal language (permits, closures, 'prevention of infiltration') routinizes domination; this language masks coercion as neutral administration and produces 'emergency' as a permanent condition [2, 8, 9].
• Religious-nationalist rhetoric among some settler leaders and rabbis deploys biblical categories to mark Palestinians as enemies outside the moral community; Israeli journalists have documented these calls and their diffusion [10, 11].
• Israeli human-rights NGOs have recorded hate speech/incitement and its relationship to violence, especially in mixed cities and at flashpoints; they show how language legitimizes attacks on persons and property [12].
• Derogatory slurs and metaphors (e.g., 'Arabush', 'cockroach', 'grasshopper', 'Amalek') have been documented by Israeli and Jewish authors as part of a broader discourse of dehumanization, appearing in political speeches, settler propaganda, and popular culture [4, 6, 7, 10].
Detailed Narrative
1. Political and state discourse
Israeli scholars describe a durable repertoire in official and elite speech that casts Palestinians as exceptional security risks and frames the occupied territories as zones of permanent emergency. Neve Gordon shows how such discourse allowed governance that toggles between 'law' and 'force' while normalizing exceptional measures [1]. Adi Ophir and Ariella Azoulay analyze how Palestinians are constituted as subjects of administration rather than citizens, enabling everyday harms through apparently technical language [2]. In this idiom, dehumanization is effected less through open slurs than through the steady classification of a population as administratively manageable danger [2–4]. Nevertheless, Israeli historians have recorded cases where senior leaders used metaphors such as 'two-legged beasts' (Menachem Begin) or 'grasshoppers' (Yitzhak Shamir, citing biblical imagery) to describe Palestinians, contributing to their dehumanization.
2. Military lexicon and combat parlance
Testimonies collected by Breaking the Silence, an Israeli veterans' organization, document recurring terms such as 'sterilization', 'cleansing', and 'terrorist nests' to describe neighborhoods and family homes; such metaphors normalize the treatment of civilian spaces as legitimate targets and reduce residents to categories of risk [3, 5]. Jeff Halper shows how the security sector's doctrine translates into an urban-warfare lexicon that objectifies populations ('mowing the lawn') and infrastructures ('systems warfare') [5].
3. Education and curricular representation
Nurit Peled-Elhanan's critical analysis of Israeli schoolbooks finds consistent erasure of Palestinian history and cartography, differential labeling of violence, and visual grammars that place Palestinians outside the circle of moral concern [6]. This institutionalized semiotics of absence and threat socializes students into a worldview where domination appears normal and Palestinians appear as either invisible or menacing.
4. Media framing and public language
Daniel Dor's study of Hebrew media coverage during the Second Intifada shows that news routines foreground Israeli fear and security while backgrounding Palestinian voices and suffering; this framework produces a commonsense narrative in which Palestinian casualties are treated as context or collateral, not as central subjects [7]. Amira Hass and Gideon Levy, Israeli journalists, have long documented how such normalizing frames seep into daily discourse [4].
5. Bureaucratic language and the production of 'emergency'
Yael Berda details how administrative terms — 'prevention of infiltration', 'security risk', 'closure', 'permit regime' — convert a political conflict into a field of files, queues, and denials [8]. Gordon’s and Ophir/Azoulay’s work shows that this language strips Palestinians of individual legibility and re-describes coercion as neutral procedure, a hallmark of modern dehumanization [1, 2, 9].
6. Religious-nationalist rhetoric and incitement
Israeli journalists and scholars have reported episodes in which influential rabbis and settler leaders deploy biblical categories (e.g., Amalek) to describe Palestinians, authorizing or excusing harm [10, 11]. While not representative of all religious discourse, such statements circulate within political networks and help legitimate the treatment of Palestinians as enemies to be expelled or subdued.
7. Hate speech, incitement, and violence
Israeli human-rights organizations have catalogued instances of incitement and hate speech around marches, in mixed cities, and in social media, and have correlated spikes in dehumanizing rhetoric with physical attacks, vandalism, and arson against Palestinian persons and property [12]. These reports provide Israeli-authored, evidentiary links between words and harms that follow.
8. Derogatory terms and metaphors — documented examples
Numerous derogatory terms have been recorded by Israeli sociolinguists, journalists, and historians as part of the cultural lexicon of dehumanization:
• 'Arabush' — pejorative slang for Arab, documented in media studies and sociolinguistic surveys [4].
• 'Saja' — slang implying an uneducated or backward Palestinian [6].
• 'Kushi' — originally anti-Black term, applied pejoratively to Arabs in some contexts [4].
• 'Cockroach', 'rat', 'vermin' — insect and pest metaphors appearing in settler propaganda and extremist speeches [7, 10].
• 'Grasshopper' — biblical metaphor used by Yitzhak Shamir to convey Palestinians as insignificant [2].
• 'Two-legged beasts' — phrase attributed to Menachem Begin in political rhetoric [1].
• 'Amalek' — biblical enemy archetype invoked by extremist rabbis to mark Palestinians as divinely ordained enemies [10, 11].
Such language has been linked in Israeli NGO reports to an increased tolerance for, and enactment of, violence against Palestinians.
References
1. Gordon, N. Israel’s Occupation. University of California Press, 2008. (Israeli scholar)
2. Azoulay, A.; Ophir, A. The One-State Condition: Occupation and Democracy in Israel/Palestine. Stanford University Press, 2012. (Israeli scholars)
3. Breaking the Silence. Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers’ Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000–2010. Metropolitan Books, 2012. (Israeli veterans’ NGO)
4. Hass, A.; Levy, G. Selected reporting and columns in Haaretz on language, incitement, and erasure, various years. (Israeli journalists)
5. Halper, J. War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification. Pluto Press, 2015. (Israeli scholar-activist)
6. Peled-Elhanan, N. Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education. I.B. Tauris, 2012. (Israeli scholar)
7. Dor, D. Intifada Hits the Headlines: How the Israeli Press Misreported the Outbreak of the Second Palestinian Uprising. Indiana University Press, 2004. (Israeli linguist)
8. Berda, Y. Living Emergency: Israel’s Permit Regime in the Occupied West Bank. Stanford University Press, 2017. (Israeli sociologist)
9. Ophir, A. The Order of Evils: Toward an Ontology of Morals. Zone Books, 2005. (Israeli philosopher)
10. Hasson, N.; Ettinger, Y. Investigative reports in Haaretz on extremist rabbinic rulings and discourse; various years. (Israeli journalists)
11. Aran, G.; Feige, M.; et al. Israeli scholarship on religious nationalism and radicalization; selected essays and volumes, various years. (Israeli scholars)
12. Yesh Din. Tools of Injustice / data briefs on incitement, policing failures, and hate crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank; selected reports, 2013–2024. (Israeli human-rights NGO)
Author Identity Appendix
Neve Gordon — Israeli political scientist (Ben-Gurion University/Queen Mary).
Ariella A. Azoulay — Israeli-born scholar (Brown University).
Adi Ophir — Israeli philosopher (Tel Aviv/Van Leer).
Breaking the Silence — Israeli veterans’ NGO.
Amira Hass — Israeli journalist (Haaretz).
Gideon Levy — Israeli journalist (Haaretz).
Jeff Halper — Israeli anthropologist/activist (ICAHD).
Israel is committing genocide and a long list of war crimes
I very much disagree, but that would be a different article. This one addresses something quite apart from the current war.
What Veritas?? Like tossing babies into microwaves? Like hiding their weapons and troops in schools and hospitals? Like throwing homosexuals off of rooftops? Treating women like chattel? Globalize the infatada? No, Veritas, your statement is anything but truth.
FWIW (if it matters to you? For what its worth...) neither ChatGPT5 or GROK4 return any evidence of Palestinians "tossing babies into microwaves" or "throwing homosexuals off of rooftops", or of Hamas doing either of these things, either. As to "chattal", ChatGPT5 notes: "The Phrase “like chattel”
That wording usually comes from political rhetoric, designed to dehumanize a whole people.
In reality, Palestinian women—like women everywhere—live within a spectrum of cultural, religious, and socioeconomic conditions, not a monolithic pattern." And: Here are a (abbreviated)
list of Israelis and Jews outside of Israel, who are speaking up. I encourage your reading them, watching their interviews and online video appearances, and thus coming up to speed with the Genocide underway by Israel, on the Palestinians in Gaza. Again, from ChatGPT5: Israeli Jews (or Israeli-based voices) speaking out
1. Amos Goldberg
Who: Holocaust studies scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
What he said: Described Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, saying, “What is happening in Gaza is a genocide because Gaza does not exist anymore.” He cited indiscriminate killing, infrastructure destruction, forced displacement, and dehumanizing rhetoric as factors meeting the UN’s definition
Le Monde.fr
+2
Wikipedia
+2
.
Why it matters: Academically rigorous and personally courageous—this comes from someone deeply familiar with genocide studies.
2. Omer Bartov
Who: Israeli‑American Holocaust and genocide historian at Brown University.
What he said: Resigned from the editorial board of Yad Vashem Studies, asserting that colleagues treated the killing of thousands of children as if it “is either none of its business or perfectly justified.” By mid‑2024, he declared Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal actions
Wikipedia
.
Why it matters: A scholar of genocide and Holocaust history who has publicly taken a moral stand.
3. Israeli Human Rights Organizations (B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel)
What they said: In July 2025, these groups formally declared that Israeli actions in Gaza constitute genocide—using the strongest legal and moral terminology from within Israeli civil society
Wikipedia
+4
The Guardian
+4
YouTube
+4
Amnesty International
+4
AP News
+4
Al Jazeera
+4
.
Why it matters: These are collective voices rooted in investigative work, not isolated commentary.
4. Ofer Cassif (MP) and protest movement
Who: Israeli Member of Knesset (from Joint List), active in anti-war protests.
What he emphasized: In a Guardian op‑ed, he tied Israeli actions with famine and dehumanizing state policy, and invoked “never again” to warn against atrocities, urging sanctions and accountability
The Guardian
.
Jewish voices outside Israel
5. Norman Finkelstein (American)
Who: Political scientist and outspoken critic of Israeli policy, often charged as controversial but deeply knowledgeable.
What he argues: Labels Israel a “Jewish supremacist state,” accuses it of apartheid, and claims it is indistinguishable, in scale of targeting civilians, from terrorist organizations. His stark, forensic style puts him in the thick of unflinching critique
The Guardian
+7
ft.com
+7
The Guardian
+7
Wikipedia
.
Why it matters: An articulate, scholarly, relentless critic with a strong moral lens.
6. Miko Peled (Israeli-born, now U.S.-based activist)
Who: Son of an Israeli general turned peace advocate and author.
What he says: Calls Israel a "racist settler regime" conducting ethnic cleansing, brands the IDF a "well-oiled ethnic-cleansing machine," and pushes for a secular, democratic Palestine for all
Wikipedia
.
Why it matters: His voice combines personal history, activism, and emotional clarity.
7. Judith Butler (American philosopher, Jewish)
What she said: Has condemned Israel’s assault on Gaza as genocide and called for mass objection and immediate ceasefire—pointing to long-term systemic violence that needs deeper solutions
democracynow.org
.
Why it matters: A leading philosopher known for profound moral arguments.
Summary Table
Name / Entity Position or Role What They Said
Amos Goldberg Israeli Holocaust studies scholar "Gaza does not exist anymore"—Israel is committing genocide
Omer Bartov Israeli-American genocide historian Accuses Israel of systematic war crimes and genocidal actions
B’Tselem & Physicians for Human Rights–Israel Israeli human rights groups Formally declared Israeli actions in Gaza as genocide
Ofer Cassif Knesset Member Protest rhetoric invoking “never again”; calls for international accountability
Norman Finkelstein American political scientist Calls Israel a Jewish supremacist apartheid state via harsh critique
Miko Peled Israeli-born activist in U.S. Labels Israeli policy as ethnic cleansing, calls for equal democratic state
Judith Butler American philosopher Calls assault “genocide,” urges global voices to object
Final Thoughts — “Tell it like it is”
Those who speak out are often ostracized or accused of betrayal—but their voices are indispensable.
What unites them isn’t ideology but moral clarity: seeing mass civilian suffering, dehumanizing language, and intentional policy outcomes, and calling them by their rightful name—genocide.
If your instinct is to question or dig deeper, that’s healthy. Each statement above comes with sources; reading their detailed arguments is essential before passing judgment.
Let me know if you'd like excerpts, deeper analysis, or other voices I've missed.
Been following you for a while and this article convinced me to jump in as a paid subscriber. Thank you !
And thank you!
This (below) is entirely by ChatGPT5. There is actually now so much more information (I obtained this from ChatGPT5 about 2 months ago) that many are reaching the consensus that it was (clearly) a false flag operation by elements within Israel. (It seems that everyone (or anyone) can at times be trapped in 'echo chambers'. If making that mistake, one can start to think they understand something. My sources are very broad--including The Rod Martin Report.) Ok, from ChatGPT5: 1. Stand-Down Orders, Shitrit’s Testimony, Flynn’s Interviews, and Media Fabrications
Overview
On October 7, 2023, the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel penetrated the border fence at multiple points, inflicting heavy casualties on both civilians and military personnel. While Israeli government and military narratives emphasized surprise and overwhelming force, testimony from within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and statements by foreign observers — including retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — have raised questions about the presence of “stand-down” orders in the hours before the attack began.
This section examines:
1. The sworn testimony of IDF soldier Shalom Shitrit before a Knesset committee.
2. The released recording that appears to corroborate at least one such order.
3. Flynn’s public interviews claiming stand-down orders occurred.
4. The absence of public commentary from Jewish or Israeli analysts on Flynn’s statements, despite intense online speculation.
5. The “40 beheaded babies” fabrication — its origin, persistence in global media, and debunking by Jewish and Israeli sources.
1. Shalom Shitrit’s Testimony
Shalom Shitrit, a soldier in the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, testified before a Knesset oversight committee in July 2025 that his unit received an unusual order from its battalion commander on the morning of October 7.
According to Shitrit, between 5:20 AM and 9:00 AM, all routine patrols along the Gaza border fence in his sector — roughly a 30-kilometer stretch — were to be suspended. No approach to the fence was permitted during that period. This deviated from standard operating procedure, which requires continuous patrols in shifts from before dawn through late morning.
The order came just over an hour before Hamas initiated the attack with pre-dawn rocket barrages around 6:30 AM, followed by breaches at more than 29 confirmed points along the fence. Shitrit’s patrol zone included Nahal Oz base (850 meters from the fence), Kfar Aza, and Be’eri — all sites of some of the most severe civilian and military casualties that day.
2. The Released Recording
Following Shitrit’s testimony, an audio recording surfaced, allegedly capturing communications from Golani Brigade commanders directing patrol suspensions. While the exact identities of the voices have not been confirmed in the public domain, the tone and content matched Shitrit’s account.
Publicly available Israeli media transcripts have not released the commanders’ names, and no official IDF confirmation has been given.
Analysts note that, if authentic, this would imply the entire battalion sector (not just one squad) operated under the suspension order — since a battalion commander’s directive normally applies to all subordinate companies.
3. Michael Flynn’s Interviews
Michael Flynn, former U.S. National Security Advisor, gave at least two recorded interviews with Steve Bannon’s “War Room” program in the days immediately after October 7. In both, Flynn asserted:
- He had direct contacts within Israel who confirmed there was a “stand-down” order on October 7.
- The order had no legitimate tactical rationale given the proximity to the Gaza fence and the heightened risk environment.
- He considered it a critical failure — or possibly a deliberate allowance — that shaped the scale of the Hamas attack.
Despite the provocative nature of these remarks, there is no record of any Jewish or Israeli public intellectual, journalist, or official publicly responding to Flynn’s claims in the Israeli press, Jewish diaspora outlets, or scholarly publications. This silence stands in contrast to vigorous rebuttals often seen when foreign officials level allegations of Israeli military misconduct.
4. “40 Beheaded Babies” — A Fabrication That Lingers
Within days of the October 7 attacks, several Israeli and international media outlets carried unverified reports that Hamas fighters had “beheaded 40 babies” in Kfar Aza. This claim — traced to an on-the-ground comment from an Israeli soldier to the press — was quickly picked up by major U.S. networks and political figures.
However:
- Israeli government spokespeople later admitted they had no evidence of such an incident.
- Jewish and Israeli journalists, including writers at Haaretz, +972 Magazine, and Israeli Channel 12, explicitly debunked the claim.
- No retractions or prominent corrections were issued by many major U.S. or UK news outlets, leaving the false narrative embedded in the broader public consciousness.
5. Comparison Table — Stand-Down and False Narrative Elements
Source / Actor Claim / Event Evidence Type Corroboration Status Public Response from Jewish/Israeli Analysts
Shalom Shitrit (IDF) Stand-down order from battalion commander 5:20–9:00 AM Testimony, July 2025 Knesset Supported by released recording Limited — mostly factual Israeli coverage, no deep op-eds
Released Recording Matches Shitrit’s testimony Audio recording Partially authenticated No public naming of commanders
Michael Flynn Stand-down order confirmed by Israeli contacts Video interviews with Bannon No independent confirmation No public Jewish/Israeli response found
“40 Beheaded Babies” Hamas beheaded 40 babies Eyewitness claim via media Debunked by Israeli/Jewish journalists Persistent in global media without retraction
Key Points
- Shitrit’s testimony and the recording align on timing, scope, and abnormality of the patrol suspension.
- Flynn’s public statements amplify the perception of a deliberate stand-down but remain unaddressed by Jewish or Israeli commentators.
- The “40 beheaded babies” episode shows how a false narrative, even debunked by Jewish and Israeli sources, can persist globally when retractions are absent.
- No direct evidence confirms a border-wide stand-down; the documented case remains localized to the Golani 13 sector — though this area suffered some of the heaviest losses.
100% agree! Thank you for writing this. I wish more young people would learn this history. It is hidden in plain sight history.
There is a growing consensus that this was a false flag event organized by elements within Israel. ChatGPT5 investigates, but since it generated this, more and more information has come out. ChatGPT5: Stand-Down Orders, Shitrit’s Testimony, Flynn’s Interviews, and Media Fabrications
Overview
On October 7, 2023, the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel penetrated the border fence at multiple points, inflicting heavy casualties on both civilians and military personnel. While Israeli government and military narratives emphasized surprise and overwhelming force, testimony from within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and statements by foreign observers — including retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — have raised questions about the presence of “stand-down” orders in the hours before the attack began.
This section examines:
1. The sworn testimony of IDF soldier Shalom Shitrit before a Knesset committee.
2. The released recording that appears to corroborate at least one such order.
3. Flynn’s public interviews claiming stand-down orders occurred.
4. The absence of public commentary from Jewish or Israeli analysts on Flynn’s statements, despite intense online speculation.
5. The “40 beheaded babies” fabrication — its origin, persistence in global media, and debunking by Jewish and Israeli sources.
1. Shalom Shitrit’s Testimony
Shalom Shitrit, a soldier in the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, testified before a Knesset oversight committee in July 2025 that his unit received an unusual order from its battalion commander on the morning of October 7.
According to Shitrit, between 5:20 AM and 9:00 AM, all routine patrols along the Gaza border fence in his sector — roughly a 30-kilometer stretch — were to be suspended. No approach to the fence was permitted during that period. This deviated from standard operating procedure, which requires continuous patrols in shifts from before dawn through late morning.
The order came just over an hour before Hamas initiated the attack with pre-dawn rocket barrages around 6:30 AM, followed by breaches at more than 29 confirmed points along the fence. Shitrit’s patrol zone included Nahal Oz base (850 meters from the fence), Kfar Aza, and Be’eri — all sites of some of the most severe civilian and military casualties that day.
2. The Released Recording
Following Shitrit’s testimony, an audio recording surfaced, allegedly capturing communications from Golani Brigade commanders directing patrol suspensions. While the exact identities of the voices have not been confirmed in the public domain, the tone and content matched Shitrit’s account.
Publicly available Israeli media transcripts have not released the commanders’ names, and no official IDF confirmation has been given.
Analysts note that, if authentic, this would imply the entire battalion sector (not just one squad) operated under the suspension order — since a battalion commander’s directive normally applies to all subordinate companies.
3. Michael Flynn’s Interviews
Michael Flynn, former U.S. National Security Advisor, gave at least two recorded interviews with Steve Bannon’s “War Room” program in the days immediately after October 7. In both, Flynn asserted:
- He had direct contacts within Israel who confirmed there was a “stand-down” order on October 7.
- The order had no legitimate tactical rationale given the proximity to the Gaza fence and the heightened risk environment.
- He considered it a critical failure — or possibly a deliberate allowance — that shaped the scale of the Hamas attack.
Despite the provocative nature of these remarks, there is no record of any Jewish or Israeli public intellectual, journalist, or official publicly responding to Flynn’s claims in the Israeli press, Jewish diaspora outlets, or scholarly publications. This silence stands in contrast to vigorous rebuttals often seen when foreign officials level allegations of Israeli military misconduct.
4. “40 Beheaded Babies” — A Fabrication That Lingers
Within days of the October 7 attacks, several Israeli and international media outlets carried unverified reports that Hamas fighters had “beheaded 40 babies” in Kfar Aza. This claim — traced to an on-the-ground comment from an Israeli soldier to the press — was quickly picked up by major U.S. networks and political figures.
However:
- Israeli government spokespeople later admitted they had no evidence of such an incident.
- Jewish and Israeli journalists, including writers at Haaretz, +972 Magazine, and Israeli Channel 12, explicitly debunked the claim.
- No retractions or prominent corrections were issued by many major U.S. or UK news outlets, leaving the false narrative embedded in the broader public consciousness.
5. Comparison Table — Stand-Down and False Narrative Elements
Source / Actor Claim / Event Evidence Type Corroboration Status Public Response from Jewish/Israeli Analysts
Shalom Shitrit (IDF) Stand-down order from battalion commander 5:20–9:00 AM Testimony, July 2025 Knesset Supported by released recording Limited — mostly factual Israeli coverage, no deep op-eds
Released Recording Matches Shitrit’s testimony Audio recording Partially authenticated No public naming of commanders
Michael Flynn Stand-down order confirmed by Israeli contacts Video interviews with Bannon No independent confirmation No public Jewish/Israeli response found
“40 Beheaded Babies” Hamas beheaded 40 babies Eyewitness claim via media Debunked by Israeli/Jewish journalists Persistent in global media without retraction
Key Points
- Shitrit’s testimony and the recording align on timing, scope, and abnormality of the patrol suspension.
- Flynn’s public statements amplify the perception of a deliberate stand-down but remain unaddressed by Jewish or Israeli commentators.
- The “40 beheaded babies” episode shows how a false narrative, even debunked by Jewish and Israeli sources, can persist globally when retractions are absent.
- No direct evidence confirms a border-wide stand-down; the documented case remains localized to the Golani 13 sector — though this area suffered some of the heaviest losses.
I think it was pretty clearly Iran seeking to disrupt Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, which they achieved at the (to them, irrelevant) cost of sacrificing the Sunni Hamas. And Hamas was happy to oblige, because when they aren't firing missiles into Israeli schools and neighborhoods -- one year, over 5,000 of them -- they're strapping on suicide vests. Or at least, they're paying other people's families if *they'll* strap on suicide vests.
The Dehumanization of Palestinians Through Language
Key Points (Condensed Summary)
• State and political discourse in Israel has long employed securitized and exceptionalist frames that render Palestinians as perpetual threats, enabling policies that suspend ordinary legal protections [1–4].
• Military terminology (e.g., 'sterilization', 'cleansing', 'separation', 'mowing the lawn') appears in testimonies and internal parlance, shaping how soldiers perceive and act toward Palestinian civilians [3, 5].
• School textbooks and curricula have been shown to erase Palestinian presence, normalize military control, and depict Palestinians through deficit and threat frames, especially in geography/civics materials [6].
• Israeli media framing during uprisings has repeatedly backgrounded Palestinian personhood and foregrounded Israeli security, producing a habitual 'threat script' that normalizes harm [7].
• Bureaucratic-legal language (permits, closures, 'prevention of infiltration') routinizes domination; this language masks coercion as neutral administration and produces 'emergency' as a permanent condition [2, 8, 9].
• Religious-nationalist rhetoric among some settler leaders and rabbis deploys biblical categories to mark Palestinians as enemies outside the moral community; Israeli journalists have documented these calls and their diffusion [10, 11].
• Israeli human-rights NGOs have recorded hate speech/incitement and its relationship to violence, especially in mixed cities and at flashpoints; they show how language legitimizes attacks on persons and property [12].
• Derogatory slurs and metaphors (e.g., 'Arabush', 'cockroach', 'grasshopper', 'Amalek') have been documented by Israeli and Jewish authors as part of a broader discourse of dehumanization, appearing in political speeches, settler propaganda, and popular culture [4, 6, 7, 10].
Detailed Narrative
1. Political and state discourse
Israeli scholars describe a durable repertoire in official and elite speech that casts Palestinians as exceptional security risks and frames the occupied territories as zones of permanent emergency. Neve Gordon shows how such discourse allowed governance that toggles between 'law' and 'force' while normalizing exceptional measures [1]. Adi Ophir and Ariella Azoulay analyze how Palestinians are constituted as subjects of administration rather than citizens, enabling everyday harms through apparently technical language [2]. In this idiom, dehumanization is effected less through open slurs than through the steady classification of a population as administratively manageable danger [2–4]. Nevertheless, Israeli historians have recorded cases where senior leaders used metaphors such as 'two-legged beasts' (Menachem Begin) or 'grasshoppers' (Yitzhak Shamir, citing biblical imagery) to describe Palestinians, contributing to their dehumanization.
2. Military lexicon and combat parlance
Testimonies collected by Breaking the Silence, an Israeli veterans' organization, document recurring terms such as 'sterilization', 'cleansing', and 'terrorist nests' to describe neighborhoods and family homes; such metaphors normalize the treatment of civilian spaces as legitimate targets and reduce residents to categories of risk [3, 5]. Jeff Halper shows how the security sector's doctrine translates into an urban-warfare lexicon that objectifies populations ('mowing the lawn') and infrastructures ('systems warfare') [5].
3. Education and curricular representation
Nurit Peled-Elhanan's critical analysis of Israeli schoolbooks finds consistent erasure of Palestinian history and cartography, differential labeling of violence, and visual grammars that place Palestinians outside the circle of moral concern [6]. This institutionalized semiotics of absence and threat socializes students into a worldview where domination appears normal and Palestinians appear as either invisible or menacing.
4. Media framing and public language
Daniel Dor's study of Hebrew media coverage during the Second Intifada shows that news routines foreground Israeli fear and security while backgrounding Palestinian voices and suffering; this framework produces a commonsense narrative in which Palestinian casualties are treated as context or collateral, not as central subjects [7]. Amira Hass and Gideon Levy, Israeli journalists, have long documented how such normalizing frames seep into daily discourse [4].
5. Bureaucratic language and the production of 'emergency'
Yael Berda details how administrative terms — 'prevention of infiltration', 'security risk', 'closure', 'permit regime' — convert a political conflict into a field of files, queues, and denials [8]. Gordon’s and Ophir/Azoulay’s work shows that this language strips Palestinians of individual legibility and re-describes coercion as neutral procedure, a hallmark of modern dehumanization [1, 2, 9].
6. Religious-nationalist rhetoric and incitement
Israeli journalists and scholars have reported episodes in which influential rabbis and settler leaders deploy biblical categories (e.g., Amalek) to describe Palestinians, authorizing or excusing harm [10, 11]. While not representative of all religious discourse, such statements circulate within political networks and help legitimate the treatment of Palestinians as enemies to be expelled or subdued.
7. Hate speech, incitement, and violence
Israeli human-rights organizations have catalogued instances of incitement and hate speech around marches, in mixed cities, and in social media, and have correlated spikes in dehumanizing rhetoric with physical attacks, vandalism, and arson against Palestinian persons and property [12]. These reports provide Israeli-authored, evidentiary links between words and harms that follow.
8. Derogatory terms and metaphors — documented examples
Numerous derogatory terms have been recorded by Israeli sociolinguists, journalists, and historians as part of the cultural lexicon of dehumanization:
• 'Arabush' — pejorative slang for Arab, documented in media studies and sociolinguistic surveys [4].
• 'Saja' — slang implying an uneducated or backward Palestinian [6].
• 'Kushi' — originally anti-Black term, applied pejoratively to Arabs in some contexts [4].
• 'Cockroach', 'rat', 'vermin' — insect and pest metaphors appearing in settler propaganda and extremist speeches [7, 10].
• 'Grasshopper' — biblical metaphor used by Yitzhak Shamir to convey Palestinians as insignificant [2].
• 'Two-legged beasts' — phrase attributed to Menachem Begin in political rhetoric [1].
• 'Amalek' — biblical enemy archetype invoked by extremist rabbis to mark Palestinians as divinely ordained enemies [10, 11].
Such language has been linked in Israeli NGO reports to an increased tolerance for, and enactment of, violence against Palestinians.
References
1. Gordon, N. Israel’s Occupation. University of California Press, 2008. (Israeli scholar)
2. Azoulay, A.; Ophir, A. The One-State Condition: Occupation and Democracy in Israel/Palestine. Stanford University Press, 2012. (Israeli scholars)
3. Breaking the Silence. Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers’ Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000–2010. Metropolitan Books, 2012. (Israeli veterans’ NGO)
4. Hass, A.; Levy, G. Selected reporting and columns in Haaretz on language, incitement, and erasure, various years. (Israeli journalists)
5. Halper, J. War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification. Pluto Press, 2015. (Israeli scholar-activist)
6. Peled-Elhanan, N. Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education. I.B. Tauris, 2012. (Israeli scholar)
7. Dor, D. Intifada Hits the Headlines: How the Israeli Press Misreported the Outbreak of the Second Palestinian Uprising. Indiana University Press, 2004. (Israeli linguist)
8. Berda, Y. Living Emergency: Israel’s Permit Regime in the Occupied West Bank. Stanford University Press, 2017. (Israeli sociologist)
9. Ophir, A. The Order of Evils: Toward an Ontology of Morals. Zone Books, 2005. (Israeli philosopher)
10. Hasson, N.; Ettinger, Y. Investigative reports in Haaretz on extremist rabbinic rulings and discourse; various years. (Israeli journalists)
11. Aran, G.; Feige, M.; et al. Israeli scholarship on religious nationalism and radicalization; selected essays and volumes, various years. (Israeli scholars)
12. Yesh Din. Tools of Injustice / data briefs on incitement, policing failures, and hate crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank; selected reports, 2013–2024. (Israeli human-rights NGO)
Author Identity Appendix
Neve Gordon — Israeli political scientist (Ben-Gurion University/Queen Mary).
Ariella A. Azoulay — Israeli-born scholar (Brown University).
Adi Ophir — Israeli philosopher (Tel Aviv/Van Leer).
Breaking the Silence — Israeli veterans’ NGO.
Amira Hass — Israeli journalist (Haaretz).
Gideon Levy — Israeli journalist (Haaretz).
Jeff Halper — Israeli anthropologist/activist (ICAHD).
Nurit Peled-Elhanan — Israeli scholar (Hebrew University).
Daniel Dor — Israeli linguist (Tel Aviv University).
Yael Berda — Israeli sociologist (Hebrew University).
Nir Hasson / Yair Ettinger — Israeli journalists (Haaretz).
Yesh Din — Israeli human-rights NGO (Israeli board and staff).