Caitlin Johnstone

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[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Not Even Israelis Are Willing To Die For Israel

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said during a conference on Tuesday that Israel “has no interest” in participating in the ongoing military exchanges between the US and Iran, asserting that “the current situation is the best one for us.”

While Smotrich is certainly correct that it is to Israel’s benefit to stand aside and let the Americans do all the fighting and dying in this conflict, this is a noteworthy admission about a war that the US State Department says the White House ordered “at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally.”

There are three groups of people who consistently say “I’m not fucking dying for Israel”:

1. US soldiers,

2. Americans at risk of being drafted into a large-scale war, and

3. Israelis.

You see this all the time. Back in March when the US was contemplating a ground invasion of Iran, the Israeli press were churning out reports assuring their audiences that government officials said the IDF would not be participating in any such operations. Israelis are happy for Americans to die for Israel, but they are unwilling to put their own lives on the line for the Zionist project.

You know who would lay down their lives for their homeland? The Palestinians.

The Palestinians have made it clear that they are willing to die for Palestine, while the Israelis have made it clear that they are unwilling to die for Israel. For the Israelis, Israel is merely a nice-to-have which they would happily give up if it became too dangerous.

For the Palestinians, that land is home.

❖

The New Yorker has an article out titled “How Biden Enabled Israel’s Aggression Toward Gaza — and Iran,” with the subtitle “Top officials from the previous Administration now express regret over their failure to rein in Netanyahu.” It quotes Jake Sullivan saying “I will say straightforwardly — we should have put more pressure on Israel to take a different approach” on Gaza.

And to that I can only say, fuck you. Seriously, FUCK you.

You don’t get to do this now. You don’t get to turn around and go “Oopsie poopsie, we made a mistake!” This was YOUR genocide, motherfuckers. YOURS. You chose it. You own it. Forever. The stench of the rotting corpses in Gaza will sully your names for all time.

They always planned to do this. They backed a genocide knowing they could always try to spin it as a regrettable error in hindsight, and let their sad feelings of contrition wash their hands of their sins.

Fuck that bullshit. That’s not happening. We’ll never let them forget what they did and what they are.

❖

That same New Yorker article says Benjamin Netanyahu asked the Biden administration to keep secret any small concessions he made in allowing aid into Gaza, saying the Israeli prime minister “feared a domestic backlash for not starving Gaza’s women, children, and other civilians.”

Think about how fucked up a society has to be for its politicians to fear domestic backlash for not starving civilians.

❖

The other day Fox News host Jesse Watters joked and laughed about how the US military’s new testosterone testing policy is going to lead to soldiers with overloaded testosterone levels sexually assaulting women.

“Yeah, I want these guys on it, but you know what’s gonna happen? The guys that don’t need it are gonna take it, to triple boost,” Watters said Thursday, chuckling. “And then they’re gonna get out there, and women on base, you guys better be careful. Port calls, women in Asia, you better be careful, because these guys are gonna be wild animals and you better watch out.”

Ho ho, ha ha, watch out ladies you’re gonna get raped by US soldiers just like untold millions of other women around the world throughout history, ha ha, wocka wocka, comedy laugh laugh.

The Murdoch press is cancer.

❖

I saw a tweet from Zionist pundit Joe Walsh saying “If you hate the state of Israel, you hate Jews. If you are pledged to the destruction of the state of Israel, you hate Jews. If you do not believe the state of Israel has a right to exist, you hate Jews.”

If you keep feeding the public the lie that they need to choose between supporting genocide and hating Jews, people are going pick hate Jews, because they don’t want to support genocide. When that happens, the blame will rest on all these pricks who circulated this lie.

❖

You don’t get to just pretend all this fretting about “antisemitism” is happening separately from the agenda to stomp out all criticism of Israel and its abuses. You don’t get to demand that I treat them as separate things. They’re inseparable agendas. I wish they weren’t, but they are.

If you come up to me babbling about how Jews are afraid and mistreated, then I’m going to automatically treat this as apologia for a genocidal apartheid state, because that’s the primary agenda that this rhetoric is being used to promote today. It’s not my fault that this is how I respond to allegations of antisemitism. It’s the fault of the people who have weaponized such allegations to promote genocide, apartheid, war, and tyranny.

If you want me to take allegations of “antisemitism” seriously, then you must first bring to an end the campaign to use that term as a cudgel to shut down pro-Palestine protests and silence Israel’s critics. That is what you’ll need to do before I will give you the benefit of the doubt and listen to you like you’re a good-faith actor. The information ecosystem is currently far too full of genocidal Zionists lying about their experiences, their feelings, their intentions, and what has happened to them for me to listen credulously to stories about discrimination against Jews in the year 2026.

It’s so surreal how we are still expected in mainstream western society to listen to concern trolling about “antisemitism” without immediately thinking about things like Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, war, and genocide. We’re expected to listen patiently to stories about how western Jews feel unsafe without ever looking at all those elephants in the room. It’s insulting. It’s degrading.

If the main reason antisemitism gets mentioned these days is because of opposition to Israel’s mass atrocities, then obviously I’m going to assume that’s the driving motivator behind your words when you mention it. Of course that’s going to be my default assumption. Obviously. Duh.

❖

Reading by Tim Foley:

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

@powerfloater https://t.co/LQ7axGELCo

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

So the list of humanitarian institutions who accuse Israel of genocide now includes:

1. The UN
2. International Association of Genocide Scholars
3. B'Tselem (Israeli)
4. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (Israeli)
5. Amnesty International
6. Doctors Without Borders
7. European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
8. Human Rights Watch
9. International Federation for Human Rights
10. Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention

The list of humanitarian institutions who say Israel is NOT committing genocide in Gaza includes:

1. Nobody
2. No one
3. Zero
4. Nothing
5. Nada
6. Zilch
7. Fuck all
8. A complete absence
9. Diddly squat
10. Bupkis

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Not Even Israelis Are Willing To Die For Israel

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said during a conference on Tuesday that Israel “has no interest” in participating in the ongoing military exchanges between the US and Iran, asserting that “the current situation is the best one for us.”

While Smotrich is certainly correct that it is to Israel’s benefit to stand aside and let the Americans do all the fighting and dying in this conflict, this is a noteworthy admission about a war that the US State Department says the White House ordered “at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally.”

There are three groups of people who consistently say “I’m not fucking dying for Israel”:

1. US soldiers,

2. Americans at risk of being drafted into a large-scale war, and

3. Israelis.

You see this all the time. Back in March when the US was contemplating a ground invasion of Iran, the Israeli press were churning out reports assuring their audiences that government officials said the IDF would not be participating in any such operations. Israelis are happy for Americans to die for Israel, but they are unwilling to put their own lives on the line for the Zionist project.

You know who would lay down their lives for their homeland? The Palestinians.

The Palestinians have made it clear that they are willing to die for Palestine, while the Israelis have made it clear that they are unwilling to die for Israel. For the Israelis, Israel is merely a nice-to-have which they would happily give up if it became too dangerous.

For the Palestinians, that land is home.

❖

The New Yorker has an article out titled “How Biden Enabled Israel’s Aggression Toward Gaza — and Iran,” with the subtitle “Top officials from the previous Administration now express regret over their failure to rein in Netanyahu.” It quotes Jake Sullivan saying “I will say straightforwardly — we should have put more pressure on Israel to take a different approach” on Gaza.

And to that I can only say, fuck you. Seriously, FUCK you.

You don’t get to do this now. You don’t get to turn around and go “Oopsie poopsie, we made a mistake!” This was YOUR genocide, motherfuckers. YOURS. You chose it. You own it. Forever. The stench of the rotting corpses in Gaza will sully your names for all time.

They always planned to do this. They backed a genocide knowing they could always try to spin it as a regrettable error in hindsight, and let their sad feelings of contrition wash their hands of their sins.

Fuck that bullshit. That’s not happening. We’ll never let them forget what they did and what they are.

❖

That same New Yorker article says Benjamin Netanyahu asked the Biden administration to keep secret any small concessions he made in allowing aid into Gaza, saying the Israeli prime minister “feared a domestic backlash for not starving Gaza’s women, children, and other civilians.”

Think about how fucked up a society has to be for its politicians to fear domestic backlash for not starving civilians.

❖

The other day Fox News host Jesse Watters joked and laughed about how the US military’s new testosterone testing policy is going to lead to soldiers with overloaded testosterone levels sexually assaulting women.

“Yeah, I want these guys on it, but you know what’s gonna happen? The guys that don’t need it are gonna take it, to triple boost,” Watters said Thursday, chuckling. “And then they’re gonna get out there, and women on base, you guys better be careful. Port calls, women in Asia, you better be careful, because these guys are gonna be wild animals and you better watch out.”

Ho ho, ha ha, watch out ladies you’re gonna get raped by US soldiers just like untold millions of other women around the world throughout history, ha ha, wocka wocka, comedy laugh laugh.

The Murdoch press is cancer.

❖

I saw a tweet from Zionist pundit Joe Walsh saying “If you hate the state of Israel, you hate Jews. If you are pledged to the destruction of the state of Israel, you hate Jews. If you do not believe the state of Israel has a right to exist, you hate Jews.”

If you keep feeding the public the lie that they need to choose between supporting genocide and hating Jews, people are going pick hate Jews, because they don’t want to support genocide. When that happens, the blame will rest on all these pricks who circulated this lie.

❖

You don’t get to just pretend all this fretting about “antisemitism” is happening separately from the agenda to stomp out all criticism of Israel and its abuses. You don’t get to demand that I treat them as separate things. They’re inseparable agendas. I wish they weren’t, but they are.

If you come up to me babbling about how Jews are afraid and mistreated, then I’m going to automatically treat this as apologia for a genocidal apartheid state, because that’s the primary agenda that this rhetoric is being used to promote today. It’s not my fault that this is how I respond to allegations of antisemitism. It’s the fault of the people who have weaponized such allegations to promote genocide, apartheid, war, and tyranny.

If you want me to take allegations of “antisemitism” seriously, then you must first bring to an end the campaign to use that term as a cudgel to shut down pro-Palestine protests and silence Israel’s critics. That is what you’ll need to do before I will give you the benefit of the doubt and listen to you like you’re a good-faith actor. The information ecosystem is currently far too full of genocidal Zionists lying about their experiences, their feelings, their intentions, and what has happened to them for me to listen credulously to stories about discrimination against Jews in the year 2026.

It’s so surreal how we are still expected in mainstream western society to listen to concern trolling about “antisemitism” without immediately thinking about things like Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, war, and genocide. We’re expected to listen patiently to stories about how western Jews feel unsafe without ever looking at all those elephants in the room. It’s insulting. It’s degrading.

If the main reason antisemitism gets mentioned these days is because of opposition to Israel’s mass atrocities, then obviously I’m going to assume that’s the driving motivator behind your words when you mention it. Of course that’s going to be my default assumption. Obviously. Duh.

❖

Reading by Tim Foley:

[Meriem Vergès @VergesMeriem]

"Israelis are happy for Americans to die for Israel, but they are unwilling to put their own lives on the line for the Zionist project.

You know who would lay down their lives for their homeland? The Palestinians."

― Caitlin Johnstone

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Not Even Israelis Are Willing To Die For Israel

Article with supporting links.

https://t.co/6irXR9Bb5G

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Oh fuck you. FUCK you. You don't get to do this now. You don't get to turn around and go "Oopsie poopsie, we made a mistake!" This was YOUR genocide, motherfuckers. YOURS. You chose it. You own it. Forever. The stench of the rotting corpses in Gaza will follow you for all time.

[The New Yorker @NewYorker]

Top officials from the Biden Administration now express regret over their failure to rein in Netanyahu. https://t.co/MoYl3xAhN2

[Seth Harp @sethharpesq]

Deep cut here by the Reuters team on who exactly is supplying Sudan's genocidal RSF with weapons and mercenaries. Turns out a former Green Beret, now based in Singapore, is running the supply lines. JSOC fingerprints everywhere.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

A society so fucked up that politicians fear “a domestic backlash for not starving Gaza’s women, children, and other civilians.”

[Farnoush Amiri @FarnoushAmiri]

"Netanyahu agreed to let in only a small amount of supplies, which would have to come through Rafah... he also asked that this minor concession remain secret. He feared a domestic backlash for not starving Gaza’s women, children, and other civilians.’ ”
https://t.co/ykvCdwZlSZ

[Amit Segal @AmitSegal]

Finance Minister Smotrich after the lengthy security discussion last night: “The State of Israel has no interest in joining the contained confrontation between Iran and the United States — the current situation is the best one for us.”

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

I think this might be the single craziest "antisemitism" tantrum I've yet seen. These people are bat shit insane.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Trump Is NOT A Reluctant War President

He campaigned on ending the wars, and he was lying the whole time. He wasn’t pressured and persuaded, he was an active and eager participant.

Reading by Tim Foley.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

@JoeGardenFromTV @pinkleftygirl It’s always the man’s responsibility. The one who holds the gun is responsible for where he points and shoots.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

One of the dumbest popular narratives is that Zionists persuaded a reluctant Trump to start a war with Iran after he was re-elected, like they were following him around going "Would you like to bomb Iran?" like Green Eggs and Ham and he was going "Not in a box! Not with a fox!" until he eventually caved in.

It is now abundantly clear that this war was planned a long time ago. Not in 2026, not in 2025, not in 2024, and not even during the Biden administration. This was planned before Trump was ever elected president. He campaigned on tearing up the Iran nuclear deal, and that's exactly what he did once he got into office the first time around.

As soon as the JCPOA was torched in 2018 the Trump administration began dramatically ramping up aggressions against Iran, smashing them with starvation sanctions in its "maximum pressure" campaign with the explicit goal of regime change and then escalating to the direct assassination of Iran's top military official.

There was no reason to do that if your goal was peace. There was no reason to do that if your goal was to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The Iran deal was working. Iran was fully compliant. The escalations were the goal.

Trump has openly admitted to giving the Adelsons everything they wanted in exchange for the massive campaign donations which put him in the White House. In 2013 Sheldon Adelson made headlines by saying the US should drop a nuclear weapon on the Iranian desert and then say "See? The next one is in the middle of Tehran" in order to scare the Iranians into groveling.

Everything we've been seeing throughout Trump's second term makes it glaringly obvious that the only reason he'd received the oligarchic and institutional support necessary to become an American president was because he had provided enough powerful people with enough reassurance that he would do what no other president had dared to try: start a war with Iran.

All that we have seen throughout 2026 has been the seeds of those early assurances coming to fruition. All those murdered schoolchildren. All the dead and injured US soldiers. The bombed-out civilian infrastructure. The blackened skies. The blockades. The fear. The economic strife. This was all planned years ago, with the full complicity of a psychopathic monster who wanted to become president.

He campaigned on ending the wars, and he was lying the whole time. He wasn't pressured and persuaded, he was an active and eager participant.

Anti-interventionists on the right often try to spin it as Trump getting suckered by the Israelis, because this allows them to retroactively justify their support for Trump with the belief that they voted for someone who was well-intentioned at the time.

But Trump was never well-intentioned. He had always intended to start a war with Iran in his second term, once he no longer had to worry about getting re-elected. He was always a deceitful war slut, as evil as any we've ever seen in the White House.

Evil people are the only ones who are ever allowed past the many gatekeeping mechanisms to the presidency. In order to help run a murderous empire that is fueled by human blood, you've got to be a psychopath. They don't let you in unless they've been adequately assured that you are sufficiently psychopathic to do the job.

Trump provided them with those assurances. That's the only reason he sits where he now sits.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

@diegussc No

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Trump Is NOT A Reluctant War President

He campaigned on ending the wars, and he was lying the whole time. He wasn’t pressured and persuaded, he was an active and eager participant.

Reading by Tim Foley.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

@diegussc That’s not contrary to anything I said. Trump was just the “someone else” of choice in this moment.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Trump Is NOT A Reluctant War President

Article with supporting links.

https://t.co/j3TrZjlotV

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

One of the dumbest popular narratives is that Zionists persuaded a reluctant Trump to start a war with Iran after he was re-elected, like they were following him around going "Would you like to bomb Iran?" like Green Eggs and Ham and he was going "Not in a box! Not with a fox!" until he eventually caved in.

It is now abundantly clear that this war was planned a long time ago. Not in 2026, not in 2025, not in 2024, and not even during the Biden administration. This was planned before Trump was ever elected president. He campaigned on tearing up the Iran nuclear deal, and that's exactly what he did once he got into office the first time around.

As soon as the JCPOA was torched in 2018 the Trump administration began dramatically ramping up aggressions against Iran, smashing them with starvation sanctions in its "maximum pressure" campaign with the explicit goal of regime change and then escalating to the direct assassination of Iran's top military official.

There was no reason to do that if your goal was peace. There was no reason to do that if your goal was to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The Iran deal was working. Iran was fully compliant. The escalations were the goal.

Trump has openly admitted to giving the Adelsons everything they wanted in exchange for the massive campaign donations which put him in the White House. In 2013 Sheldon Adelson made headlines by saying the US should drop a nuclear weapon on the Iranian desert and then say "See? The next one is in the middle of Tehran" in order to scare the Iranians into groveling.

Everything we've been seeing throughout Trump's second term makes it glaringly obvious that the only reason he'd received the oligarchic and institutional support necessary to become an American president was because he had provided enough powerful people with enough reassurance that he would do what no other president had dared to try: start a war with Iran.

All that we have seen throughout 2026 has been the seeds of those early assurances coming to fruition. All those murdered schoolchildren. All the dead and injured US soldiers. The bombed-out civilian infrastructure. The blackened skies. The blockades. The fear. The economic strife. This was all planned years ago, with the full complicity of a psychopathic monster who wanted to become president.

He campaigned on ending the wars, and he was lying the whole time. He wasn't pressured and persuaded, he was an active and eager participant.

Anti-interventionists on the right often try to spin it as Trump getting suckered by the Israelis, because this allows them to retroactively justify their support for Trump with the belief that they voted for someone who was well-intentioned at the time.

But Trump was never well-intentioned. He had always intended to start a war with Iran in his second term, once he no longer had to worry about getting re-elected. He was always a deceitful war slut, as evil as any we've ever seen in the White House.

Evil people are the only ones who are ever allowed past the many gatekeeping mechanisms to the presidency. In order to help run a murderous empire that is fueled by human blood, you've got to be a psychopath. They don't let you in unless they've been adequately assured that you are sufficiently psychopathic to do the job.

Trump provided them with those assurances. That's the only reason he sits where he now sits.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

@ihavearite Lol

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

@ihavearite What a crazy thing to say.

[Christopher Lester @Christo85227037]

“He was always a deceitful war slut.”

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

@HeebFatigue_ In order for them to have “forced his hand”, he would have to have been unwilling at some point. He wasn’t. He was on board from the very beginning.