Why Israel’s endgame of mass depopulation of Gaza is not shocking at all: The Intercept co-founder writes

US President Joe Biden has earned his reputation as "Israel's man in Washington," which has added zeal to the Middle Eastern country's plot of mass depopulation of Gaza, Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept – an online American nonprofit news organisation – wrote in an editorial on 4 November.

In a newsletter to readers, the co-founder of the award-winning portal began by highlighting how President Joe Biden described the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October – which reportedly left 1,400 Israelis dead – as "like fifteen 9/11s".  

"If Biden applied the same logic to the number of Palestinians killed by Israel since this war began, that would be more than 400 September 11s, with no end to the killing in sight," he wrote.

He then pointed out that when Biden was asked about the 8,000 Palestinians killed – thousands of children and mostly civilians – the US president declared that he did not believe those numbers.

"This open disregard for the value of Palestinian lives is shameful," Scahill wrote.

"Yet in most of the US media, there is only one acceptable viewpoint: to stand 100 percent with Israel's far-right government. Those who dare to criticise Israel's attacks risk severe sanction, including the loss of employment or worse."

Reiterating that The Intercept was founded to ensure there would "always be a home for dissenting voices in times of war…the mass murder of civilians are not silenced," he quoted Palestinian-Israel citizen and political analyst Yousef Munayyer as telling him that Israel's endgame was mass depopulation of Gaza.

"I wish I could say it's shocking, but knowing this history, it's not shocking at all," he wrote.

Scahill said in the midst of all the conflict, Biden's political career and position on Israel has gone under the radar.

"I've closely watched Biden for decades, and following his election in 2020, The Intercept conducted a deep-dive, multipart investigation into Biden's foreign policy record. That reporting revealed a man best described as an 'empire politician,' someone who believes that questions of war don't really matter on a moral level, but only how they affect America's own power and prestige."

He wrote that Biden had earned a reputation as "Israel's man in Washington" going back to his earliest days in the Senate in 1973. 

"At times, even some Israeli officials have been shocked at how radical his positions were, including on the killing of civilians in Israel's invasion of Lebanon."

Scahill wrote that such an affinity for Israel was "on full display today". 

"Unquestioning support for Israel, and little if any concern for the moral ramifications of military conflict. It is the everyday people of Gaza who will continue to suffer most under this regime."