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[text/observer network columnist yin zhiguang]

since israel began its brutal massacre of the palestinian people in october 2023, the netanyahu regime has been constantly refreshing our understanding of the lower limits of western civilization in front of the people of the world.

since september 17, 2024, a series of large-scale pager and walkie-talkie explosions in lebanon have killed a large number of innocent civilians, including children. all signs indicate that israel is the culprit behind the first large-scale, indiscriminate assassination of ordinary citizens of another country in the history of modern human warfare. the reason for emphasizing assassination is that before this, the united states had "invented" carpet bombing targeting only civilians and chemical weapons attacks on food production areas during its invasion of vietnam.

this time, israel's act of placing explosives in civilian electronic products in a downtown area of ​​lebanon, disregarding the safety of innocent civilians and carrying out a large-scale explosion and assassination, has once again refreshed our understanding of the word "barbarism".

from then on, all the daily electronic products people use become disturbing. the israeli assassination makes the word "security" precarious in our daily lives. in the face of such extreme madness, everyone is in danger. "supply chain security", a term that has only recently entered people's field of vision, is closely related to the life and death of each of us from this moment on.

on the afternoon of september 18, communication equipment explosions occurred in many places in lebanon

this incident also completely broke the capitalist international division of labor in the "era of globalization", the only remaining trace of warmth in our era.

before this, some of us still believed that "supply chain security" was nothing more than a grudge between countries. for individuals, personal consumer goods purchased on the global market are "very attractive." no one would question whether smartphones, watches, headphones, tvs, refrigerators, cars, and airplanes, which are produced in the global industrial chain and circulated in the global market, pose any major threat to personal safety, especially life safety.

however, as israel put explosives into these products, each individual was exposed to pure violence in this horrific way. behind this violence stands a complete evil that serves only a very small number of people under the banner of "country".

there is a video circulating on english social media. in the video, a girl with an american accent tells the story of how she, as a scholar studying palestine, was "silenced" by western universities and media. she asks:

“why can’t we mention israel?”

that’s an excellent question.

in recent years, with the popularity of western "left-wing" discourses such as postcolonialism and identity politics, we have developed an illusion that colonialism, imperialism, genocide, oppression, etc. are already a thing of the past.

the former colonizers, oppressors, and hegemons have already completed their transformation through active reflection, admitting their mistakes, and becoming the spokespersons of human civilization again. those hegemons are well-dressed and talk about morality; those hegemons have advanced technology and dream of taking humans to mars; those hegemons are polite and kind, and even elected a black man as their president. what else is there that is not worthy of our worship, respect, and following? why don't we "forget the past and strive to look forward"?

the hegemons are eager for us to forget the past, focus on their glorious present, and imagine the future in the direction they point out. "you have no choice" because "history has ended here", this is what they tell us.

yet the past is like their shadow in the sun, a dark, murderous shadow that they can’t shake off and that we can’t forget.

israel is the place where the hegemons meet their own shadows. it brings the bloody past of the hegemons to the present and to us. in israel, the colonizers, the killers, and the hegemons are once again clearly integrated.

the reason why we cannot talk about israel is that it allows everyone to see that colonization and killing are not a thing of the past, but an integral part of the "civilized" face of today's hegemons.

in fact, since the mid-20th century, political assassination has been an important tool for hegemons to maintain their global order. since 1950, israel has been assassinating arab people and people around the world who support the palestinian independence movement:

in 1956, the israel defense forces assassinated two egyptian officers with a parcel bomb;

on september 11, 1962, israel’s mossad assassinated heinz kluge, a german engineer who assisted egypt in developing missile technology, in west germany;

on november 28 of the same year, israel's mossad assassinated five workers at an egyptian missile factory with a letter bomb;

on july 8, 1972, israel's mossad assassinated ghassan fayez kanafani, a famous palestinian poet, novelist and leader of the popular front for the liberation of palestine, with a car bomb in beirut;

……

this bloody list has never stopped until today.

the reason why we cannot talk about israel is that before this, the hegemons could still use words such as "humanitarian intervention", "targeted killing" and "war on terror" to cover up their killings.

in the 2006 yearbook of international human rights law, a study of the israeli supreme court's case law was published, entitled "targeted killing or a less harmful approach? - the israeli supreme court's case on targeted killing and the restrictive function of military necessity". the study stated that since the start of the us war on terror, western countries have increasingly tended to use "targeted killing" to achieve their "military goals". western scholars, media and politicians describe this kind of war violence as a "more humane" war act, in order to justify "humanitarian intervention", which is actually an act of imperialist aggression. however, even western courts have difficulty defending themselves against such claims.

in fact, except for the united states, britain, switzerland, and germany, all former colonial powers have carried out this naked reactionary assassination against their former colonies in the name of military operations "targeted elimination". however, they are basically carried out in secret and never discussed publicly. in november 2000, israel became the first country to officially recognize the legality of this "targeted elimination".

however, the pager explosion in lebanon this time was neither "targeted" nor "restricted", and it once again blatantly broke the "legal" bottom line used by western colonial imperialists to decorate their facade.

the reason why we cannot talk about israel is that all platforms where the public can speak out, such as the media and political parties, are under the strict control of financial capitalists. they are like a "shadow empire" that clamps down on even the slightest hope of change in the western world.

gazaafter lebanon, the hegemons can no longer use "civilization," "rule of law," "democracy," and "freedom" to whitewash their hegemony. there will no longer be warm and affectionate globalization, no absolutely safe ordinary people, no lives that cannot be touched by hegemonic killers, and no freedom without a country. from now on, "supply chain security" will become something that is closely linked to the survival and death of each of us.

a secure, equal, free and truly multilateral world will surely rise from a place where we can confront hegemons and resist their killing, aggression, interference and deception.

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