"Down to the Last Baby"

The Israeli regime is no longer hiding its intentions. It doesn’t have to. Its leaders are stating, in explicit terms, that the objective in Gaza is not “self-defense” or even defeating Hamas — it’s the mass killing and forced removal of Palestinians, including children. The genocide in Gaza is not just unfolding in silence. It’s being confessed to, live, in real time.

Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin wrote this week on X: “Yes! Every baby in Gaza is an enemy. And if not expelled, in 15 years he’ll do the same October 7 to your baby.” He continued by saying that Gaza didn’t attack Israel as Hamas, but “as Gaza,” and therefore, all of Gaza — “to the last baby” — must be targeted. He compared Gaza’s population to Dresden and Hiroshima, declaring that all components of Gaza’s society are enemy combatants. He said the war should end in the complete conquest of the Strip and the removal of what he calls “Islamonazism” from Israel’s borders. He’s saying out loud what many in Israeli politics have long believed and built policy around.

Others are joining in with genocidal glee. Far-right politician and media figure Yinon Magal posted a video of a D9 bulldozer demolishing a Palestinian home in Gaza. He called the bulldozer operator the “Chief Rabbi of Gaza,” praising it as an “impressive morning performance.” This is the language of “spiritualized” extermination — destruction presented as divine duty mixed with humor and gloating. The grotesque imagery and violent humor are part of the same ideological framework that is actively working on wiping Gaza off the map and laugh while doing it.

And when Israeli opposition politician Yair Golan — a former general — pointed out the obvious by saying Israel is “killing babies as a hobby,” the backlash wasn’t about the content of the accusation. It was about who said it. He was accused of blood libel. He was labeled antisemitic. He was dragged by figures like Itamar Ben-Gvir. But no one really refuted what he said. They were angry because he exposed what has become undeniable.

Even Golan, though, is no hero. He’s the same person who said in October 2023: “Shut off any supply to Gaza… in this war a humanitarian effort should not be allowed… as far as we are concerned, you can starve to death.”

The mask is slipping. The language is becoming more direct, more open, more horrifying. But the project hasn’t changed. This has always been a settler-colonial regime that uses every tool — from starvation to high-tech weaponry — to erase Palestinians from their land. The difference now is that the regime and its backers no longer feel the need to disguise it or they just can’t hide it anymore.

Supporters of Israel in the West have played a central role in masking this reality. They’ve spent the last 18 months denying genocide, downplaying mass death, and reframing criticism of Israeli violence as antisemitism. And now, in the face of openly genocidal statements by Israeli leaders, they pivot to distraction or silence.

Take Howard Jacobson, who argued in an October 2024 interview with The New Yorker that “too much” press coverage of dead Palestinian children amounts to a modern form of blood libel against Jews. He said this despite overwhelming evidence that, by then, thousands of children in Gaza had already been killed, maimed, or injured. And today, there are still figures like him — and many worse — who continue to deny the genocide, even as the UN warns that 14,000 babies are at risk of dying within 48 hours. This denial was never about evidence. It’s always been about preserving impunity for the state of Israel.

No matter what Israeli officials and leaders say, the basic facts are clear. This is a campaign of annihilation. The statements are public. The maps are real. The destruction is visible from space. The starvation is documented. The mass graves are growing. And now the language has caught up with the reality: they are killing babies. They know it. They’re saying it. And they believe it’s justified.

There’s no rhetorical veil left. What remains is the question of what anyone plans to do to stop it.