Everything is Gone

by Contributor | October 14, 2025 9:23 am

Cal Thomas is an experienced and syndicated voice. As a trusted voice with many areas of expertise, facts are his forte. Last Wednesday, the Pall-Times opinion section published Mr. Thomas’ words. “The president and Netanyahu should require that all 20 of their demands be met, or Israel should finish the job. Perhaps both.”

Mr. Thomas may have simply re-packaged President Trump from July when he told reporters Israel’s “gonna have to finish the job.” However, the facts are important. Israel is the only democracy in the world with a military censor. Articles published by Israeli mass media and independent news outlets need to be scrupulously vetted by the Israeli military censor.

In July, the Israeli military censor approved the writing of Israeli reporters Yaniv Kubovich and Amos Harel. They co-authored an article published in the Israeli news outlet Haaretz. Embedded in Gaza with the Israeli army, Yaniv Kubovich and Amos Harel wrote down the testimonies of Israeli officers from the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade. Harel and Kubovich reported that the brigade officers told them the city of Beit Hanoun would “be leveled entirely.” The Israeli military “forces’ focus is entirely on the demolition of infrastructure.”

A month later, Yaniv Kubovich updated his previous reporting. On the 1st of August, Kubovich wrote in Haaretz, “Many buildings in Beit Hanoun have been completely destroyed. The city lies flattened, allowing for long-distance views once blocked off by buildings.” Kubovich admitted that for the Israeli soldiers, “Most missions in the field now relate to securing the engineering equipment that is ‘flattening the area.’”

In Haaretz, the Israeli reporter Nir Hasson wrote, “In July, Satellite photographs taken in recent days show that Israel’s military has almost entirely destroyed Khan Yunis… In some areas, even the Israeli army itself says that they had been ‘erased.’ Nothing was left there. No one imagined such cruelty. Everything is simply gone, destroyed.”

Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich said in April of 2024, Gaza, “will be destroyed, destroyed, destroyed. And it will echo for decades to come.” Gaza’s fate was “total annihilation.” It’s happened. In Gaza, Israeli pilots dropped US-manufactured missiles from US-manufactured planes and erased entire cities: Khan Yunis and Beit Hanoun.

In July, Yaniv Kubovich reported in Haaretz, “IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir told the security cabinet that the army has already captured and destroyed 75 percent of Gaza’s territory.”

Then, with US-manufactured weapons and US approval, the Israeli army invaded Gaza City. Israeli reporter Yaniv Kubovich was once again embedded with the Israeli army in the neighborhood of Zeitoun in Gaza City. Kubovich wrote in Haaretz, “The soldiers’ job now, according to the brigade commander’s briefing, is to do to Zeitoun [neighborhood] what the IDF did to the Shujaiyeh neighborhood and the town of Beit Hanoun – that is, to erase it.”

That’s not my opinion, Mr. Thomas. That’s the voices of Israeli reporters embedded in Gaza with the Israeli army. Gaza is gone.

Mr. Thomas, what job is there to finish?

 

Anton Porcari

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/everything-is-gone/

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