Rubio ranted, “This happened because on October 7th these animals, these barbaric animals, conducted this operation … against innocent people.”

He concluded, “It needs to end. And how does it end? It ends by eliminating the people who did it, by ending them as a threat.”

As vast as the crimes of US imperialism have been in funding, arming and enabling the Gaza genocide, Rubio’s statement marks a new turning point. American imperialism, dropping its veil of promoting “democracy” and “human rights,” has adopted language that would not be out of place in a speech given by Adolf Hitler.

Rubio’s use of this genocidal language was the starting gun for the full-scale Israeli onslaught on Gaza City, as tanks and warplanes moved in, displacing countless thousands at gunpoint over the choked coastal road to Gaza’s south.