The war between Israel and Hamas has escalated to even more dangerous levels, threatening to blow up into the entire region.
The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, senior Hamas leader and the lead negotiator for a ceasefire has heightened tensions. Haniyeh’s killing in Iran is the biggest flashpoint of this current conflict. Breaking his silence on the assassination, US President Joe Biden has said Haniyeh’s killing is not helpful for a ceasefire.
It should worry him that the Israeli Prime Minister has chosen an escalation over peace. According to ‘The New York Times’ top American officials were stunned by the assassination and that too on Iranian soil. Now a lame duck President. Biden faces an even bigger challenge to negotiate peace in the region.
The one person who benefits from a prolonged war in Gaza is Netanyahu, who has been facing immense criticism back home. A longer war means he can stay on for now.
A disproportionate response
Since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, the crisis in the Middle East has spiralled and while much of the world sympathised with Israel initially, there was growing anguish and discomfort with Tel Aviv’s disproportionate response in Gaza. But that discomfort clearly has not gone far enough.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got an invitation to address the US Congress, despite huge protests back home over his handling of the war. He then got a standing ovation as he forcefully justified his campaign in Gaza. Which begs the question: where is the world’s moral compass? When will we say enough is enough?
The humanitarian situation in Gaza has gone from bad to worse. After a famine, there is now a polio epidemic across Gaza, according to the health ministry there. Just days ago, the head of the UN’s World Health Organisation said more than 10,000 patients in the Gaza Strip need medical evacuations. The medical infrastructure in Gaza is struggling to cope.
According to Palestinian officials, nearly 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli campaign started, more than half of them women and children. Nothing and no one can justify the violence unleashed by Hamas on innocent Israeli civilians last year and while Israel has a right to respond, that response has become completely disproportionate and heavy handed.
Pro-Palestine is not anti-Semitic
Killing children and babies in Gaza cannot be a response to Hamas. And yet, Netanyahu gets a long rope. This is despite a landmark ruling by the international court of justice (ICJ) last month which said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is against international law, including the Gaza Strip.
Even though the ICJ’s opinion is not legally binding, it is politically significant and carried moral weight. It is the first such opinion by the ICJ. Not surprisingly, Netanyahu rubbished the court’s view.
In the United States, there is a subtle shift in how the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, is messaging on the issue. Her decision to skip Netanyahu’s Congress address was widely noticed. More importantly, she has spoken out more forcefully than Biden on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Republicans are already branding her an anti-Semite, which is rubbish. Harris has given statements in support of Israel. Speaking up for Palestinian civilians does not make anyone anti-Semitic. There is no doubt a political angle to Harris’s approach, given that younger, Arab American voters are crucial for the Democrats in battleground states like Michigan and have been deeply unhappy with the Biden administration’s approach on the conflict so far.
Which is why any meaningful statement on Israel’s atrocities in Gaza from the West will only really be tested on their sale of arms to Israel. That begins with America, which is the largest supplier of arms to Israel. The BBC reported that the US accounted for 69% of Israel’s imports of major conventional arms between 2019 and 2023. Unless there is a serious dent in this number, Israel will continue to feel emboldened and harm civilians in Gaza.
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