Ironclad support
The bombing of the Iranian consulate in Syria, probably an attempt to bring Iran into the reckoning and deflect attention from the Israeli assault on Gaza, has prompted Biden to declare that US support for Israel is “iron-clad”. If so, Biden has fallen into the poorly disguised trap set by Netanyahu, and we are now relying on Iran’s leaders being smarter than Biden. However, retaliation by Iran is looking increasingly likely.
Gaza
Meanwhile, more is being revealed about the nature and extent of what is almost certainly genocide in Gaza. Israel continues to lie about its starvation tactics, asserting that all is being done to increase food deliveries, when international observers at entry points testify that the Israeli army is still deliberately slowing down the process. This has echoes of empty words from Israeli politicians over many years about wishing for the “two-state solution” while settlers continued to expand the government-funded annexation of the West Bank. For Israeli politicians, lying has become a habit, because they know they can get away with it.
More coverage of the devastation wrought by the Israeli “defence” forces in Gaza has left no doubt that the intention was to systematically destroy homes, hospitals, libraries, religious sites, energy and water infrastructure, schools, universities, and anything else that would enable the refugees in southern Gaza to return to a viable community. The lawyers and politicians who made collective punishment and ethnic cleansing crimes against humanity will have had exactly this kind of treatment of civilians in mind, but could not have imagined it unfolding in full view of the world, broadcast over TV and social media, including self-filmed clips of exultant perpetrators bragging about their achievements.
Something has gone desperately wrong when a cynical and ruthless despot like Netanyahu continues to have the overall support of the Israeli population to conduct the war on Gaza in this manner. Complicit domestic media are part of the problem, but most foreign news outlets, including those in the UK, have been too muted in their condemnation of atrocities, and politicians in western countries have made hand-wringing a substitute for action.
UK politics
The UK government still refuses to halt arms sales to Israel, and claims it doesn’t have to reveal the legal advice from its own lawyers. It’s hard to believe they would keep the Foreign Office lawyers’ opinion secret if it said the arms sales were legal. There is mounting evidence that the British people want arms sales to Israel to be stopped (62% in the most recent poll), but as with the hundreds of thousands marching at rallies up and down the country, the Conservative government treats the wishes of right-minded people with contempt.
After the war
It’s widely assumed Netanyahu’s premiership will last only until the fighting stops, and after he’s gone progression to a “two-state solution”, more accurately described as “the recognition of the State of Palestine”, will need to be rapid. The future of the Middle East as a whole will depend on everyone, especially the Israelis and Palestinians, turning away from hatred as the driving force behind their concept of national identity. As we have seen in Northern Ireland and South Africa, and have recently heard voiced even by relatives of some of the victims of the Gaza war, that is possible. Not only is it possible, it’s the only way the beleaguered people of Israel and Palestine will be able to enjoy the lasting peace they crave.