By Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef *
The US on December 8, 2023, demonstrating once again its gruesome face and partiality towards Israel,vetoed the measure in a UNSC special session called by the UN secretary general invoking article 99 of the UN Charter, calling for the ceasefire for the third time since the start of Israel’s horrific war on Gaza.
It is to be remembered that this brazen step was taken by the United States when a meeting of the representative Arab foreign ministers with the secretary of state Antony Blinken was held a short while ago, which is now in Washington after visiting various capitals of the world to secure an immediate ceasefire. Obviously these Arab ministers were left behind surprised and appalled as well.
The Palestinian question has two perspectives; one is Palestinian and the other is Jewish. For Jews Palestine is a promised land. They cite many Biblical texts and even verses from the Quran to cement their viewpoint and by and large, have a vehement support from the West.
Partly because Europe historically had persecuted Jews for centuries culminating in Holocaust committed by Nazi Germany, the guilt of these crimes committed back in history always hunt them and incite them to give Israel unwavering support. And partly because the region of the Middle East sits on the world’s largest gas and oil reservoirs which is the underpinning the Western industrial and economic development. And to have its economic interests safeguarded there must be an outpost in the region, so Israel serves as that checkpost for the West.
However, the history, international law, and morality all refute this Jewish narrative.
On the contrary, the Palestinians have a fair and historical narrative, which the Israeli historians themselves cannot deny, that the Palestinians have been living in this land for centuries and they have all legal, moral, and rational rights to it.
This is not a war between Judaism and Islam because there are much more similarities between Islam and Judaism than between Islam and Christianity. There are so many orthodox Jewish groups who themselves are against the Israeli hegemony and are pro-Palestine. Rather it is a political conflict between the original inhabitants of this sacred land and between the Zionist forces who had usurped this land in criminal connivance with some Western powers; previously Great Britain and right now the US.
Arabs and Jews have been living here side by side for centuries. Zionists are the outsiders and occupiers ,came here from Europe,Germany,Russia and other lands. Many of them have double citizenship for instance an Israeli and American one. Israeli security is a super priority of America and always will be as the US defensesecretary Lioyd Austin has blatantly said. And every American establishment has been ever ready to cross all limits to ensure that. Yet this time American president who is rightly named Genocide Joe will have to face the dire electoral consequences of his blind support to Israel, as Muslim groups already have decided to launch“Abandon Joe” campaign in some states that have a crucial say in electoral politics of the US.
The original objectives of Israel and America behind this war on Gaza are multifaceted and they are very dangerous and far beyond what they are expressing. One is to restore Israel’s lost delusional dominance in the region, which is America’s dominance in fact. It is to restore its invincibility, which was broken in the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. For this, America and Israel can go to any extent and do anything. No matter how many Palestinians are killed in the restoration of this dominance myth.Symply it does not matter to them. The other is that Palestinians should be taught that they are second-class citizens, and Israel will do whatever It wants with them, they must obey remain silent. The demand for their rights on the part of these “sub-humans” is unacceptable. they should be given the same fate as they have done to Gaza.
That is why when the Israeli prime minister or its defense minister threatens Hezbollah and others to make Lebanon and Beirut another Gaza this is what they mean. Hamas is the biggest obstacle to their goals, so the United States, Israel, and all their Western allies have unanimously decided to eliminate it. Hamas and its supporters’ challenge is to make sure that Israel’s sinister plan should not be realized at all costs and that the narrative of the enemy must completely break.
Coming to Gaza first IDF pushed the helpless Palestinians to the south on the pretext that it is a safe zone, it was destroyed with its heavy bombardment of North Gaza and now it is bombarding the South too. Israeli officials with the fervent help of Western media are trying to mislead the world that they have reserved a coastal area called Al-mawazi for the Gazans wherein there were shelters and everyday needed amenities. Aljazeera reporters showing the area on their cameras called the Israeli bluff and proved that it was completely untrue. Now very brazenly American establishment is talking about the post-war scenario in Gaza and who will rule it. See the level of apathy toward Gazans who are dying, a child every ten minutes, their misery and suffering are indescribable, they are somehow trying to save their lives from the Israeli murderous invasion. And Americans not stopping Israel’s onslaught, instead they are planning a post-Hamas, Gaza.Who will rule the rubble?
Now poor Palestinians are being pushed to the Al-mawazi desert area which is deprived of all natural provisions and human amenities. Moreover Gazans in thousands have fled to Rafah city in south Gaza bordering Egypt with no capacity to shelter so many people crowded and huddled together there.
Kamla Haris the US vice president also visited the region. what was her visit aimed at is yet to be known. Yet before her visit, the White House declared a 4-point US agenda in this regard: No occupation, no displacement, no blockade, and no terrorism.
Israeli position so far has been contradictory to the first three goals because it is doing things that can be described as occupation, blockade, displacement, and levelling Gaza.
So Israel is not and will not budge to this shifted American approach because it was so far insisting on purging out Gaza as a whole and 2.5 million Gazans to be pushed out either to Senai or to Jordon, or as Israil’s justice minister told Karan Thapar recently that Iran must accept them. Turkiye reiterated its position that Gaza is of Gazans and it is up to them to decide who rules them. Now Israeli army is drowning the tunnel network that Hamas has been using, with the waters of the Red Sea. This move if succeeded might be a dead blow to Hamas ’capacities. It is regretted to say that 57 Muslim countries could not do anything concrete to prevent the catastrophe Gazans are passing through.
I fear that due to less resistance from Arab countries and Turkiye too, it is highly likely that Israel with the connivance of America and the complacence of big European nations eventually will be successful in pushing Palestinians into either Senai or Jordon and in levelling Gaza completely rendering it unhabitable. Even the Israeli justice minister Yariv Levin told Karan Thapar that he had been receiving calls from Arab friends not to give up and not to stop their bombardment of Gaza. I, for a moment, admit that he might be lying but given the Arab betrayal’s history, there is no excuse to not believe him either.
There seems to be a consensus among Israel, America, their EU allies, and some Arab regimes to finish Hamas or expel it from Palestine at this point. The danger lies here, because without Hamas there may not be a future of a free Palestine state.
*Research Associate with IdareTahzibul Akhlaq
AMU Aligarh