The war in Gaza may have started in response to the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel by the militant group Hamas, during which 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage.
When the crisis started, many analysts considered Israel’s anger as justified, just as the invasion and killing evoked memories of the holocaust, after which the international Jewry represented by the state of Israel said: Never again.
It is pertinent to point out that the Holocaust, orchestrated by the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler and its allies, claimed the lives of an estimated six million jews in Europe and fast-tracked the creation of the state of Israel on October 24, 1948.
The obduracy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in insisting on resolving the Palestinian question on the battlefield may achieve a similar outcome that Israel dreads – the two-state solution. Many countries, including France, Australia, and Canada, have already set a September date to recognise the State of Palestine. That diplomatic move may be blocked by the veto of the United States of America at the Security Council. But it will be seen as a moral victory for the Palestinians, including Hamas.
It is presumptive to suggest that Netanyahu does not intend that to happen. But his unyielding resolve to annihilate Hamas may bring that about, especially when it is realised that Hamas is essentially an ideology just like Zionism.
The report by Palestinian health authorities that more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in the nearly two-year war in the Gaza Strip, most of them women and children, is getting reactions that Israel may not have anticipated. Worse is the ongoing ground operations of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to occupy Gaza City. A section of the IDF itself considers the military operation ill-advised. The international community considers it unconscionable and mindless.
A United Nations Commission, in a recent report, concluded that “the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
This is not the first time that Israel has been formally accused of committing genocide in Gaza. In 2023, South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice against Israel, accusing it of conduct in Gaza that was tantamount to genocide. That case is ongoing.
In April, Amnesty International found that Israel was committing what it described as a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza with the “specific intent” of wiping out Palestinians.
However, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs slammed the commission’s findings as “fake” and alleged that the report’s authors were “serving as Hamas proxies”.
Regardless of what the Israeli authorities may choose to believe, pictures, it is often said, do not lie. Images emerging from Gaza depicting endless displacement of people, destruction of structures, the horrendous and blood-curdling real-time experiences of death, in particular, of children, cannot be dismissed by anyone as fake.
Incidentally, the attention is not on Israel but on the United States of America for looking the other way while a crime against humanity is having a field day in Gaza. The perceived support, diplomatic and military, that Israel is receiving from America, emboldened the Jewish nation to bomb Qatar, a country that is spearheading the peace process in the conflict. Qatar is the sixth country Israel has attacked since the Hamas massacre on 7 October 2023.
In response to this unprovoked attack, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, reaffirmed his country’s commitment to the security of Israel. He said, “What’s happened has happened. Obviously, we were not happy about it, and the president was not happy about it. “It’s not going to change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis”.
However, such behaviour is changing the nature of the relationship between Israel and its friends. Germany, for instance, is reconsidering its decision to sell arms to Israel. France is leading the charge in recognising Palestine. Not to mention Saudi Arabia and Jordan, which are Israel’s friends in the Middle East.
In the opinion of this newspaper, Israel has the right to defend itself against external aggression of the kind that happened on October 7, 2023. It is also in a position to take measures it believes appropriate for securing its territorial integrity and the safety of its citizens. Our concern is what happens to it as these rights are exercised. What is going on in Gaza is far beyond the preservation of its national security. Analysts are considering the atrocities being perpetrated in that geopolitical entity as taking vengeance a bit too far.
We are also disturbed by the proclivity of Netanyahu and his hardline associates in the Knesset, the Israeli unicameral parliament, to ignore international opinion on its actions in Gaza.
Unfortunately, the real estate mogul turned politician, President Donald Trump, wants to relocate the over two million Gazans to somewhere else to achieve his desire to rebuild the place and make it look like the French Riviera. But is the wastage of human lives going on in Gaza worth it? Is Netanyahu playing Trump’s card?
