This is Eve. The headline is obvious to anyone following the Gaza war, but it still seems to need repeating. The article starts by exposing the falsehood of the latest peace plan (which the US is pretending is an Israeli initiative in order to blame Hamas for the failure to reach an agreement), and then goes on to provide an excellent, high-level historical treatment of the US’s longstanding support for Israeli war crimes in Palestine.
By Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies The Ukraine War: Understanding a Pointless ConflictIt will be published by OR Books in November 2022. Medea Benjamin is CODEPINK for Peaceand author of several books, Inside Iran: The True History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of IranNicholas J.S. Davies is an independent journalist and researcher at CODEPINK. Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq
U.S. Marine Corps and Israel Defense Forces soldiers participate in joint exercise “Intrepid Maven” on Feb. 28, 2023. Photo: U.S. Marine Corps
On June 13, Hamas Responded Hamas has been relentlessly challenged by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken over the US proposal to suspend Israel’s massacres in Gaza. The group said it “has responded positively to the latest proposal and all proposals leading up to a ceasefire agreement.” Hamas, however, added that “Secretary Blinken keeps saying Israel approves the latest proposal, but we have not heard any Israeli officials express approval.”
While the full US proposal has not yet been made public, a halt to Israeli attacks and the release of hostages in phase one would reportedly lead to further negotiations towards a more permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in phase two. However, there is no guarantee that the second phase of negotiations will be successful.
Former Israeli Labor Party Prime Minister Ehud Barak On June 3, Sinwar (Gaza’s military commander) said on Israeli radio: “How do you think you would react if we told you to hurry up because we still have to kill you after we return all the hostages?”
Meanwhile, as Hamas has pointed out, Israel has not officially accepted the terms of the latest US ceasefire proposal, and only has the word from US officials that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to it privately. Publicly, Netanyahu remains Assert He is committed to the complete destruction of Hamas and its ruling authority in Gaza, and has in fact intensified Israel’s brutal attacks in central and southern Gaza.
The fundamental difference of opinion, which President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Blinken cannot hide through their smokescreen tactics, is that Hamas, like other Palestinians, wants a real end to the genocide, but the Israeli and US governments do not.
Both Biden and Netanyahu could end this slaughter immediately if they wanted to – Netanyahu by agreeing to a permanent ceasefire, Biden by halting or halting US arms supplies to Israel. Israel cannot wage this war without US military and diplomatic support. But Biden Hospitalized In the interview, he said it was “reasonable” to conclude that Netanyahu was prolonging the war for his own political gain.
The United States continues to send weapons to Israel and commit massacres in violation of the International Court of Justice’s ceasefire order. Even as the International Criminal Court is reviewing a request by the Court’s Chief Prosecutor for military intervention in Israel, bipartisan U.S. leaders have invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress on July 24. Arrest warrant Prime Minister Netanyahu has been indicted on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and murder.
The United States appears determined to share Israel’s self-inflicted isolation from voices calling for peace around the world, including the majority of countries in the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.
But perhaps this is fitting, as the United States bears a large share of responsibility for its isolation, through decades of unconditional support for Israel and its use of veto power in the UN Security Council. Dozens of times To shield Israel from international responsibility, the United States has allowed successive Israeli governments to pursue blatantly criminal policies and ignore the growing anger of people and nations around the world.
The pattern of U.S. support for Israel dates back to the founding of the state, when Palestinian Zionist leaders launched a meticulous campaign to seize much more territory than the UN had allocated for the new state — a plan that the Palestinians and their neighbors were already strongly opposed to.
Genocide, bulldozed villages and ethnic cleansing 750,000 To a million The people of Nakba were very careful DocumentedDespite an extraordinary propaganda campaign to convince two generations of Israelis, Americans and Europeans that it never happened.
The United States was the first country to de facto recognize Israel on May 14, 1948, and played a leading role in getting the United Nations to vote in 1949 to recognize the new state within Israel’s illegally occupied borders. President Eisenhower had the wisdom to oppose the British, French and Israeli war to seize the Suez Canal in 1956, but Israel’s seizure of the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 1967 convinced U.S. leaders that Israel could be a valuable military ally in the Middle East.
Unconditional U.S. Support for Israel Squatter The expansion and annexation of territory over the past 57 years has corrupted Israeli politics and encouraged an increasingly radical and racist Israeli government to continue to expand its genocidal expansionist ambitions. Netanyahu’s Likud party and government are now Greater Israel Plans to annex all of occupied Palestine and parts of other countries whenever and wherever new opportunities for expansion arise.
Israel’s de facto expansion has been facilitated by the US monopoly on mediation between Israel and Palestine, a monopoly the US has vigorously asserted and defended before the UN and other nations. The irreconcilable contradiction between the US’s competing roles as Israel’s strongest military ally and at the same time the main mediator between Israel and Palestine is clear to the whole world.
However, we can see that even in the midst of the genocide in Gaza, the world and the UN have failed to break the US monopoly and establish a legitimate and impartial settlement by the UN or a neutral country that respects the lives and human and civil rights of Palestinians.
Qatar brokered a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in November 2023, but its prominence has since been diminished by deceptive overtures, cynicism, and US efforts to perpetuate the genocide through its Security Council veto. The US has consistently vetoed all proposals in the UN Security Council that do not concern Israel and Palestine, even when its own proposals are deliberately meaningless, ineffective, or counterproductive.
The UN General Assembly is united in supporting Palestine. vote They have almost unanimously called for an end to the Israeli occupation every year. 144 people Countries have recognised Palestine as a state US veto Israel refuses full membership of the United Nations. Israel’s massacres in Gaza have even shamed the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC), forcing them to stop their deep-rooted pro-Western bias and pursue legal action against Israel.
One way for countries around the world to work together to pressure Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza is toUnited for PeaceThe UN General Assembly adopts “Security Council Resolutions,” which are measures the General Assembly can take when the Security Council is unable to take action to restore peace and security due to the veto power of the permanent members.
While Israel has indicated it is willing to ignore UN General Assembly and Security Council ceasefire resolutions, as well as orders from the International Court of Justice, a Unity Peace Resolution could impose penalties for Israeli actions, such as an arms embargo or economic boycott. The UN General Assembly could also take action against the United States if the United States remains adamant about continuing its complicity in Israel’s international crimes.
A General Assembly resolution would change the terms of the international debate, shifting the focus from Biden and Blinken’s diversionary tactics to the urgency of implementing a lasting ceasefire that the whole world wants.
It is time for the United Nations and neutral nations to step aside Israel’s genocidal partner, the United States, and allow legitimate international organizations and intermediaries to shoulder the responsibility of enforcing international law, ending Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and bringing peace to the Middle East.
