A dangerous moment

THE contrast could not have been more telling. In his farewell speech to the UN General Assembly last week, President Joe Biden spoke proudly about how he defended Ukraine and its people against Russian aggression. But speaking about the Middle East, he applied different principles.
Israel was cast as the victim with barely any concern expressed for the plight of the Palestinian people facing aggression and oppression. He urged the world to help Ukraine win the war and said the US will not “look away” unless there was a just and durable peace based on the UN Charter.
On the Middle East, Biden focused on the “horrors of October 7” and hostages captured by Hamas, saying little about the death and destruction wrought by Israel’s year-long, ongoing war on Gaza. The UN Charter was not invoked despite its countless violations by Israel. Biden mentioned the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and of averting a full-scale war in the region. But these words sounded hollow given the role his administration has played over the months in the conflict.
That role is evident from the several times the US vetoed resolutions for a ceasefire in the UN Security Council and from its relentless arming of Israel. In the past year, Washington has given Israel over $12 billion in arms supplies and deployed additional military forces in the region to ‘protect Israel’. Last week, Israel secured an additional $8.7bn in US military aid. Over the past 11 months, the Biden administration hardly spoke of the tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians killed — over 41,000 now — by Israel’s military offensive and bombings. It never condemned repeated Israeli attacks on hospitals and medical staff, with official spokespersons often fumbling over media questions about assaults that are a blatant violation of international humanitarian laws.
This stance handed Israel a licence to carry out atrocities, ethnic cleansing and defy the UNSC’s calls for a fighting pause to allow aid into Gaza. It also flouted rulings of the International Court of Justice. Not only has Israel been emboldened to continue its genocidal war, it also felt encouraged to launch crackdowns in the occupied West Bank, assassinate Hamas and Hezbollah commanders in third countries and intensify assaults on Lebanon.
Not a murmur was heard from Washington — and many Western capitals — when Israel carried out pager explosions in Lebanon. If any other country had done this it would have been denounced by the West as a terrorist attack, which is what it was. Israel ramped up deadly raids across the West Bank, resulting in scores of civilian deaths and unprecedented destruction of infrastructure.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has exploited the Biden administration’s lame-duck phase and political considerations in America’s election season to act with impunity and ignore warnings from Washington about the danger of a regional war.
He has also calculated that the US is unwilling to use its leverage (suspend weapon supplies) to restrain Tel Aviv, especially as it keeps reiterating support for Israel’s ‘unconditional right to defend itself’. Belated US efforts for a ceasefire and hostage deal but without exerting pressure on Israel meant it gave the Israeli government sufficient time to conduct a brutal war while pretending to pursue peace.
Netanyahu has shown no interest in a ceasefire or peace deal not least because his political survival depends on continuing the war. He faces charges of corruption. A defiant Netanyahu spurned international urgings for a ceasefire in his UNGA address. Meanwhile, some members of the Biden administration seemed to buy Israel’s disingenuous ‘escalate to de-escalate’ argument in what it calls a “new phase” in the conflict. That is how Tel Aviv cast its multiple, devastating air strikes on Lebanon — the biggest in decades — which have already claimed over 700 lives. This has also sparked fears of a wider multi-front war that could engulf the entire region.
Iran’s stance will be critical given the mounting pressure on its ally Hezbollah, especially after the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. So far Tehran has acted with restraint. President Masoud Pezeshkian has avoided falling for the Israeli bait to enter the war. He did not order any retaliatory response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil. While attending the UNGA session in New York, Pezeshkian said Israel was trying to drag his country into a wider war that he had no wish to do. However, Iran will face a predicament if Israel, which ordered its troops to be ready for a ground offensive in Lebanon, crosses another red line.

While the UNGA session has seen an outpouring of international support for the Palestinians and strong denunciations of Israel from leaders of the Global South that does not obscure the hypocrisy and double standards practised by Western governments. With the notable exception of Western nations such as Spain, Ireland and Norway, the rest have shown utter disregard for international law and fundamental human rights in their blind support for Israel. They denounce Russian military actions and targeting of civilians in Ukraine, but have refused to apply the same principle to Gaza. They never asked themselves if there is any justification to target civilians, kill children, bomb hospitals, displace people and starve a population in Gaza.
Instead, they have gone on and on about Israel’s right to defend itself as if that gives Tel Aviv carte blanche to violate every international law and norm, commit war crimes, attack the sovereignty of states and seek to annihilate an entire nation. Far from assuring Israel security, that only multiplies its enemies and over time strengthens resistance to occupation.
Arab governments also haven’t covered themselves in glory by failing to do anything to stop Israel from carrying on its genocidal war. Statements of condemnation have been aplenty. But their inaction has served as an enabler for Israel to continue military aggression.
The Middle East stands at a dangerous crossroads. Israeli escalation has pushed the region to the brink of a full-scale conflict. For the brave Palestinian people, this is the darkest period in their tortured history. But the past demonstrates that their will to resist a cruel occupation will endure whatever the challenges.
The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN.
Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2024