US stoking Tel Aviv fire on vested interest
-: R Muthu Kumar :-
Israel’s operation in Gaza has entered its third month and as international tolerance of the operation in Gaza seems to be coming to an end. World has started to ponder over will Israel continue the operation even if support fades?The dire situation in Gaza has introduced new complexities in the longstanding confrontation between the Axis of Resistance , which refer to an informal anti-Israeli and anti-Western political and military coalition led by the Iranian, and US occupation forces also.
United States risks becoming involved in a larger conflict that could entangle some of the more than 40,000 US military personnel based across the region.
Strongly and undoubtedly America was supporting Israel’s military assault on Gaza, the US has exposed itself wide-opento West Asia headaches , particularly in the already volatile Iraqi and Syrian situation. US troop presence in these areas has heightened tensions with anti-Israel populations highly supportive of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
Washington has gone too far in its alignment with Tel Aviv now, fully disregarding the interests, sentiments, and stances of Arab and Muslim-majority countries, governments and citizens alike.
Last week, the Biden administration bypassed Congress and sent Israel munitions that enabled it to continue the killing of blameless people. As well, the U.S. was the only member of the United Nations Security Council to block a resolution for an immediate cease-fire, while France supported it and Britain abstained.
But one point that is very clearly is that right now the American global authority is shaken!
Australia Foreign Minister Penny Wong has said the country had supported a UN resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza out of concern for civilians in the besieged enclave, in a rare split with close ally the United States.
The vote at the UN General Assembly represents a shift in Canada’s long-standing position of siding with Israel on major resolutions at the international body and arguing the Jewish state is unfairly called out in global fora.
Australia established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1949 and in the same year presided over the vote admitting Israel to the United Nations. Australia is committed to a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state co‑exist, in peace and security, within internationally recognised borders.
Australia stands against terrorismand have unequivocally condemn the attack by Hamas: indiscriminate rocket fire, the targeting of civilians and the taking of hostages.
India too voted in favor of the resolution put before United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first world leaders to condemn the Hamas attack, which he unequivocally termed an act of terrorism.
Russia had not been active in the Middle East for years – since the collapse of the USSR and up to the mid-2010s. Moscow made a ‘comeback’ in 2015, when it conducted a military intervention to save the government of Bashar Assad in Syria. The goal was achieved, and there was a turning point in the Syrian war in favor of Damascus. Following this, Russia became one of the most influential non-regional forces in the Middle East. Both in the military-political and economic sense.
Iraq, Lebanon and Syria have never recognised Israel and technically remain in a state of war with the country. Now Washington has gone too far in its alignment with Tel Aviv.
In more than two months of intensive fighting, Israel has killed more than 17,700 civilians which include over 5,000 children and displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, turned much of Gaza City into rubble and expanded and intensified its air and ground attacks in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Displacement means that almost 2 million Palestinians have no roof over their heads, little or no access to water and food, no sanitation, no schools or work, no health care services and no clean air to breathe, but have the certainty that they could die or be wounded in the next bombardment.
It is understandable and justified for Israel to go after the Hamas fighters that killed more than 1,200, mostly Israelis. But this is no justification for a collective punishment of innocent Palestinians.
Responses by the Biden administration and Western European countries over the past two months have been disappointing.
Vice President Kamala Harris increased the pressure on Israel to minimise its harm to ordinary people. More recently, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated it. Despite these strong words, Israel’s killing of the innocent continued.
Despite two months of relentless Israeli carnage and destruction, the US State Department continues to offend these populations with disingenuous statements like: “I have not seen evidence that they’re (Israel) intentionally killing civilians”.
If the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 created a hostile Arab and Islamic environment at the popular level, along with hundreds of thousands of corpses, massacres, and millions of displaced people, a multifaceted catastrophe whose effects are still deeply etched in the minds of the peoples of the region, and have not healed from it, open support for the criminal policy of the Israeli Government now, including the delivery of 10,000 tons of weapons and equipment on a bridge.
It’s time for the US to take action that will force Israel to declare a cease-fire and hammer out a peaceful resolution, such as a two-state solution that Biden supports and that both groups had agreed on in principle twice before in the Oslo accord and in the Abraham Accord.
President Biden’s support for Israel is very clear. A peaceful solution for the conflict must be brokered by all countries in the international community that have been concerned about this war, including the U.S., Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Britain, France and Germany.
It’s time for the international community to support Palestinians’ self-determination much like its support for the Jews of Palestine in 1947 to establish the independent state of Israel.Such a peaceful solution to this bitter conflict will serve the Israelis, Palestinians and the world well..
Since late 2018, multiple uprisings and protest movements in Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt have been seen as a continuation of the Arab Spring.and is that coming back to haunt global peace.
