Israeli retaliation may radically change the Arab position

American veto. A Russian "veto"... and the number of victims in Gaza rises by hundreds after hundreds of children and women. Everything goes out of service: communications and the Internet, after water, electricity, medicine and fuel. The UN Security Council is ineffective, and the UN General Assembly’s resolutions are non-binding. Why this and that “veto”: The American suggests, evasively, a ceasefire for short, intermittent periods. The Russian is manoeuvringly requesting a broader ceasefire. Both of them know in advance that Israel does not accept either formula, under the pretext that the truce benefits Hamas, and does not care if it benefits Gazan civilians. It launches air and missile attacks on them, without distinguishing between them and the fighters, and aims to get rid of them all, deploring that this be called genocide or War crimes prohibited by international law that you have never recognized.

No "humanitarian truce" then, but rather waiting for a ground attack. This is what the Western countries decided, because the Israeli-American duo ruled out a “truce,” and thus excluded “humanity.” So the Europeans started playing with words, as they wanted to “deliver aid” to please some of their communities, but they did not agree to a ceasefire in line with the policies they aligned themselves with. Between interests and condoning crime, they chose to remain silent about successive massacres. The three weeks were not a time for consciences, nor for rules and customs, but for killing, destruction, displacement, and deprivation of the necessities of life in implementation of collective punishment for those who refuse to submit to the occupation. If this is not total destruction, what is it? Diplomats at the United Nations suddenly discovered that they no longer knew their Western colleagues who had been turned upside down, as if history began for them and stopped on “October 7.” Convincing them of the simplest legal rules became impossible, and they began to end every discussion by saying, “Let us let the Israelis take revenge, and then we talk".

This is not a double standard, but a single standard, and without any rational, moral, or even political standards, as if excluding Israel from international law is the rule and not the other way around, or as if the occupation of Palestinian land and the persecution, killing, abuse, and uprooting of its people are the only evidence that there is something in this world. Its name is “international legitimacy” that exists and is achieved. When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, it was keen to separate it from the West Bank and keep it besieged and exist only on the map of UNRWA and other UN organizations. It is now separating it from the world to devote itself to the great massacre under the cover of darkness and in isolation from any witnesses. 

Israel and the United States decided after that that the Arabs were not concerned with the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, or the issue they described as “central,” nor even with the feelings of their societies or the facts of history and geography, but rather with the only available “game,” which is “normalization” with Israel. 

Governments have become false witnesses in the face of atrocities, fabrication and fraud to undermine any peace settlement and perpetuate the Israeli occupation, and in the face of the madness of hatred, fanaticism and racism that has emerged from the practices of the Israeli extreme right and its settlers, as if the Arabs had rejected the agendas of political Islam and terrorism represented by its “Al-Qaeda”, “ISIS” and Iranian branches in order to welcome the agendas of Ben Gvir, Smotrich and others, or to be tools in protecting Benjamin Netanyahu from prosecution on corruption charges.

Israel acts in disregard of any regard for the Arabs, as if it took a license from them to “eliminate Hamas,” just like the American and Western support it received. But Gaza and the people of Gaza are not abbreviated as “Hamas” in the Arab world. It is true that most Arab countries do not approve of the methods of operation of this movement and are not reassured by its close connection with Iran. However, the Arab position rejects the excessive brutal violence in Israel’s response to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation. 

In view of the Israeli violations in the West Bank, the pressure to displace Gazans to Sinai, and the escalation of talk about Jordan as an “alternative homeland” for the Palestinians of the West Bank, the Arab position may change radically towards Israel, because it has begun to display hostility and intentions to destabilize neighboring countries, including those that signed Peace agreements with it.

Israel did not respond to calls from major Arab countries for a ceasefire and to bring the necessary aid into Gaza, and even Washington did not have the courage or wisdom to give the humanitarian side any chance. This reveals the extent to which the historical distance has returned between the Americans and the Israelis, on the one hand, and the Arabs, on the other hand, over the “central issue,” in the interest of advancing Arab rapprochement with China and Russia. Most importantly, it reveals how Arab visions of “peace” as a future option were met with ingratitude and deception. Because the Arabs will not, and cannot, return to the option of war, the Americans and Israelis do not consider themselves obliged to do justice to the Palestinians, neither with the “two-state solution” nor with anything else. Although the US President and members of his administration reiterate their adherence to this “solution,” the policy they are implementing has shown that they are feeding an “illusion” while leaving Netanyahu and the group of extremists in his government in charge of the Palestinian fate. This cannot create a stable future in the region.

In the face of the strategic dilemma that Hamas poses for them in Gaza, America and Israel will have no choice but to try concluding a deal/settlement with Iran, the party that recently demonstrated that it was able not only to seize control of the Palestinian issue and bring it back to the forefront through Hamas, but also to form a threat to Israel and returning the regional conflict to the cycle of wars, with its willingness to reach an understanding if its interests are met. 

The American President had warned Israel of “emotional” mistakes committed by America - militarily - in its wars on terrorism after the events of September 11, 2001, and it would have been more appropriate for him to consider what finally happened on October 7, 2023, as a result of Israeli policy errors and political mistakes. A catastrophe committed by successive American administrations, and it was even more dangerous during the era of Barack Obama, who lent Iran regional gains and did not receive any return from them, neither for America nor for its allies and friends in the region.

Unlike the United States, which became a direct partner in the Gaza war, including its condonement of crimes against defenseless civilians, Iran distanced itself from any responsibility, and Western countries helped it in this to maintain a negotiating line that seems necessary now, whether for the release of foreign detainees held by Hamas. Or later to settle the war in light of the situation that Hamas will be in after its fighting and the blows it will be exposed to. 

Therefore, Washington was forced to amend a draft resolution that it submitted to the Security Council, deleting the demand that Iran stop arming its militias and even the clause requesting recognition of “Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism.”

Source: Annahar