The West’s cowardice over Israel is nothing short of abominable
Defeating Hamas is not merely technically possible but existentially vital – for both Israel but the wider West. Hamas is not just some small-time gang of thugs that is best ignored. Since taking over the Gaza Strip in 2007, it has upgraded from a guerrilla ragtag force primarily engaged in hit-and-run attacks to a modern terror army skilled in asymmetric urban warfare that has been prepared to plunge the entire Middle East into chaos in order to seize power from the Palestinian Authority.Lahav Harkov: How much influence does the US really have over Israel?
A perceived victory for Hamas would spell the normalisation of a terrorist government as a viable alternative to peaceful democracy in the Middle East. It would plunge Israel into a nasty power struggle between orthodox hardliners and moderates and leave it vulnerable to further incursions by bordering terror groups. This risks distracting Israel from its intelligence and diplomatic work in partnership with the West to tackle by far the biggest security challenge facing the Middle East – Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.
Moreover, the West’s prevarications risk fuelling the Gaza “PR disaster”. Israel’s global status as an avatar for oppression backed by the imperialist West epitomises the inability of leaders in Europe and America to counter anti-Western worldviews that are both fundamentally misguided and feverishly popular, in part because they do contain sparse grains of truth.
The view, passionately held from the university campuses of London to the townships of Johannesburg, that Israel is an expansionist colonial-apartheid regime draws on the undeniable reality that the Israeli authorities routinely restrict the movements of Palestinians and deny them the same rights as their Jewish counterparts.
Proponents of this view point, also to the established fact that Israelis have illegally built settlements on occupied land beyond their internationally recognised borders, with some Orthodox communities declaring a religious claim to the land. But what Israel’s critics overlook is that it is not the result of an elaborate colonial plot, but rather a messy multi-generational struggle to shore up security in a hostile region.
If Israel’s political class has pursued a settlement programme with gusto, it is as a security buffer rather than an imperialistic project. Many of the repressive restrictions in the West Bank came into force after the Second Intifada. If anything Israel is not an grotesque ode to imperialism but a cautionary tale on the compromises on freedom and human rights that a country will make when it is threatened by perma-terrorism.
Perhaps the world would be more open to such a perspective if the West were more assertive about Israel’s right to defend itself. Instead, it has chosen moral cowardice. In suddenly threatening to withdraw arms support after aid workers are killed, it indulges the myth that it is somehow possible for Israel to take on Hamas without heavy Palestinian casualties. And in urging Israel to negotiate a ceasefire before Hamas has been neutralised, the West legitimises the view that Israel is a bully, using monstrously disproportionate force in Gaza, that must be reigned in for the sake of the world’s conscience.
Instead of acting like the leader of the free world, the West is behaving like a civilisation under siege. The world is a darker place for it.
The Biden administration’s influence over the war effort in Gaza is apparent: the President and his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, have taken part in Israeli war cabinet meetings and this week’s increased aid is not the first time Israel has changed its plans after meetings and conversations with White House officials.In Eid greetings, Blinken mentions West Bank Palestinians alongside world’s most oppressed Muslims
The danger is that if this withdrawal is part of a mini-ceasefire or a brief pause, the US will try to make it permanent, as Biden administration officials have said they hoped to do in the past. Then, Israel will be faced with the choice of either going it alone, without American support, or giving in, thus allowing for Hamas’s remaining brigades in Rafah to continue posing a threat.
But it should also be noted that the US continues to supply weapons to Israel, and the Biden administration has yet to set additional conditions on its military aid, despite unprecedented backing for such a policy from within the Democratic Party. The President has not backed down from his support for the war aims of eliminating the Hamas threat and bringing home the more than 130 hostages remaining in Gaza.
What’s more, influence does not mean omnipotence. Biden also demanded that Netanyahu “empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home” — yet the deal still fell through.
The question, then, is whether this influence is such that Israel will make any major changes due to US influence, such as backing down from eliminating the final Hamas battalions in Rafah.
Recent remarks from Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, someone so close to Netanyahu that he has been nicknamed “Bibi’s brain”, indicate that Jerusalem is determined to push forward regardless of the pressure from Washington.
“If Israel does not take care of Hamas in Gaza after what it did on October 7th,” Dermer said, “I truly believe that this country has no future because all the buzzards circling around this country are going to think that you can pick apart this carcass […] That’s why the determination to take them out is so strong, even if it leads to a potential breach with the United States.”
In a statement marking Eid Al-Fitr, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken highlights the plight of Palestinians in the West Bank alongside Muslims suffering in some of the world’s worst conflicts.
“Our thoughts turn to the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, civilians in Syria, women suffering under the Taliban in Afghanistan, Uyghurs in the People’s Republic of China, Rohingya in Burma and Bangladesh and far too many others,” Blinken says.
The decision to lump Palestinians in the West Bank along with those enduring war crimes and genocide highlights the severity with which the Biden administration views the Palestinian plight in the West Bank, where they live under Israeli military control.
“Far too many have lost loved ones over the past year and many more are concerned for the safety and security of their families today. I hope that this year’s Eid al-Fitr marks a moment on a path to more hopeful, free, and peaceful times ahead,” Blinken says.
“The United States is committed to standing up for human rights for people around the world, to providing humanitarian aid where it is desperately needed, and to working to bring about enduring peace, dignity, and safety of all communities,” he adds, wishing Muslim communities around the world an Eid Mubarak and praying for a more peaceful year ahead.