The ongoing carnage in Gaza: a strong message for the Arab world

Even though Israel committed war crimes by murdering over 500 people in the horrifying hospital bombing, Western nations that are the sole agents of democracy and human rights like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany have sided with the country of Israel. US President Joe Biden went to Israel to demonstrate his country’s solidarity with the Zionists. To absolve the Israelis from the responsibility of killing more than 500 people by bombing the hospital, he said that someone else had carried out the attack. Shame on the US President for the neo-Nazis with Jewish names even though the Israelis have not dared to directly deny responsibility for the hospital bombing.

If the ongoing war in Gaza had been like all other wars, many things might have looked different by now. Recently there has been a ceasefire, but it might have been a long time ago. The dead would have been buried and Israel might have had to argue with the UN about exactly how much cement would be needed to rebuild Gaza. But this war is not like them, because the massive slaughter going on here is not the only reason. The massacre here was initiated by Hamas on October 7, mostly against Israeli civilians. Israel then launched a counter-offensive in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "terrible reprisal", killing mostly Palestinian civilians. This war is different from others because it comes at a time when the fault lines dividing the Middle East are cracking.

The tense picture of geopolitics here for the past two decades has Iran and its friends and allies on one side, and the US and its friends and allies on the other. At the core of Iran's network, sometimes known as the Coalition for Resistance, are Lebanon's Hezbollah, Syria's Assad regime, Yemen's Houthis and Iraq's armed forces, which Iran arms and trains. The Iranians have also been supporting Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. At the same time, Iran is now becoming closer to China and Russia. Iran is an important part of Russia's war in Ukraine, and China buys large amounts of oil from Iran.

The longer the war in Gaza drags on and the more Palestinian civilians Israel kills and destroys thousands of homes, the greater the risk of conflict between the two allied factions. The fact that Israel has entered a process of genocide against the Palestinian people is now clear. Israel has relaxed its defense policy allowing the army to kill anyone as part of a ground operation in Gaza, Al Jazeera reported. Israeli politicians and soldiers openly call for the overthrow of Gaza and the abolition of the Palestinian state, indulging in the fantasy of settling Israeli settlers on Gaza land. Palestinians are deprived of all the necessities of life such as food, drinking water, shelter and medical care. Undeniably, bombs are falling from the sky and disabling Palestine.

Genocide experts say that this mass destruction is not caused by any radical political faction, but most frighteningly, the genocide is done by the active participation of supporters, in silence. It is not known whether such overt and active support for genocide has been seen before, but various institutions in North America and Western Europe are either actively supporting it or maintaining complete silence on the matter, which is the name of support. For genocide to take place, two things are necessary: the infrastructural and material capacity to carry out genocide, and the naming of genocide by something other than genocide. The Western world is equally participating in both. The United States has sent not one, but two aircraft carriers to the region and has declared that any state or group entering it will be resisted with all its might.

The UK is also supporting this Western imperialism by sending a fleet. America continues to supply Israel with defence material and weapons, rejecting calls for a cease-fire. Businesses and financial institutions are providing financial support to the State of Israel in the name of helping the affected people. Even prompting Egypt to offer asylum to Palestinian refugees so that they cannot return to Gaza. Years of aid have enabled Israel to carry out genocide. Political, social, and cultural institutions and the media are used to hide the genocide, saying it is a legitimate struggle against the persecution of Jews around the world.

Many are losing their jobs, and being accused of criminal activity for supporting Palestine. All forms of advertising are prohibited. The media is going all out to say that Hamas is responsible for the destruction of Palestinian civil life. Israel's operation is seen as a campaign to eliminate Hamas. Those who oppose this statement are being cornered, their mouths are being closed. In short, all Western institutions are currently providing organized support to the ongoing genocide in Palestine in the name of saving civilization from barbarism. The extent of what has already happened in Palestine is difficult to express in words and what will happen will be even more horrific. Nothing is unclear at such times. This has long been clear to many of us but now there is no room for doubt.

Western imperialism came at this time and carried out occupations like the fifteenth century. Yes, its processes, strategies, policies, powers and capabilities have transformed. Performers have been changed, some things have become more complex, and some complexity has decreased. This is how it goes. These theoretical discussions are important, but not now. What is needed at this moment is to say these words clearly and loudly - the imperialist Western powers continue to carnage indiscriminately to establish their supremacy, driven as ever by their lust for power and wealth. On the other hand, tension is gradually building up on the border between Israel and Lebanon. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah wants a direct war, but as tensions rise on both sides, there is a risk that it will eventually spiral out of control. Yemen's Houthis have launched missile and drone attacks aimed at Israel.

Although all sides are trying to keep tensions low, the level of military force is always difficult to control. On the US side are Israel, the Gulf oil-rich states, Jordan and Egypt. The United States has been a strong supporter of Israel since its inception, although even US President Joe Biden is uncomfortable with Israel's massive killing of Palestinian civilians. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has publicly stated that too many Palestinian civilians are being killed. The sight of thousands of Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza and walking south along the main road reminds many of Israel's victory in the 1948 War of independence against the Arabs.

More than 700,000 people who fled their homes at the hands of Israeli forces are comparing it to Al Nakba or the Great Catastrophe. Most of the next generation of those 1948 refugees now live in the Gaza Strip. And some radical Jewish nationalists, many of whom are supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu, are calling for another Nakba to be imposed on the Palestinians, alarming some Arab countries in the U.S. ally, especially Jordan and Egypt. A minister in the Netanyahu government even hinted at dropping nuclear bombs on Gaza to counter Hamas. He was reprimanded but not expelled. These may be dismissed as crazy talk, but Jordan and Egypt have taken the matter seriously.

It's not about nuclear bombs, of which Israel has many, both declared and undeclared, but more about the fear of thousands of Palestinians entering their borders. And if there is a war in Gaza, senior diplomats from various Western countries have told the BBC that the war and its aftermath will be very difficult and chaotic to deal with. The only way is to rebuild a political horizon for Palestine. Originally pointing to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, the so-called 'two-state' solution, has failed and now survives only as a slogan. Reviving it and carving out its place between Israel and Arabia is a very ambitious plan and probably the best solution in the current situation.

But applying this concept in the current climate of pain, hatred and fear will be a very difficult task. And it is impossible under the current Israeli and Palestinian leadership. The second part of the US plan is to continue negotiating the two-state solution, which Netanyahu has opposed throughout his political career. Netanyahu is not the only one against Palestinian independence. He has been re-elected as prime minister with the support of hardline Jewish nationalists who believe that the entire region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is God's gift to the Jews and must remain within Israel's borders.

Many inside Israel are calling for Netanyahu's resignation, blaming security and intelligence failures for the October 7 attacks. There will be a change of leadership at some point, but if this tragic war in Gaza does not force Israel, Palestine and their powerful friends to make peace, more wars await in the future. But the point is, it would not be far wrong to say that Israel's policy is enough to unmask the country's rhetoric about democracy and human rights that keeps the world on edge.

Author: Researcher and Columnist