Middle East Press on: Israel, Zionist, Conflict, US and Palestinian: New Age Islam's Selection, 12 November 2024
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
12 November 2024
How Iran’s Attacks On Israel Backfired, Escalating Regional Conflict
How Lone Soldiers Uphold Israel’s Zionist Values Amid Political Discord
Ukraine And Israel: United Front Against Modern Threats And Shared Enemies
Why Yechiel Leiter Is The Right Choice For Israel's US Ambassador
International Law’s Double Standard: Why Are Palestinian Rights Overlooked?
When Will The World Finally Hold Israel Accountable?
How Palestine Has Become A Domestic US Political Issue
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How Iran’s Attacks On Israel Backfired, Escalating Regional Conflict
By Neville Teller
November 12, 2024
Despite the many charges of aggression, mass murder, and worse that the Iranian regime chooses to level against Israel, there is no disguising the fact that it is Iran that seeks to destroy Israel, not the other way around.
On April 13, 2024, Iran – which essentially means the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – committed a major strategic blunder. Israel’s audacious attack on the Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus on April 1, 2024, took out seven Iranian military advisers, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC).
Such an operation would normally have provoked Iranian ire and an armed response on northern Israel from Hezbollah. Not this time. Instead, the incident was the trigger for a fundamental shift in Iranian policy that has led to negative consequences for Iran, which are still to be fully worked through. They may, in the final analysis, prove existential.
For 45 years – namely, since the Islamic Republic of Iran’s founding in 1979 – the Iranian regime had pursued its self-imposed mission of encompassing the destruction of Israel and its people through funding, arming, and supporting organizations, groups, and militias prepared to attack the Jewish state.
At some point in the period leading up to April 13, Khamenei decided that the time had arrived to change tactics. It must have been intense analysis and calculation by his advisers that led him to break the principle that had guided Iran’s foreign strategy for so long and finally launch Iran’s first direct onslaught on Israel.
'Israel has never been weaker'
What were the possible factors? “Israel has never been weaker. It is bogged down in its war in Gaza. It hasn’t succeeded in eliminating Hamas or recovering its remaining hostages. It is being condemned on all sides for vast numbers of civilian deaths. Hezbollah is attacking it daily on its northern border. Houthi missiles are getting through its defenses. It is the subject of an investigation by the International Court of Justice on a charge of genocide.
“Imagine the effect of a direct Iranian attack. Think of bombs falling on Israeli cities. Think of Israelis in their hundreds slaughtered and injured. Israel will be humbled. The Abraham Accords will disintegrate, and any hope of their extension will be snuffed out.”
Khamenei’s military advisers must have convinced him that a massive fleet of kamikaze UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) would overwhelm Israel’s defenses, and at least some 50% of the missiles would get through. The aerial assault involved hundreds of drones, and cruise and ballistic missiles.
INSTEAD, KHAMENEI’S anticipated military and propaganda triumph turned into a humiliation. What Iran’s military strategists failed to take into account was the united support of Israel’s allies, and Iran’s unpopularity in the Arab world (Iranians may be Muslim, but they are not Arabs).
They surely did not count on Jordan and Saudi Arabia helping to block Iran’s UAVs from reaching Israel, nor that the UK and France would join the US in backing Israel’s Iron Dome in shooting down the Iranian missiles. Their subsequent failure was to underestimate both the chutzpah and effectiveness of Israel’s security and armed forces. Following the aerial assault of April 13, the Iranians were taken by surprise time and again.
Within a week, Israel had responded with airstrikes on Iranian military sites in Syria and Iran. Against a background of continuing tit-for-tat skirmishes, Israel pursued its hunt for the Hamas leaders responsible for the barbaric October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, and the Hezbollah leaders who supported them.
The targeted elimination of Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’s military wing, on July 13 was followed by the even more telling retribution visited on Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political wing. In an especial humiliation for the regime, he was killed in the heart of Iran’s capital, Tehran, by an explosion in his guesthouse, on July 31.
Then came September 17-18, when hand-held communication devices, such as pagers and walkie-talkies, manufactured specifically for Hezbollah and distributed widely to its operatives, were detonated remotely. The result was at least 42 fatalities and over 3,000 injuries, the vast majority of them Hezbollah operatives. Though Israel made no claim, the world assumed it was responsible.
ALBERT EINSTEIN is reputed to have said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” Whatever Khamenei’s thinking – perhaps he believed his first aerial assault on Israel had been underpowered – he opted for a second, bigger, and more focused attempt. He decided to use some 200 advanced Fattah-1 and Kheibar Shekan missiles, and target military and intelligence locations.
However, this second Iranian attack, on October 1, was only marginally more damaging than the first. Once again, most missiles were intercepted by Israeli and US defense systems, including support from US naval vessels stationed nearby.
How and when Israel would retaliate became the subject of intense media speculation.
The theorizing was temporarily suspended when Iran’s prize collaborator, the head of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, was shot dead by the IDF on October 16. While welcoming the news as “a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world,” US President Joe Biden made it clear that he did not want Israel to target Iran’s nuclear and oil installations for fear of triggering an all-out war.
Israel’s response on October 25 respected Biden’s wish and consisted of heavy air strikes on Iranian military targets in Syria and Hezbollah’s military infrastructure.
So Israel and Iran are undoubtedly in conflict, if not formally at war. Anyone can see why no truce can be meaningful.
The objective of the Iranian Islamic regime, from its founding in 1979, has been to acquire as much power and influence as possible in order to achieve the key objectives laid down by the regime’s original supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khameini affirmed repeatedly that the very purpose of his revolution was to destroy Western-style democracy and its way of life and to impose Shi’ite Islam on the whole world. He identified the United States and Israel as his prime targets but included what was then the USSR.
“We wish to cause the corrupt roots of Zionism, capitalism, and communism to wither throughout the world,” Khomeini said. “We wish, as does God almighty, to destroy the systems which are based on these three foundations, and to promote the Islamic order of the prophet.”
By this, he meant his strict Shi’ite interpretation of Islam, for elsewhere he had declared that the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, situated in the heart of Sunni Saudi Arabia, were in the hands of “a band of heretics.”These objectives have driven the regime ever since, and continue to be its raison d’etre.
“We shall export our revolution to the whole world,” declared Khomeini. “Until the cry ‘There is no god but Allah’ resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle.”
In short, Iran’s leaders want to destroy the world as we know it. They want to achieve political dominance in the Middle East, overthrow Western-style democracy of which America is the prime exponent, wipe out the State of Israel, and impose Shi’ite Islam across the globe.
Whether the West wishes to acknowledge it or not, in combating Iran, Israel is fighting for the free world as a whole.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-828654
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How Lone Soldiers Uphold Israel’s Zionist Values Amid Political Discord
By Yisrael Dov Meyer
November 12, 2024
Against the backdrop of heated debates and political discord surrounding the shameful “draft law” currently supported by the “Religious Zionist” party, there exists a powerful and contrasting phenomenon that often goes unnoticed by Israeli society.
I am speaking of the unwavering dedication, commitment, and sacrifice shown by Machal soldiers – Mitnadvei Chutz La’aretz, or Lone Soldiers, as they are called today.
The contributions of these soldiers are rooted in a legacy that goes back to Israel’s founding. During the War of Independence in 1948, Machal soldiers – thousands of volunteers from around the world – left behind their homes to defend the newly established Jewish state.
They played a critical role in Israel’s survival, contributing expertise, resources, and support at a time when the country’s very existence was at stake. This legacy of courage and commitment has continued through the generations, and today’s Lone Soldiers are the modern-day torchbearers of this proud tradition.
Many organizations promote and support programs for Lone Soldiers. One of the most prominent is Gdud Tzabar. However, as former chairman of World Bnei Akiva (WBA), I would like to highlight our unique role in supporting this mission. WBA is one of the world’s most influential Zionist youth movements. Young men and women raised with the values of Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael, and Torat Yisrael (the nation of Israel, Land of Israel, and Torah of Israel) make the courageous decision to serve, leaving behind their homes, families, and communities – a true act of Lech Lecha (the Torah portion in which God tells Abraham to “go to the land that I will show you).
Not of obligation, but love for Israel
They come to Israel not out of obligation but from deep-seated conviction and love for the country – values deeply rooted in the Bnei Akiva youth movement’s commitment to Torah V’Avodah (Torah and labor). Without a local family to lean on, they serve side by side with their Israeli brothers and sisters, often in the IDF’s most elite units, shouldering the same responsibilities and facing the same risks as any Israeli-born soldier.
We salute the exemplary religious Zionist (not the party) institutions – Bnei Akiva Hesder Yeshivot, Midreshet Torah V’Avodah, and Yeshivat Torah v’Avodah, Yeshivat Lev Hatorah, and Mechina Olamit, among others – that have established specialized programs for Lone Soldiers. These programs provide support not only during their time in yeshiva but also throughout their IDF service, addressing their unique needs in place of the family support they have left behind.
In stark contrast, we see certain political leaders, particularly within the Religious Zionist Party, who now seek to protect their positions in government by endorsing policies that offer special exemptions. These exemptions, driven by political alliances, undermine the fundamental Zionist principle of shared responsibility.
Rather than honoring the commitment of every capable young person to serve, these leaders support draft exemptions. This stance contradicts the core values of their constituencies and dismisses the spirit of sacrifice embodied by Lone Soldiers worldwide.
These Lone Soldiers’ actions are in direct contrast to such political compromises. When the brutal attack on October 7 unfolded, many of these soldiers immediately dropped everything to defend Israel. Some have served for over 100, 200, or even 300 days in reserve duty (miluim), with IDF reservists living abroad returning to Israel to defend the country. Some have sustained severe injuries in the line of duty and now face long, challenging rehabilitation. Tragically, some have made the ultimate sacrifice, laying down their lives for Israel.
On November 14, WBA will celebrate 70 years of the World Secretariat at a gala event in Jerusalem. We will pay tribute to the many achievements of our beloved youth movement, including our Lone Soldiers. We hope to inspire and call upon even more of our graduates to answer the call to serve, whether by joining the ranks of the IDF or dedicating themselves to volunteerism through National Service and other essential forms of support. This inspiring commitment, rooted in Torah and Zionism, reflects a loyalty to Israel’s future and a dedication deserving our deepest respect, admiration, and support.
As we navigate these challenging times and heated discussions, may we look to the example set by Lone Soldiers from World Bnei Akiva and beyond. And may we remind the leadership within the Religious Zionist Party of the values they were elected to uphold and that the strength of our nation lies in caring for each other, our shared destiny, and honoring the sacrifices of those who willingly serve.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-828650
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Ukraine And Israel: United Front Against Modern Threats And Shared Enemies
By Borys Lozhkin
November 12, 2024
Our countries have common enemies. On October 19, an Iranian-made kamikaze drone launched from Lebanon attacked the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea. By a lucky chance, the prime minister and his wife were not injured; they were simply not at home.
Ukraine fights off attacks by dozens of such drones every day and is now sharing its experience with the IDF.This is just one episode that shows how interconnected our wars are.
Thousands of Jews, including hundreds of Israelis, are fighting on the front lines defending Ukraine. The IDF, in turn, has many repatriates from Ukraine.
Today, our countries are at the forefront of the fight against the modern axis of evil. The composition of this axis has already become clear: Russia, Iran, and its proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis – and, more recently, North Korea. All tyrannies have united.
Ukraine has been fighting on this front for over 10 years; Israel, – for over a year.
The fate of the civilized world is being decided
I am sure it is not an exaggeration to say that the fate of the entire civilized world is being decided in Ukraine and Israel these days. Both nations are interested in each other’s victory. However, who will win largely depends on the position of international partners and, in particular, the United States, where the presidential and congressional elections were held recently.
The results of these elections were probably expected in Ukraine and Israel as much as in the US itself. After President-elect Donald Trump’s convincing victory, Ukrainians and Israelis have additional hope for a fair and speedy end to their wars.
Ukrainians also remember that it was during Donald Trump’s previous presidency that Ukraine first began receiving significant arms supplies.
Israel is still grateful to Trump for the Abraham Accords of 2020, which significantly expanded the circle of Arab countries that recognized Israel’s right to exist.
How America can influence the future of Ukraine, Israel, and the world as a whole will be discussed by speakers and guests of the Kyiv Jewish Forum on November 13.
I am sincerely grateful to The Jerusalem Post for helping to organize this international forum. It will be the second KJF during the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war and the first after the October 7 massacre. The guests and speakers of the forum will have no shortage of topics to discuss.
The rise of antisemitism and the role of the Diaspora
After October 7, 2023, the world got split. On the one side – those who support Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorists. On the other – those who side with the aggressor. Alas, there were many who justified the Hamas massacre and the kidnapping of hostages.
Under the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” the idea of exterminating the Jews was imposed on the world with renewed vigor because in the Palestine that started being promoted on the streets of cities around the world, there was no place for Jews. It is especially sad that universities, including the most prestigious ones, were subject to this antisemitic hysteria. It seemed that, due to their level of education, university teachers and students should have condemned the massacres in the kibbutzim and towns near Gaza, but the opposite happened.
I am glad that Ukraine became a positive exception at this time. Immediately after the Hamas attack, Ukrainians made it clear who the victim was and where the aggression came from.
More than a year after those tragic events, not a single anti-Israeli protest took place in Ukraine. According to polls, 69% of Ukrainians clearly supported Israel’s right to self-defense and only 1% spoke out against it.
The answer is simple, but, unfortunately, it was obtained at great cost. The Ukrainians, whom Russia has been trying to destroy for more than 10 years, understood better than anyone what the people of Israel faced.
It is likely that only those who have become victims of aggression, as happened in the case of the Ukrainians, can fully understand the threat of antisemitism. However, this path cannot be wished upon anyone. In my opinion, a flaw has formed in world education. People forgot about the Holocaust and allowed the Re’im carnage in 2023 – and a year earlier, in 2022, the Bucha massacre in Ukraine.
The more we remind people of the consequences of total hatred directed against a particular people, the less chance there will be of genocides in the future. I am sure that the KJF speakers will express their opinions on this matter.
‘Whatever it takes’ instead of ‘as long as it takes’
Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014. Crimea and part of the southeast were occupied then, but the world, alas, ignored the war that began in the center of Europe.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel. Again, this became possible, among other reasons, due to the inability of international institutions to act preemptively in countering the aggressors.
Concerning to Israel, we are no longer talking merely about the amorphousness of international organizations that were created to maintain peace on the planet.
Employees of the UN agency UNRWA became direct participants in the terrorist attack on October 7. The International Criminal Court in The Hague almost issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant, equating them with the Hamas terrorist leaders. During an operation in southern Lebanon against the terrorist Hezbollah group, an Iranian proxy, IDF fighters discovered a tunnel a few meters from the base of the UN peacekeeping mission that the terrorists had been using for years to transport weapons and personnel.
Given all this, the declaration of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as persona non grata in Israel became absolutely justified.
The wars in Ukraine and Israel, unfortunately, have demonstrated the inability of existing international organizations to maintain peace on the planet. This is why the position of each country, first and foremost the United States, has become so important.
Therefore, I once again call for a change in the approach to assisting Ukraine and Israel. To achieve victory and establish a just peace, we need more than just assistance for “as long as it takes.” Our enemies are very strong. To defeat them, “whatever it takes” efforts are needed. Only in this way can the countdown of our wars be stopped. The interests of Ukrainians and Jews completely match here.
The main thing for us today is mutual victory.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-828646
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Why Yechiel Leiter Is The Right Choice For Israel's Us Ambassador
By Gabriel Groisman
November 12, 2024
Just a couple of days after US President-elect Donald Trump’s resounding victory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the appointment of Dr. Yechiel Leiter as Israel’s ambassador to the United States.
The appointment is significant on many levels. By naming an individual of such high stature and regard in conservative political circles, Netanyahu signals to both Israel and the United States that he is ready to work actively with the new Trump administration on a range of complex issues, including the current wars and its aftermath, expanding the Abraham Accords, and addressing whatever challenges the world may present.
As an American-Israeli, Leiter is an ideal choice: highly intelligent, well-respected, and with a deep understanding of American politics and culture, thanks in part to his roots in Pennsylvania. Furthermore, Leiter’s appointment sends a signal to the Israeli people – a reminder that there is light and hope after this long, hard-fought war of survival.
Ambassadors come in all shapes and sizes. Ambassadors to major posts are typically chosen either for their political relationships or for their ability to navigate diplomatic efforts with their host country. Leiter seems to be a blend of both.
It takes two to tango
As a longtime confidant of Prime Minister Netanyahu who served as his chief of staff when Netanyahu was finance minister in the 1990s, Leiter also spent the last several decades in positions ranging from mayor to head of the international desk of the Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Council to chairman of the Israel Ports Authority and many other critical positions. As a child of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and a policymaker, Leiter has a nuanced understanding of both Israeli and American politics and society.
While I am confident that Trump and his administration will once again be one of the most pro-Israel administrations in US history, it takes two to tango. The complex issues likely to emerge for Israel and the US in the region require the brightest minds to come together frequently, and Netanyahu clearly recognizes this by appointing Leiter to such a critical role at such a critical time.
Leiter is also the father of eight children, the oldest of whom was one of the most high-profile military casualties of the current war in Gaza. Moshe Leiter z’l served as a platoon commander in the Shaldag Unit and was killed in northern Gaza in November 2023. At his son’s funeral, Leiter said of his eldest son Moshe:
“He gave his life so the barbarians wouldn’t get through the gates of our democracies, of our Judeo-Christian Western values. He was fighting for human freedom and against all the lies and distortions of the freedom deniers, who unfortunately fool so many Americans with their double-talk. He was fighting against Hamas-ISIS.”
Both Israelis and Americans can appreciate the great symbolism of sending a man who spoke these words to Washington, DC, to serve as Israel’s ambassador during this critical time. He understands what is at stake.
For decades, Leiter has been a legend to my family. He is smart, kind, intellectual, political, philosophical, ideological, and the cornerstone of an amazing family. In fact, just two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview him for my podcast, Standpoint, to discuss his journey from Pennsylvania to Israel; his military service during the 1982 Lebanon War; and the ongoing challenges Israel faces from Iran and Hezbollah.
We explored the implications of the October 7 attack on Israel, the need for strong American leadership in global affairs, and the importance of understanding the narratives that shape discourse. While I had dozens of discussions with Yechiel, listening to him intently for an hour as he walked through the current political landscape and Israel’s response to the challenges reminded me of what makes him exceptional: a unique blend of insight, a strong moral and ideological compass, and a profound understanding of the issues at hand.
As a proud American Jew, I am confident that Leiter will be Israel’s best possible diplomatic representative here in the US for the next four years. Both the US and Israel will be well-served with him in the proverbial arena.
On a personal note, I have no doubt that Leiter’s son, my dear friend – Moshe, of blessed memory – would be beyond ecstatic to see his father in this position.
With Yechiel Leiter as Israel’s ambassador, Israel and the United States stand poised to strengthen a bond rooted in shared values and vision with a leader who understands that the challenges we face require not just diplomacy but a deep and unwavering commitment to our mutual future.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-828641
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International Law’s Double Standard: Why Are Palestinian Rights Overlooked?
By Rick Zand
November 11, 2024
While international law is occasionally applied against alleged human rights violators, it never protects the rights of Palestinians.
International law as it exists today draws from the wells of Western liberal democracies, particularly the US. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) stands as the cornerstone of international law as it outlines the humanitarian principles by which states should govern.
UDHR
Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who saw the US through the Great Depression and introduced safety nets like Social Security, chaired the United Nations (UN) committee that drafted 30 articles of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms contained in the UDHR.
These included the right to life, freedom of movement, right to a nationality, economic, social and cultural rights, right to an adequate standard of living and the right to be protected from slavery, torture and persecution due to religion, opinions or beliefs.
In 1948, the year of the Palestinian Nakba, the UN General Assembly adopted the UDHR.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein wrote in the 2015 UDHR foreword: “[The UDHR rights] are the inalienable entitlements of all people, at all times, and in all places—people of every colour, from every race and ethnic group; whether or not they are disabled; citizens or migrants; no matter their sex, their class, their caste, their creed, their age or sexual orientation.”
However, the UDHR never applied to Palestinians who, at the time of its ratification, were being purged from their homes by Zionist colonisers. The occupiers expelled over 700,000 Palestinians in fulfilment of the UN Partition Plan of 1947, drafted as Resolution 181, which called for a separation of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. While Zionist leaders consented to the plan, Palestinians and the Arab League did not.
The Partition Plan allowed for 52 per cent of the land to go to the Zionist state, with 45 per cent allocated for an Arab state. The remaining three per cent – Jerusalem and Bethlehem – would remain under international control.
This uneven divide of Palestinian ancestorial land did not reflect the population disparity. When the Partition Plan was enacted, approximately 1.3 million Palestinians resided in Palestine, as opposed to 610,00 Jews, who owned less than six per cent of the land.
So, despite the adoption of the UDHR, the same body that produced this humanitarian document presided over the agreement that ethnically cleansed an indigenous population through violent expulsion.
The irony was somehow lost on governing members who failed to see the contradiction in supporting universal humanitarian rights but refusing to grant these same rights to Palestinians.
In Deir Yassin, Tantura and Safsaf, and many other Palestinian enclaves, violations included the massacre and rape of hundreds of Palestinians and the annihilation of entire villages.
During this ethnic cleansing, the UN nations never cited humanitarian law. Also, in 1948, the UN introduced Resolution 194, promising Palestinians the right of return.
However, while the UN body was promising a return for displaced Palestinians, the newly established Zionist regime had since repudiated Resolution 194. “The Israeli cabinet had already agreed on a strict policy of no return for the Palestinian refugees in the previous summer (of 1948) and remained unwilling to budge on this point,” noted Marte Heian-Engdal in her book, Palestinian Refugees After 1948, A Failure of International Diplomacy.
The Genocide Convention
More ironies followed. The Geneva Conventions created international laws against genocide to prevent a repeat of the Jewish Holocaust. This brought about The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention).
Article II of the Genocide Convention defines genocide as follows:
Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
It’s hard to imagine how the displacement, massacring and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in their own lands does not fit within the Genocide Convention. Perhaps because those for whom it was written were the perpetrators, violating the laws created to protect them.
Ironically, Israel is a signatory state.
Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
Genocide did not return to the collective consciousness of the UN and its Western partners until the 1990s. By then, massacres in Rwanda and the Serbian town of Srebrenica emerged as iconic failures due to the absence of UN intervention despite the establishment of the Genocide Convention.
As a result, in 2005, the UN General Assembly adopted the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), which shifted genocide prevention to a resource for action. In this new formula, the state has the responsibility to protect its people from genocide, and if it fails, UN states have the obligation to intervene.
R2P could have prevented further ethnic cleansing in Palestine, ended the occupation of Palestinians and ensured their rights as articulated in the UDHR and UN resolutions designed to protect them.
Instead, R2P became a weapon of Western hegemony, used to remove Libya’s leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011. Rather than protecting Libyans, the US-led coalition abandoned the country to civil war, even though Gaddafi had previously signed ceasefire agreements, which the UN Security Council and NATO rejected.
Gareth Evans, co-chair of R2P, in his 2018 Amnesty International/ANU College of International Law address, stated: “While the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem was being celebrated, the shockingly disproportionate response of Israel to the demonstrations on the Gaza border [left] 60 Palestinian men, women and children slaughtered and as many as 2,000 or more injured – [and] for all Israel’s stated fears, the [Gaza] fence-line [was] not breached and just one Israeli soldier reported as ‘slightly wounded’: a juxtaposition of events described by the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy in Haaretz as an ‘atrocious moral eclipse’ in which ‘Rwanda is coming to Gaza, and Israel is celebrating’.”
Rather than legitimising the rights of Palestinians, R2P proponents ignored Israel’s acts of ethnic cleansing. Instead, the blame for the genocide of Palestinians fell on the Palestinians themselves, who failed to get along with their brutal occupiers.
UN reports on Israel’s war crimes
For the US and its European allies, international law was created to protect Western hegemony, not dismantle it. The US relied on international law when President George W. Bush formed a coalition to invade Iraq based on false claims that Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction.
However, when it came to the Zionist state, international law failed. UN agencies attempting to document war crimes in the 2004, 2008 and 2014 massacres in Gaza could not withstand the attacks of the Zionist government, and often reports minimised Israel’s defiance of international law, especially that of proportionality.
According to Amnesty International, in 2008, during Operation Cast Lead, four Israeli civilians were killed, along with six Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers. In contrast, over 1,400 Gazans were killed, including 300 children, 115 women and hundreds of unarmed civilians.
The UN Human Rights Council issued the Goldstone Report, detailing crimes committed by the IDF in Operation Cast Lead. As Norman G. Finkelstein reported in his book Gaza: “The [Goldstein] report concluded that the Israeli assault constituted ‘a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate, and terrorise a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever-increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability’.”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) criticised the report as “deeply flawed” and “distorted”. It wasn’t long before the report’s author, Richard Goldstein, himself an ardent Zionist who had made the mistake of documenting Israel’s war violations during Cast Lead, recanted the facts in the report. The Israeli leadership, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rejoiced in their victory over human rights.
Occupation and international law
The International Committee of the Red Cross affirms that an occupying power: “Must not adopt policies or measures that would introduce or result in permanent changes, particularly in the social, economic and demographic sphere”, and the occupier must “maintain as normal a life as possible, in the occupied territory.”
Zionist occupation has never provided such accommodations to the Palestinian population. The right to self-determination, as outlined in the UDHR, has been denied to those living in the West Bank and Gaza.
The social and economic lives of Palestinians have been destroyed. Normal life does not exist in Gaza or on the West Bank.
Further, the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention, along with other international laws, prohibit the seizure of land by an occupying power except to use as temporary tactical outposts or to benefit the occupied civilian population. Israel and the US continue to ignore these laws as Israel grabs more Palestinian land, including the current annexing of northern Gaza.
International law touted self-righteously by the West never prevented the establishment of illegal settlements in Palestine. Israel and its US ally conveniently ignore the international community’s mild condemnations and non-binding resolutions in the face of ongoing ethnic cleansing, genocide and illegal occupation.
International law is meaningless without consequences, and consequences are meaningless if not applied equally.
The West’s enablement of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians speaks to the identity dynamics that prevent an equal distribution of rights for all peoples. The killing of an Israeli civilian is an atrocity; the murder of a Palestinian is a casualty.
It’s time to apply international law uniformly or abandon it altogether if innocent Palestinians continue to be slaughtered by weapons supplied by the US, UK and European Union nations.
Perhaps the second Donald Trump era, which will likely bring with it accelerated destruction of Palestine, will also end the pretence that the West is a champion of human rights and international law. However, the Western alliance will likely never recognise the irony.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241111-international-laws-double-standard-why-are-palestinian-rights-overlooked/
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When Will The World Finally Hold Israel Accountable?
Chris Doyle
November 11, 2024
A month ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin made clear in a letter to the Israeli authorities that they had 30 days to boost humanitarian aid into Gaza or risk having American military assistance suspended. Many depicted this as the Biden administration getting tough.
The deadline is due to pass on Tuesday. Last week, the US State Department confirmed Israel had not met the criteria but it still had time.
However, nothing that has happened in the last 13 months gives any confidence that President Joe Biden will cut the weapons supply or impose any costs on Israel. Red lines, such as Biden telling Netanyahu not to go into Rafah, have been bulldozed as easily as every built-up area of Gaza. At no point has Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu been forced to hold back.
Note the language. The US is not asking Israel to allow proper access for humanitarian aid, merely to boost it. Prior to this letter, Israel had not let any aid into Gaza for two weeks. The day after, it permitted a trifling 30 trucks into the northern part of the Strip. In October, only 6 percent of the aid that used to get into Gaza entered the besieged enclave.
But what is the reality on the ground?
If you watch the footage filmed by humanitarians who have gone into northern Gaza, it is hard to spot a single building left standing. What was an overcrowded concrete jungle looks like it has been ground down into dust. The occasional streetlamp stands unscathed. One UN official described the stench of rotting corpses.
The UN termed the situation in northern Gaza as “apocalyptic.” The latest assessment from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification states: “The entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.” The aid agency Save the Children warns: “Famine is imminent in northern Gaza. The relentless Israeli bombardment and blocking of critical aid is driving starvation and malnutrition.” Although the official fatality count is about 43,000, the real figure is likely closer to 200 000. The UN has also determined that 70 percent of the dead are women and children.
The gap between the humanitarian agencies on the ground — with what they have been consistently reporting, with evidence, for months and months — and the anodyne statement of American and European leaders is stark.
Israel has insisted all Palestinian civilians have to leave northern Gaza. Worse, on Nov. 5, the same day as the US elections, an Israeli general confirmed that Palestinians would not be allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza. This is clearly to implement parts of the “Generals’ Plan,” which envisages the forcible expulsion of the entire Palestinian population to the southern half of Gaza. It is planned and deliberate. In addition to the north, Israel has already effectively annexed the 56 sq. km of the Netzarim Corridor it has flattened for its own use.
It will not be long before the Israeli settler movement begins building homes on the ruins of those of the Palestinians, to concrete over the evidence of the army’s war crimes with more war crimes, their settlements.
What European and American leaders should be highlighting is the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza and framing it as part of the genocide that Israel continues to perpetrate. Given the levels of death and destruction, which long ago went way beyond any possible claim of Israel self-defense, anything less looks like complicity.
These governments know what is going on. American and European publics can see what is happening and the atrocities that are being committed, which is why opinion polls consistently back a full arms embargo on Israel.
More than any other genocide, this is recorded. Worse, the perpetrators even boast about it. The Israeli president, prime minister and former defense minister, as well as other ministers, Knesset members, generals and other prominent Israeli public figures, have all made genocidal comments.
But genocidal comments about Arabs seem to be permissible. Look at the reactions to last week’s violence in Amsterdam. Leaders rightly condemned the antisemitic attacks on Israeli and Jewish fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv. But barely one called out the violent attacks by the visiting fans and their death chants about Arabs. The media focused on the former and underplayed the latter.
The anti-Arab racism is clear to see. Europe and the US did little to stop the Syrian regime’s war crimes. What has been done to end the horrors in Sudan? These leaders are now complicit in Israeli atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon.
A few honourable exceptions must be cited. Spain last week prevented a container ship reportedly carrying arms to Israel from docking at the port of Algeciras. Ireland’s parliament has passed a motion declaring that Israel is “perpetrating genocide in Gaza” and Dublin also joined the South African genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
But it is the complicity of the US that the world is watching. Biden has just two months to stop this genocide, or that will be his lasting political legacy.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2578886
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How Palestine Has Become A Domestic Us Political Issue
Dr. Ramzy Baroud
November 11, 2024
Arab and Muslim American voters did not remove the Democrats from office, nor did they cost Kamala Harris the Oval Office. Last week’s elections merely sent a strong message that Palestine matters, not only to Arabs and Muslims but to many other Americans as well.
The people who cost the Democrats the elections were the Democrats themselves. Their humiliating defeat on Nov. 5 was due largely to their undeniable role in the Israeli war and genocide in Gaza.
Peter Beinart put it best in his Nov. 7 op-ed in The New York Times, entitled “Democrats Ignored Gaza and Brought Down Their Party.” He wrote: “Israel’s slaughter and starvation of Palestinians — funded by US taxpayers and live-streamed on social media — has triggered one of the greatest surges in progressive activism in a generation.” Beinart correctly indicated that the core of this activism was “Black Americans and the young.”
Undeniably, for the first time in US election history, Palestine has become a domestic American political issue — a nightmare realization for those who labored to maintain US foreign policy in the Middle East as an exclusively Israeli domain.
Aside from Arab voters, Black voters and those from other minority groups who prioritized Palestine, many white Americans also felt the same way. This claim is particularly important, as it suggests that American voters are challenging the identity politics paradigm and are now thinking around common struggles, values and morality.
“Democrats may no longer be able to rely on young voters to boost numbers, as Harris appears on track to have the lowest support among voters aged 18-29 in this century,” a report in the British Independent newspaper noted. Knowing the relatively strong support for Palestine among young Americans, US politicians have much to worry about in coming elections.
We already know that support for Palestine is overwhelmingly strong among young Democrats. A poll conducted by Gallup in March 2023 indicated that, for the first time, their “sympathies … now lie more with the Palestinians than the Israelis, 49 percent versus 38 percent.”
Even more astonishingly, the overall US Democratic constituency is more pro-Palestine than pro-Israel. According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center in April, the overall young American population is “more likely to sympathize with the Palestinian people than the Israeli people.” While a third of adults under 30 sympathized “entirely or mostly” with Palestinians, only 14 percent sympathized with the Israelis.
These numbers did not seem to matter to the Democrats in the recent election campaign, as they continued to take for granted the votes of young people and minority groups. They made a grave mistake.
The Biden administration has played a central role in funding and sustaining the Israeli war machine, thus facilitating the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Millions of Americans took notice and acted on their collective sense of rage to punish the Democrats for what they had done to the Palestinian people.
According to a report prepared for Brown University’s Costs of War project, the Biden administration granted Israel a record of at least $17.9 billion in military aid in the first year of the war. Additionally, according to a report published on Oct. 4 by the nonprofit investigative newspaper ProPublica, the US has shipped more than 50,000 tonnes of weaponry to Israel since Oct. 7, 2023.
And just hours after the US presidential election result was announced, the Israeli Ministry of Defense signed a deal “to acquire 25 F-15IA combat jets from US manufacturer Boeing for $5.2 billion, with an option to get 25 more,” according to Defense News. In other words, Biden remains unrepentant.
Biden, Harris and others can use twisted logic to justify their support for Israel in any way they wish. However, there can be no denying that this administration has played a leading role in the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The Democrats were duly and deservedly penalized by American voters.
However, the understandable euphoria among many of Palestine’s supporters in the US notwithstanding, we must not harbor any illusions. Neither President-elect Donald Trump nor his entourage of right-wing politicians will be the saviors of Palestine.
We must recall that it was Trump’s first term in office that paved the road to the complete marginalization of the Palestinians. He did so by granting Israel sovereignty over East Jerusalem, recognizing the illegal settlements as legitimate, waging financial warfare against Palestinians and attempting to destroy UNRWA, among other actions.
If Trump returns to his old destructive policies in Palestine, another war will certainly start.
This means that the pro-Palestine camp, which has managed to convert solidarity into decisive political action, must not wait for the new US administration to adopt a more sensible political line on Palestine. Judging by the history of Republican support for Israel, no such sensibility should be expected.
Thus, it is time to build on the existing solidarity among all American groups that voted against genocide in the latest elections. This is the perfect opportunity to translate votes into sustained action and pressure, so that all aspects of the US government may hear and heed the deafening chants of “ceasefire now” and “free, free Palestine.”
This time, these chants are backed up by solid evidence that American voters can destabilize the entire political paradigm.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2578891
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