Strategic Culture Foundation Editorial

Can Western leaders show a modicum of moral fiber?

In blatant defiance of world opinion and international law, the Israeli state continues its daily massacre of civilians in Gaza.

After nearly four weeks of non-stop aerial bombardment, the death toll has exceeded 9,000, with thousands more missing under rubble. The actual death toll as of this writing could be near 15,000.

The United Nations organization UNICEF this week described Gaza as a “graveyard for children”. An estimated 400 children are killed or wounded every day. The wounded have no way of being treated as hospitals shut down from lack of fuel and supplies.

In heartrending scenes, families are desperately trying to dig up children buried under concrete debris. All too often, their cries fade with agonizing death.

The world is witnessing an age of cruel depravity that is on par with the barbarity of Nazi Germany.

Sickeningly, the Israeli regime carrying out these war crimes has the temerity to invoke the memory of the Nazi Holocaust as an excuse for its actions. Decent Jews and Holocaust survivors around the world are indignant and ashamed of the repugnant posturing of Israeli envoys wearing yellow stars on their suits at the UN.The diabolical double-think is made possible by the political and diplomatic indulgence afforded by Western states.

There is no other way to view the mass killings as anything other than genocide. The head of the UN’s human rights office, Craig Mokhiber, this week resigned in disgust over the continuing genocide that he said the United States and the European Union were complicit in.

The wanton disregard for international law by the Israeli regime is shocking. This week saw the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza bombed on three consecutive days killing hundreds of civilians. According to the UN, more than 70 percent of fatalities in Gaza are women and children.

Hospitals, schools and other shelters for terrified civilians have been deliberately targeted by Israeli warplanes dropping one-ton bombs supplied by the United States. The Pentagon callously announced that the U.S. had not imposed any limitations on Israeli forces in their use of American weapons.

Washington and its European allies repeat the mendacious mantra that Israel has a right to self-defense. This is a green light for the genocide of Palestinians. But it is an abomination.

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, this week refuted this supposed “right to self-defense” as a vile distortion. The Russian envoy pointed out that the Israeli state is an occupying power which has been for years in gross violation of countless international laws and UN Security Council strictures. As an illegal occupying power, Israel has forfeited any legitimate claim to self-defense.

To argue a claim for self-defense is to turn reality on its head whereby an aggressor is presented as a victim. (A similar spurious claim is made for the NATO-backed Kiev regime in Ukraine which had for eight years been attacking ethnic Russian people in Donbass until Russian forces intervened for their defense in February 2022 after which time the Nazi regime in Kiev claims to be a victim.)

The Israeli state has a right to security and to defend its citizens within its internationally recognized borders as per the UN-designated 1967 boundaries with the Palestinian Territories. However, such a right which is normal for all states is not a right to offense and aggression, which is what has been taking place since the October 7 attacks by the Hamas militant group.

The mass killings by Hamas, which saw over 1,400 Israelis dying and more than 220 taken hostages, do not remotely justify the subsequent collective punishment and genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

By continually invoking Israel’s spurious right to self-defense, the United States and European governments are perverting international law and giving Israel a license for heinous aggression and atrocities.

The position of Israel and its Western supporters is repudiated by the vast majority of UN members. Most nations are demanding an immediate cessation of violence and the lifting of the siege on Gaza to permit emergency supplies of food, water, fuel and medical treatment for the 2.3 million population.

The U.S. Biden administration has spurned international calls for a halt to the violence. President Joe Biden and his senior aides are hiding behind the bogus rationale of Israel’s “right to self-defense”.

This odious double-think of endorsing and facilitating genocide while at the same time seemingly expressing concern for civilian casualties is exposing the United States and other Western states for exhibiting rank hypocrisy.

The world is rightly outraged and sickened by the orgy of mass murder in Gaza.

Huge public protests taking place across North America and Europe condemning Israel’s genocide and calling for an immediate ceasefire show how much elite Western rulers are disconnected from democratic and basic moral concerns.

The United States has vetoed draft resolutions at the UN Security Council for an armistice.

However, there are signs that the Biden administration is slowly becoming aware of how its own contemptible double standards are incensing world opinion. Washington is alienating Arab governments and infuriating popular sentiment. Even Jewish organizations in North America are condemning the policy of supporting genocide.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Israel this weekend – his third trip in three weeks – to press Benjamin Netanyahu’s “war cabinet” to at least permit “humanitarian pauses” in the onslaught on Gaza.

Israeli forces have encircled Gaza City and a ground invasion is underway. Netanyahu has ruled out any ceasefire, and his war cabinet has sworn to destroy Hamas fighters. Given that Israeli politicians have openly labelled all Palestinians as equivalent to Hamas, the coming days and weeks can only mean the grim death toll of civilians will escalate.

The belated mealymouthed concern from the Biden administration and other Western governments about “limiting civilian casualties” is a nauseating travesty.

Washington is preparing to sign off an additional $14 billion in military aid to Israel. Over the past month, hundreds of military cargo planes have arrived in Tel Aviv with more than 3,000 tonnes of weapons.

The United States and the Western states are complicit in the genocide against Palestinians from their unwavering support in the face of an appalling slaughter of innocents.

The bare minimum requirement is to call for an unconditional ceasefire. Can Western leaders show a modicum of moral fiber?

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