By Alon ben Meir* – https://alonben-meir.com/
The genocidal war in Gaza should put the whole world on notice that this is now simply another episode in the moral collapse of our humanity, as “never again” has lost its moral weight.
Since he rose to power 30 years ago, Netanyahu has been bent on scuttling any prospect of peace with the Palestinians based on a two-state solution. He started by dismantling the Oslo Accords, while systematically embarking on poisoning the Israelis’ public opinion, brainwashing them to believe that the Palestinians pose an existential threat to justify the ruthless occupation and the blockade of Gaza on false premises of national security. He portrays Israel as the victim when in fact it is victimizing the Palestinians, treating them as subhuman, dispensable, and unfit to live. His formation in December 2022 of the most fascist, messianic, and fanatic government in Israel’s history has accelerated his monstrous agenda.
Netanyahu is a war criminal
In the wake of Hamas’ beastly attack, Netanyahu has been waging a genocidal retaliatory war of revenge and retribution for nearly two years, starving Gaza’s Palestinian inhabitants and rendering it unlivable. For Netanyahu and his cohort, October 7, 2023, provided a historic opportunity to realize his elusive vision of a greater Israel. As a result, he plunged the country into a pit of writhing horrors, never-ending violence, destruction and death.
Netanyahu’s rampage in Gaza astounded the international community. That an Israeli government is capable of committing these unspeakable atrocities bewildered the world, which now views Israel as an apartheid state, a morally insolvent nation that lost its way. A pariah that routinely disregards human rights and international norms and conduct, to be shunned by the global community. Thanks to Netanyahu, Israel is blamed for fueling regional tension, alienating its friends, allies, and much of the global community, while Israel is becoming increasingly isolated.
Netanyahu betrayed his people and his country by deliberately prolonging the war for his political survival to forestall a verdict in his ongoing criminal trial and avoid a commission of inquiry over Hamas’ attack under his watch. His war crimes have intensified antisemitism to a level unseen before, tainted the Jews’ reputation and standing around the world, while vindicating the antisemite’s prejudices that the Jews are exploitive, schemers, money hoarders, and out only for themselves.
For Netanyahu, ‘Never Again,’ coined in the wake of the Holocaust, applies exclusively to the Jews, and committing genocide against the Palestinians does not count.
Trump is complicit in the genocide in Gaza
The US under Trump has become an accessory to genocide, supplying Israel with all the military equipment and munitions it needs while providing it with political cover and punishing countries critical of Israel’s war crimes. Happy to please his Evangelical backers, who support Israel unconditionally, Trump readily obliged to accommodate his political base.
Thousands of Palestinian women and children are killed and hundreds of thousands are starving to death. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 185 people died from malnutrition in August. Leave it to those ‘God-fearing’ evangelicals to revel in a land soaked with Palestinian blood.
Trump, who is consumed with self-grandeur, has been concocting the most egregious plans to create his so-called ‘Riviera of the Middle East,’ involving the ethnic cleansing of Gaza by encouraging the Palestinians to leave for another country “voluntarily,” whether temporarily or permanently.
How voluntary? Well, as his Israeli partners intend, destroy what’s left of their homes, displace them, starve them to death, deprive them of any medical care and basic necessities, and kill anyone who stands in the way. This is how they would voluntarily leave. This is precisely what Netanyahu and his criminal gang are aiming for—to rid Gaza of every Palestinian man, woman and child by using these harshest and cruelest means possible and build a greater Israel on their ashes.
The War Must Stop!
The whole world must now act in concert, especially the Israeli public, the European community, and the Arab states. They all have considerable stakes in the final outcome of this genocidal war.
The role of the Israelis
I applaud the multitude of Israelis who have been protesting, demanding an end to the war and the release of the remaining hostages. However, these protests have not forced Netanyahu and his government to end the war.
To the contrary, against his own military highest command, he decided to call on tens of thousands of reservists to engage in the cruel reoccupation of Gaza City, which would result in the destruction of the city and the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians and scores of Israeli soldiers. The Israelis must now raise the ante by taking several decisive measures:
– Relentlessly protesting by the hundreds of thousands, pouring into the streets every day, to force Netanyahu’s hand;
– Bringing all the necessary pressure to bear on Amnon Bar-David, the head of the Histadrut, Israel’s main labor union, to call for a general strike to paralyze the country;
– Engaging in civil disobedience, especially by army reservists, who should refuse to report to duty. They are the backbone of the military, without whom it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to wage a major offensive. As Yotam Vilk, a reserve captain in the Israeli army, who fought for a year in Gaza, said, “What is at stake is not only lives but also the very idea of Israel itself.”
Sanctioning Israel by Western powers
It’s time for Western powers, including the EU, especially France and Italy, along with Canada and Australia, to take decisive actions against Israel, other than offering a symbolic, though important, gesture of recognizing a Palestinian state.
There are several practical punitive measures the EU can take:
– Imposing restrictions on imports and exports;
– Halting any arms sales and military cooperation;
– Reducing the level of diplomatic ties;
– Limiting visas for Israeli officials; and
– Suspending any new joint and freezing current project agreements, especially in the technology sector.
Although such measures could disrupt many businesses, they can all survive for a few months.
The Arab states must take punitive measures
It is extremely disappointing that the Arab states, in particular those at peace with Israel, namely, Jordan, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco, have yet to take any drastic actions against Israel to express their outrage about the disaster to which the Palestinians have been subjected.
While Egypt has been focused on mediation, the rest have largely settled for summoning their ambassadors from Israel for consultation, issuing statements condemning Israel, and working on diplomatic fronts through the Arab League to put international pressure on Israel.
Although these measures are important, they are far from what the Arab states must do to force Netanyahu to change his evil plans against the Palestinians in Gaza. Some of the critical measures they must take include:
– Recalling their ambassadors until Israel ends the war, and threatening to sever diplomatic relations with Israel if it executes its plans to exile the Palestinians;
– Stopping all trade agreements with Israel;
– Halting the issuance of visas to any Israeli, including officials, wishing to enter the country;
– Ending any security collaboration, even though such a measure could have serious ramifications, especially because of US involvement.
The Israeli public, the EU, and the Arab states are morally obligated to stop Netanyahu’s genocidal war before he succeeds in creating irreversible conditions that will seal the Palestinians’ fate in Gaza to be exiled or, at best, live under the harshest Israeli military rule. They must all remember that inaction will not only doom the Palestinians in Gaza to a perilous end but also make the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ever more deadly and intractable for decades to come.
“Never Again” will no longer carry any moral weight, and no one will be blamed for future genocides other than those countries that could have prevented the genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza but chose not to, because they, too, have lost their moral way.
*Dr. Alon Ben Meir is a retired professor of International Relations, formerly at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute. Ben-Meir is an expert on Middle East and West Balkan affairs, international negotiations, and conflict resolution. In the past two decades, Ben-Meir has been directly involved in various backchannel negotiations involving Israel and its neighboring countries and Turkey.
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