Afrasianet - Hassan Nafaa - It is indisputable that the United States morally and definitively fell to the test of Gaza, when it linked its fate and future to the fate of an expansionist racist regime that practices settler occupation.
Western countries led by the United States, especially during the Cold War in which the world was divided into two conflicting camps, claimed to be the sole defender of the values of freedom, justice, equality and respect for the law in the international arena.
When the Soviet Union collapsed at the beginning of the nineties of the last century, it promoted this historic event as evidence of the superiority of the liberal value system that no one else embodies, and called on the entire international community to adopt it and work to put it into practice.
However, the actual behaviour of these post-cold-war States revealed a large gap between words and deeds, thus putting them to the test that they could not successfully pass. The examples of the validity of this statement are many and conclusive, perhaps the most prominent of which was the insistence of the Bush administration on invading and occupying Iraq in 2003, without any legal or moral justification or justification, especially since this invasion took place in the context and following a systematic campaign of American lies and slander. Although The moral downfall of the West in general, and of the United States in particular, was most evident in their positions on Israel's genocidal war against the Palestinian people nearly eight months ago.
When Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7, the Biden administration immediately adopted an Israeli narrative that Hamas had systematically beheaded newborns, raped women, and committed many other crimes that could only be emanated from a "terrorist" group devoid of conscience and human values.
Although it later proved to be a made-up narrative from the ground, Israel desperately needed it to justify Operation Iron Swords with which it responded to the "Al-Aqsa flood" with all its genocide of Palestinians, and the United States urgently needed it to justify its adaptation of this operation as "an exercise of Israel's right to defend itself," and also to justify its decision to open American coffers of money and weapons to scoop Israel whatever it wants.
In my opinion, this American position was not based on any moral or legal justification. The United States is well aware that Hamas is first and foremost, regardless of any ideological considerations, a political movement fighting for the liberation of its occupied land in Palestine, having previously contested legislative elections in 2006 in which it won the confidence of the majority of the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Gaza.
It is true that it is an armed movement, but international law allows national liberation movements to use all available means, including taking up arms against the occupier, and they also realize that the "Al-Aqsa flood" did not start in a vacuum, but came in response to Zionist attacks and provocations that lasted for decades, including the confiscation of land, the destruction of homes, the seizure of property, the forcible transfer of Palestinians, their administrative detention, the practice of all forms of torture and racial persecution against them, and the repeated incursions into their places of worship, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque. In such a context, it is difficult to claim Israel's genocidal war against the Palestinian people besieged in the Gaza Strip for years is based on the right and principle of "legitimate self-defense."
The Biden administration did not only open the US money and weapons coffers to scoop from Israel whatever it wanted, but at the same time it rushed to provide direct and tangible military support to a "state" occupying the territory of others, as a number of US warfare pieces, including aircraft carriers, were ordered to head immediately to the Middle East to be close to the occupied Palestinian shores.
It is true that Israel, a nuclear "state" with an army that is one of the strongest armies in the world, did not need American military support of this magnitude in the face of a small faction that has been suffering from the siege for seventeen years, but the United States sought through its decision to provide this support to deter the axis of resistance in the region and prevent any of its parties from providing any form of military support and assistance to the Palestinian resistance factions, in order to make it easier for Israel to throw all its weight. Military to liquidate.
Because some parties to this axis, led by the Yemeni Ansar Allah, chose not to stand idly by in the face of the genocide to which the Palestinian people are subjected, and therefore decided to provide whatever support and military assistance as possible to the Palestinian resistance factions, the United States did not hesitate to enter into an open military confrontation with the Yemeni armed forces, under the pretext of preserving freedom of navigation on the high seas, which means its active participation in the war of genocide being waged against the Palestinian people.
It should be noted here that the US support for Israel was not limited to the military aspects, but extended to include all other political, economic and media aspects, even after the Biden administration became very clear that what Israel is doing is not a war on armed organizations, but is in fact a comprehensive genocide of the Palestinian people, as evidenced by Israel's since the beginning of the war cutting off electricity, water and food to all residents of the Gaza Strip, and its targeting and destruction of homes, schools, hospitals and factories. Aid workers, ambulance workers and journalists were killed and injured, and even suffocated all aspects of life in the Strip.
When all this led a country like South Africa to file a lawsuit before the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing acts of genocide against the Palestinian people and asking it to take precautionary measures to stop these acts, the United States did not hesitate to make a case before this court, claiming that Israel is fighting a legitimate war.The International Court of Justice is not competent to hear a case relating to the maintenance of international peace and security, because the Security Council is the only one competent to consider this type of case, and it has not been shy about citing arguments and arguments that are diametrically opposed to those it cited when it pleaded before the same Court in the case in which Russia was accused of committing acts of genocide during its war on Ukraine.
On the other hand, the Biden administration claims that it is seeking to conclude a truce to exchange prisoners and detainees, and is working diligently to increase humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip, and to search for a political way out that revives the "two-state solution", but all its actions on the ground confirm that it is not serious, and that its real goal is to give Israel all the time it needs to achieve its goals in the war, despite its full awareness of all the contradictions involved in those goals.
Israel has been unable to destroy Hamas and recover any of the detainees, and for nearly eight months it has succeeded only in one thing: destroying the entire Gaza Strip and turning it into an unviable area, and in committing massacres that have so far claimed the lives of nearly one hundred and fifty thousand people, killed, wounded and missing.
It is true that the United States launched the "floating dock" initiative to demonstrate its interest in increasing the volume of humanitarian aid to the Strip, but some see it as a suspicious initiative and argue that if the US had good intentions, it would have put pressure on Israel to open land crossings, which are widely believed to be the only way to pump enough aid to alleviate the famine that is hitting the Strip. It is also true that the Biden administration claims to seek a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian issue on the basis of a "solution" but its actual behavior confirms that it has vetoed it four times in the Security Council, three to prevent a ceasefire and a fourth to prevent Palestine from being admitted to the United Nations.
The Biden administration claims to disagree with Netanyahu's government over his plans to launch a large-scale ground operation on the Rafah area, which currently has a population of nearly a million and a half people, but in reality it does not object in principle to Israel's taking this step, but it does condition a convincing plan to transport civilians to safety and subsistence them.
Because Netanyahu's government has not yet succeeded in presenting this plan, Biden claimed that he had decided to suspend an ammunition shipment that Israel was supposed to receive these days, and that he might decide in the future to reconsider subsequent arms shipments. Netanyahu did not heed this threat and did decide to invade Rafah, but gradually and in stages, and even asked three hundred thousand people to leave.
Therefore, it is believed that Israel has enough ammunition that it needs to continue the war. Because the Biden administration knows this for sure, some see the story as a win-win role-playing game. It benefits Biden because he has an interest in containing the growing opposition from his electoral base, and it benefits Netanyahu, who is keen at the same time to appease the extreme right and appear as a strong leader in the face of external forces trying to impose their dictates on Israel!
Whatever the case, it is indisputable that the United States has morally and definitively fallen to the test of Gaza, linking its fate and future to that of an expansionist racist regime that practices settler occupation and does not hesitate to commit the crime of genocide.