Israel’s invasion of Gaza has now gone on for over 100 days. Global public opinion is against Israel, with calls for a ceasefire being made from all corners of the world, including from Rishi Sunak and the EU parliament. South Africa has filed a genocide case against the Jewish state in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) yet the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has shown defiance stating that no one can stop them.
Over a month ago, Ilan Pappe, the famed Israeli author, was asked about the mood in Israel. He said that the media is focused on revenge, and the resulting conversations in Israel are about grief, insecurity and concern about the 200 hostages. More evolved conversations about moral imperatives are not happening. Since then, even after news surfaced that many of the 1200 Israelis killed on October 7, were killed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and not by Hamas, the Israeli society is supporting the genocide. The rare anti-war demonstration and the rarer still Pro-Palestinian voice are being crushed by the Israeli state. However, over the past weekend, thousands attended demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem demanding the ouster of Netanyahu. Family members of the hostages camped overnight outside Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea, demanding his removal and a change of government. However, a change of government will not stop the genocide.
At the ICJ, genocidal intent was proven with video clips from Israel. In one clip, an Israeli TV anchor is saying that he cannot go to bed without seeing pictures of dead Palestinians. In another video clip, IDF soldiers are seen singing and dancing about Palestinians being Amalekites.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu used the religion card and termed the Palestinians the Amalekites – the sworn enemies of the Jews mentioned in the Old Testament (Torah).
The Biblical commandment was to kill all Amaleks – including men, women, children and even their cattle. We can see this statement reflected in the attitude of IDF soldiers. Israel bombed the Jabalah refugee camp, which housed civilians – including women and children – on the pretext that a Hamas commander was hiding there. CNN’s Jewish-American anchor Wolf Blitzer seemed horrified when he asked an Israeli soldier why they bombed a refugee camp full of innocents and if the strike managed to kill the Hamas commander. The IDF soldier casually shrugged and responded that such is war and they don’t know if they killed him.
The genocide that the IDF and Israel are brazenly inflicting on the Palestinians of Gaza, is being seen on TV across the world. Israel has done away with any pretence of following international laws. Israel’s brazenness is turning people against it.
Chinks in Israel’s armour are now visible in international newspapers, which are now beginning to write against Israel.
However, after witnessing the horrors of the current ongoing genocide many young Jews in the US, in their 20’s and 30’s, are objecting to the apartheid in Israel and the genocide. This shift poses a serious threat to the Israeli state as it depends on the support of American Jews for its existence.
Chinks in Israel’s armour are now visible in international newspapers, which are now beginning to write against Israel. British newspaper The Guardian and the US Foreign Policy Magazine are two premier publications which published such articles. Many veterans of the US military, who formerly supported Israel, are now very vocal critics of the Israeli state, who now question its right to exist. The Ice Hockey Federation barred Israel from the upcoming tournament “for its safety,” however, that decision was overturned after Israel and American Jews exerted tremendous pressure. These trends indicate an existential threat to Israel.
As Israel commits horrific war crimes, and Israelis celebrate the genocide on TV and TikTok etc., anti-semitism or hatred for the Jews is on the rise in the US. After much hype was created about the Hamas tunnels, police in New York City found a secret underground tunnel under a synagogue in the Brooklyn area. This news was picked up quickly on American social media. Claims were made that it was connected to a children’s museum close by, as it was used for child sex trafficking and other illicit acts by the “global elite,” a dog whistle term for the conservatives. The term globalist is used to promote the antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish people do not have allegiance to their countries of origin, like the United States, but to some worldwide order that will enhance their control over the world’s banks, governments, and media. Such social media posts promote hatred for the common Jew in the US.
Rising anti-semitism will turn Israel into a liability for American Jews.
Israel is only using Hamas as a fig leaf when the real motivation behind the planned total destruction of Gaza is geo-economic.
Firstly, the 2.5 million residents of Gaza stand in the way of the oil and gas reserves. The eastern Mediterranean Levant Basin has undiscovered oil and natural gas resources. Israel’s Haifa port and Gaza Marine fields are the sites on this side. The Gaza gas reserves are estimated to hold one trillion cubic feet of gas.
Domestic energy security is very important for Israel as its power generation has previously been heavily dependent on unstable, costly, and polluting imports of coal and diesel oil as well as natural gas.
However, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Houthis from Yemen pose a threat to Israeli offshore energy infrastructure. This is why Israel is carpet bombing Gaza, making air strikes in Lebanon against Hezbollah and in Syria against Iranian Military advisers. Iran is the power backing all these groups and Israel wants to neutralize all of them with US assistance.
The Israel lobby is very strong in the US and Christian Zionists like POTUS Biden have their own religious reasons to support Israel. However, above all these factors lies the US’ geo-economic interest in the Middle East, which compels it to support Israel with its warships, fighter jets, weapons and troops.
At the recent G7 summit in India, on September 10, 2023, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) was inaugurated. The US facilitated IMEC as a counterweight to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). IMEC would extend from India through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel, onwards to Europe. The IMEC’s Eastern Corridor links India to the Middle East, and the Northern Corridor connects the Middle East to Europe.
IMEC is an alternative to existing maritime and land-based transport routes, such as the Egyptian Suez Canal, China’s Silk Route and last but not least the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) of Iran through Central Asia, Russia to Europe.
After the US sanctioned Russia, freezing USD 630 billion of Russian reserves, the American Dollar began to lose its status as the world’s reserve currency, as China, Russia and India began trading in their respective currencies. Saudi Arabia under MBS began making a strategic shift towards China and this threatened the PetroDollar. With USD 34 trillion gross federal debt, the US cannot allow the USD to be replaced by other currencies. This would end the US’ financial dominance paving the way to its demise as a superpower.
(To Be Continued)
The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist. She can be reached at [email protected]