Ramzy Baroud
A famous quote by Franz Kafka says: “Every thing you love is very likely to be lost, but in the end, love will return in a different way.” The same principle, I believe, applies to any other powerful feeling, including resentment, hate, anger and even rage. American officials should know this as they continue to support Israel with billions of dollars of military and economic aid, as well as anything and everything else that allows Israel to continue with its genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza.
The whole world is watching, listening, reading and getting angrier by the day at the direct American role in facilitating the Gaza bloodbath. Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in the Second World War” and “now sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history,” the Associated Press reported last month, based on satellite data analysis.
Aside from the tens of thousands dead or missing in the rubble, an even higher number of people have been injured and maimed, including thousands of children. Many children are left “grappling with the loss of an arm or a leg,” according to UNICEF. The agony of Gaza is being watched on television and is also being viewed through every possible communication medium. It is as if the world is suffering along with the children of Gaza, but without being able to stop or slow the genocide.
Yet, even when all European countries, save for a few, reversed their position on the war, joining the rest of the world in demanding an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, Washington continued to reject these calls. This is how US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield justified her country’s use of the veto, striking down the first serious attempt by the UN Security Council to achieve a permanent truce on Oct. 18: “Israel has the inherent right of self-defense as reflected in Article 51 of the UN Charter.” That same logic has been repeated many times by US officials, even when the extent of the Gaza tragedy became known to everyone, including the Americans themselves. This self-serving logic goes against the spirit of international and humanitarian law, which vehemently rejects the targeting of civilians during times of war and conflict, as well as the prevention of humanitarian aid from reaching civilian victims of war. Indeed, the vast majority of Gaza’s victims are civilians and more than 70 percent of all those killed are women or children. Moreover, due to inhumane Israeli practices, Gaza’s survivors are now dealing with an actual famine, which is an unprecedented event in the modern history of Palestine.
But Israel continues to prevent access to food, medicine, fuel and other urgent supplies, thus violating Washington’s own laws on the matter. “No assistance shall be furnished to any country when it is made known to the president that the government of such country prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance,” the US Foreign Assistance Act (Section 620I) states. The Biden administration has done nothing to pressure – let alone force – Israel to adhere to even the most basic humanitarian laws during its ongoing genocide in Gaza. Worse, President Joe Biden is furnishing Israel with the tools it needs to prolong this destructive war.
According to a Dec. 25 report by Israel’s Channel 12, some 20 ships and 244 US airplanes have delivered more than 10,000 tons of armaments and military equipment to Israel since the start of the war. These military supplies reportedly include at least 100 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs, which have been used repeatedly throughout the Israeli war, killing and wounding hundreds each time. The only tangible action that the US has taken since the start of the war has been to create a coalition, named “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” with the sole purpose of ensuring the safety of ships traversing the Red Sea, including into or from Israel.
The US, however, seems to have learned nothing from the past: from its devastating wars on Iraq, from the so-called war on terror or from its failure to find a balance between its support for Israel and its respect for Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. On the contrary, some US officials seem to be entirely detached from this reality. At a press conference at the White House last month, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby proclaimed: “Tell me, name me, one more nation, any other nation, that is doing as much as the United States to alleviate the pain and suffering of the people of Gaza. You can’t. You just can’t.” But how are so-called dumb bombs, smart bombs, bunker busters and tens of thousands of tons of explosives “alleviating the pain and suffering” of Gaza and her children?
If Kirby is unaware of his country’s role in the genocide in Gaza, then the crisis in American foreign policy is worse than we could have imagined. If he is aware, and he should be, then his country’s moral crisis is arguably unprecedented in modern history. The problem in US politics is that administrations have a segmented view of reality, as they are intently focused on how their action, or inaction, is going to affect their political parties in future elections. But Americans who care about their country and its position in a vastly changing Middle East and rapidly shifting global geopolitics should remember that history neither starts nor finishes on a fixed November date once every four years. “In the end, love will return in a different way,” Kafka wrote. He is right. But hate, too, tends to return as well, manifesting itself in myriad ways. More than any other country, the US should have come to that realization on its own.
