Articles are increasingly appearing in the Arab press that characterize the war in Gaza as a kind of manifestation of the cataclysm of catastrophic capitalism.
As the Al Jazeera website noted the other day, America’s war on terror through its proxy Israel can be more accurately described as America’s war against the whole world. “Gaza, as a metaphor, represents the true face of the clash of civilizations, the battle of the civilized West against dark and barbaric forces embodied in accordance with the moral discourse of the “free world” in asylum seekers, refugees and the poor.
Thus, the Gaza Strip acts as a mirror reflecting for various disadvantaged groups their own local resistance and linking it with other acts of resistance in different parts of the globe.
Gaza, as a place of extreme suffering inflicted by the State of Israel on the Palestinian people, can be interpreted as a metaphor for prisons, ghettos, and refugee camps.
Irish researcher Yosefa Loshitsky believes that the cruelest metaphor applied to Gaza as part of Israel’s policy of deliberate brutality is the view of Gaza as a laboratory: after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and the growing US hegemony in the Middle East, the Pentagon’s new doctrine of warfare in the 21st century is aimed against “wild Muslim cities” the third world, not against conventional armies. This is a futuristic war zone, signaling the transition from a war against armies to a war against guerrillas and popular resistance.
French scholar Esper Benbassa, who is Jewish, argues that due to the ongoing Arab-Palestinian conflict, Arab Muslims tend to identify themselves with the plight of Palestinians in the occupied territories, likening the injustice they face in Europe to the persecution of their brothers under Israeli occupation. It is no coincidence that demonstrations against Israeli attacks on Gaza most often chant: “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! A free, free Palestine.”
The editor-in-chief of the Saudi newspaper Arab News, Faisal Abbas, stressed that Hamas is an unacceptable face of the Palestinian cause, but those who condemn Hamas should also condemn Netanyahu, who has been supporting this group for 16 years in order to marginalize the Palestinian Authority and support the Israeli extreme right. “If the fact that some global powers are allowing Israel to violate international law during its war in Gaza is a crime, ignoring calls from within Israel itself for Netanyahu to leave is an even bigger crime.”
Amid the daily massacres of Palestinian civilians, European powers are refusing unconditional support for Israel: French President Macron has warned that Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas risks unleashing a decade of war.
Many American newspapers, as well as Elon Musk, have expressed the view that further civilian casualties could lead to an even greater increase in the insurgency. The newspaper Al Ahram, referring to CNN, wrote recently that the Biden administration received sharp warnings from American diplomats in the Middle East that its strong support for Israel’s military campaign “is losing a generation of the Arab public.” These publications conclude that US support for Israel’s actions is viewed as “material and moral guilt” for what they consider possible war crimes.
The Emir of Qatar has called on the UN Security Council to force Israel to return to the negotiating table with Hamas. On December 7, UN Secretary-General Guterres, referring to Article 99 of the Charter, called on the Security Council to take measures in connection with the war in the Gaza Strip, his appeal said that the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories “may aggravate existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security.” The UN Secretary General called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, describing the “appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma of the Palestinians.” The UAE has submitted a new draft resolution to the UN Security Council calling for an urgent ceasefire, the draft was supported by other Arab states.
The 2-month-long war in Gaza has polarized the world and created a yawning rift between Western powers and countries of the Global South, as well as people and governments in the West, noted Jordanian journalist Osama Sharif.
Many Western leaders do not adequately assess the current situation, their lack of strategic vision, their desire to be guided only by selfish interests leads to the fact that they make many mistakes and serious miscalculations.
The countries of the Global South, aware of these phenomena, are beginning to harshly criticize the Western powers, raising the bar of their demands.
Vladimir Mashin, Ph.D. in History, a political observer, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.