The US administration’s de facto backing of Israel’s barbaric bombing of the Gaza Strip is causing international outcry. Notably, some Arab newspapers recently cited a famous quote from former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the other possibilities.”
“The US administration has chosen to provide biased and unlimited support to Israel, which is accused by many politicians and commentators of committing genocide,” the Saudi newspaper Arab News recently wrote.
More than 22,000 Palestinians have been killed and 57,000 wounded by Israeli attacks in the past three months. It is reported that 7 thousand people are still buried under the rubble of buildings and almost half of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed. Meanwhile, most of the Israeli hostages have not been released, and Hamas continues to resist.
Washington continues to refuse to draw red lines for Israel and is blocking any decision on a ceasefire. By doing so, the US administration, according to the Saudi newspaper mentioned above, “facilitated, if not guaranteed, the spread of extremism and hatred among future generations, not only in Gaza, but throughout the world.”
Journalist Mina Al-Oraibi from Asharq Al-Awsat called it a “free fall of Western ideals.”
France’s Le Monde warned late last year that continued conflict in the Middle East would be a disaster for the EU, “and that the war in the Gaza Strip would determine Europe’s fate.”
Even the Israeli press admits that without American shipments of ammunition, spare parts and other equipment, Israel will not be able to fight a war like the one it is waging against Hamas.
The Biden administration has already bypassed Congress several times to approve the transfer of nearly $150 million worth of military equipment to Israel: 13,000 tank shells, as well as large quantities of fuses and other support materials, were sent by air and sea. Washington is shedding crocodile tears over the huge number of civilian casualties in Gaza, including women and children, while simultaneously supplying Israel with weapons.
In the United States itself, Israel’s bombing of Gaza is increasingly criticized, with Senator Bernie Sanders demanding answers on Israel’s indiscriminate bombing. He introduced a corresponding resolution to the Senate.
The US Education Department’s top adviser recently resigned, announcing that he could no longer serve an administration that had “put millions of innocent lives in danger.”
Although there are a lot of problems within the United States that require urgent solutions, for example, the growth of US public debt, which has surpassed the $34 trillion mark. It’s hard to disagree with Bloomberg’s conclusion that “America’s most obvious weakness lies in its political polarization…and protecting stability for critical European markets has now become a partisan plaything. The same can be said about the federal debt ceiling and the potential for eroding faith in the US dollar.”
The absurdity of America’s current support for Israel irritates even US allies.
The influential English weekly The Economist recently published an article saying that “B. Netanyahu is losing the war and that he deserves to be sacked. He is testing America’s patience and terrifying Arab states. To be safe, Israel needs new leadership.”
Washington still thinks in terms of military action, striking Baghdad or building up its naval forces in the Red Sea.
This increases the already high degree of tension in this part of the world and the risk of regional spillover of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Unfortunately, Washington does not draw any conclusions from the destructive consequences of its military adventures supported by its satellites in countries such as Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria and many other places.
The United States is deliberately ignoring the time-proven axiom that crises in the Middle East cannot be resolved by force. Instead of encouraging Palestinian-Israeli confrontation, efforts should be focused on an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the search for a diplomatic settlement formula in accordance with Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions.
Veniamin POPOV, Director of the Centre for Partnership of Civilisations, MGIMO (U) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Candidate of Historical Sciences, especially for online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.