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Things can always get worse. That is both a sensible and unwise way to see the world. In the case of Gaza, it is hard to have hope because it is now absolutely clear that worse is still to come.
It was widely reported last week that Palestinians in Gaza face famine. No food has been allowed in for months. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar promised President Mohammed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, with which Israel normalised relations, that Israel would allow enough humanitarian aid for the needs of 15,000 Palestinians to enter Gaza – supplies only for operating bakeries, food and infant supplies. Gaza has over 2.1 million people and all its hospitals in the north are out of commission. In just one 24-hour period 82 bodies – mainly children and women – were received in other hospitals. The agreed supplies are totally inadequate.
Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert said in a BBC interview that what Israel "is doing now in Gaza is very close to a war crime," and is waging "a war without a purpose – a war without a chance of achieving anything that can save the lives of the hostages." Most people would argue that the line has already been crossed, not least if we believe Yair Golan, head of the Democratic party in Israel who said last week that Israel is “killing babies as a hobby.”
What is going on in that Strip is beyond inhumane. It is clear that the Israeli army, under instructions from its despicable PM, is intent on destroying the very idea of Palestine. PM Netanyahu insists that the one-sided killing spree will continue until all the hostages are released and Hamas destroyed. Hamas, and its equally despicable leadership, is hanging on to the hostages as bargaining chips. The question is, what is the prize? News has come of the death of its leader Mohammed Sinwar, but vengeful resistance is like a Hydra-headed monster and Sinwar will be replaced.
The level of self-righteousness and hatred on both sides is so intense that the human being is non-existent. Those who pay the price are the ordinary citizens trying to carve out a life. It is hard not to take sides in this war that has pitched David against Goliath. Like in Ukraine, what happened in Palestine was an invasion, a land grab. The invaded people have been trying to see off the invaders and failing miserably.
In the case of Palestine, it goes back about 120 years to the Jewish Zionist desire for a homeland and to 1948 and the establishment of the state of Israel. It goes back to the guilt of western nations for their own anti-Semitism that secretly tolerated Hitler's dealing with “the Jewish question.” To be blunt, the seemingly irrational overreaction to any form of perceived anti-semitism, both in the US and Europe, conceals a bad conscience. Jewish people, suffering from millennia of being cast out of the ancient land of Israel, have been able to successfully leverage western Holocaust guilt and shame to protect themselves and win advantage over the Palestinians.
Like the establishment of a Jewish homeland, the decision about what happens next will be made outside of Palestine. At this point, it is anybody’s guess. The recent visit of enigmatic President Trump to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states turned Middle East geopolitics on its head. Israel owes much of its success to the unstinting support of the US. President Trump, in particular, went further than most US presidents in promoting the hotly-contested, holy city of Jerusalem as the capital of the Israeli state. Yet, he seems to be sidelining Israel, making lucrative deals with Saudi Arabia – not Israel's friend, and actually met the Syrian president.
President Trump is stingy. He does not like giving aid, yet the US gives US$3.8 billion annually to Israel, and Netanyahu is not doing as Trump says. The US president and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio have started calling for an end to the war and even objecting to Palestinian suffering. But Netanyahu has doubled down on the war effort. Just weeks ago it was inconceivable that Trump would put Netanyahu out to grass, but the vast treasury of the oil-rich Arabian peninsula states have his full attention. If it is true that they have done a deal of over $1 trillion then Israel should watch out.
It is hard to know just what Trump’s long game is but it must be about making America and its rich richer. It is unlikely that he would allow Israel to get in the way of that. He seems to be walking away from Ukraine now that he’s got a lucrative deal there and he has abandoned Europe. Maybe Israel, too, will outlive its geopolitical usefulness. Like the Palestinians, Israelis have to wait for President Trump to know their fate.
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