May
13, 2023
At
least 29 Palestinians, including 6 children, have been killed in an Israeli
bombing campaign with no end in sight.
It
should come as no surprise that the United States has fully backed Israel in
its latest assault on Gaza. In the hours before Israel began raining down more
bombs on the besieged territory, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen over the phone. While the readout of their
call did not mention what were, at the time, escalating tensions with the Palestinian
Islamic Jihad (PIJ), it is certain that the matter was discussed, and that
Israel’s intention to bring still more devastation to Gaza did not catch the
United States by surprise.
Yet,
as always, the U.S. response, or lack thereof, is important and needs to be
examined. Under President Joe Biden’s administration, the U.S.’ silent support
of virtually all Israeli actions against the Palestinians has remained as
absolute as it was during the administration of Donald Trump, despite growing
unease with Israel’s behavior among the majority of Americans. In Israel, the
assault on Gaza and the concomitant rocket fire coming into southern Israel
have served to provide a temporary scab over the fracture in Israeli society
caused by the current government’s efforts to destroy the democracy enjoyed by
Jewish citizens of Israel. In the United States, it has allowed people to more
easily ignore this growing authoritarianism mere days ahead of the 75th
anniversary of Israel’s independence and the Palestinians’ Nakba.
Establishing
the Timeline of Events
The
argument that “Israel has the right to defend itself” has quickly made the
rounds, and with it, the narrative that the rockets launched from Gaza were
random, unprovoked, and expressions of an irrational Palestinian desire to kill
Jews. The reality, of course, is very different, and its burial is a key
strategic component that must be countered.
On
May 2, PIJ spokesperson and activist Khader Adnan died in an Israeli prison
after an 87-day hunger strike. Despite his outspoken advocacy for resistance
and activism in PIJ, Israel never charged Adnan with any act of violence. He
died after Israel refused to transfer him to the hospital despite warnings that
his condition was life-threatening. Many viewed Adnan’s death as killing by
deliberate inaction, and rockets were launched from Gaza while protesters
confronted Israeli security forces in the West Bank. A ceasefire and the
“quiet” of day-to-day occupation and Israeli dominance briefly resumed.
But
some in Israel were very dissatisfied that the Israeli response was not
harsher. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the radical Kahanist minister of internal security,
boycotted government activity and even raised the specter of quitting the
government if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not move to do more damage
to Gaza. Netanyahu denied this was the reason for breaking the fragile
ceasefire that was reached after May 2, but in any case, Israel launched its
latest operation and, in the first wave, killed not only three PIJ leaders but
ten others, including the entire family of one of those targeted. In all, at
this writing, 29 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed. It would also
seem likely that more bloodshed is to come.
In
this case, it is clearer than usual that this was in no way Israel “defending
itself.” Israel provoked the entire episode by killing Khader Adnan through
willful neglect. Then, when a brief escalation was stopped, Israel made the
decision, whether due to Ben-Gvir’s pressure or not, to attack not only PIJ in
a blatantly illegal extrajudicial killing, but to do so by bombing their
residences at 2:00 AM, when their spouses and children would be sleeping and at
their most defenseless.
The
U.S. Light Is Bright Green
Despite
reports that the Biden administration was urging Israel to find a way to resume
the ceasefire, Israel continued its airstrikes against Gaza on Thursday. PIJ
rockets continued to fly from Gaza in response, and while the overwhelming
majority of these either fell harmlessly or were intercepted, one did strike a
residential building in a Tel Aviv suburb, causing a fatality, which will mean
ongoing escalation. Netanyahu stated that the attacks on Gaza would continue
“as long as necessary,” a clear indication that any pressure from Washington
was not serious.
Indeed,
senior Biden officials, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan,
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides were all
unified and unequivocal in their full support of Israel, barely paying lip
service to hope for a ceasefire. More concerning, if expected, is their clear
refusal to acknowledge that Israel sparked this latest escalation and has continued
to pour fuel over the fire.
State
Department spokesperson Vedant Patel was confronted Thursday by Palestinian
journalist Said Arikat on this question. Notably, right before Arikat spoke,
Matthew Lee of the Associated Press expressed his exasperation with Patel,
prefacing his own questions about Israel by declaring that he didn’t expect
Patel to respond with any substance.
Arikat
asked if the State Department had any comment on the fact that “Israelis broke
a ceasefire and killed children in the middle of the night while they were
sleeping.” Patel’s response was every bit as dissembling and empty as Lee had
anticipated.
“We
continue to call on both sides to take steps that will not incite tensions and
further incite violence,” Patel said. “We have continued to call on both sides,
on our Israeli partners and the Palestinian Authority, to continue to take
prudent steps to ensure that the loss of civilian life is prevented and that
steps are taken to ensure that violence is reduced and these kind of events
don’t happen…That is exactly why we continue to pursue our efforts [for] a
two-state solution and continue to pursue our efforts for equal measures of
prosperity, security, and freedom.”
A
Thin Veneer of Interest
Patel’s
comments clearly indicate the lack of value the Biden administration places on
Palestinian life. At this point, the mantra of the two-state solution is a
strong indicator of a total absence of any desire to protect the rights or the
lives of Palestinians, given that only the most delusional or willfully
dishonest can even pretend to put it forth as a viable solution anymore. But
the additional Biden talking point of “equal measures of prosperity, security,
and freedom” is an even stronger indication of having nothing to offer.
But
even beyond those indicators, Patel gave away the game when discussing who the
Biden administration claimed to work with. Their “Israeli partners” have made
it quite clear they don’t take Biden at all seriously and, with good reason,
expect him to dutifully support them with money and diplomatic help regardless
of their actions.
But
on the Palestinian side, Patel claims they’re working with the Palestinian
Authority to address issues with Islamic Jihad and Gaza. That is a blatant lie.
The PA has no influence over events in Gaza and no influence on the PIJ. Hamas
might have some, but even they, due to their reluctance to support the PIJ
militarily in their recent confrontations with Israel, including this one,
would be limited in their ability to convince PIJ of anything it was really
opposed to, short of threatening an even wider split among Palestinian
factions, which they have no reason to do.
The
bankruptcy of the American position, and the impotence of the Biden
administration, are reflected as much in the current state of play as they were
at the beginning. When Blinken met with Israeli FM Cohen, the readout of their
call stated that “The Secretary noted the importance of recent meetings in
Aqaba and Sharm El Sheikh aimed at de-escalating tensions and urged that both
Israel and the Palestinian Authority take additional steps to stabilize the
situation in the West Bank and promote a durable calm.” That was just days
after Khader Adnan’s death and mere hours before Israel broke the ceasefire and
launched its assault on Gaza.
The
irony is that the agreements at Aqaba and Sharm El Sheikh — both of which
Israel publicly and clearly abrogated almost immediately after they were
announced — committed neither Israel nor the United States to any significant
steps to ease Palestinian suffering, but did commit the PA to restore security
cooperation with Israel and to take steps in Palestinian cities like Nablus and
Jenin to crack down on new and popular militant groups. In other words, they
were both agreements to escalate confrontation, human rights abuses, and
violence.
It’s
long been a cliché to talk about how the United States makes this already
vexing crisis worse through its dishonest behavior and defiance of all ethical,
legal, and even pragmatic considerations in its support of Israel. But 75 years
after the Nakba and Israel’s creation, the Biden administration seems
determined to top all its predecessors in trampling the rights and hopes of the
Palestinian people.
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