Enabling genocide in Gaza
A BRIEF pause in small portions of the targeted territory before the death knell sounds again. That's what Israeli concessions of a temporary 10-hour gap in its daily genocidal endeavours amount to. Far too few trucks delivering lifesaving aid are being permitted through the Zionist barriers, and the Jordanian/Emirati airdrops are seen as both grossly inadequate and somewhat risky.
This past week, Israeli organisations B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights both belatedly acknowledged the ongoing genocide. This matters. A small but growing number of Israeli citizens, both Arab and Jewish, have been protesting against the atrocities being committed in their name. But, like the aid that is being allowed to go through, they are little more than a drop in the ocean.
Much the same could be said about the Western allies that decry Israel's egregious actions without taking any measures to halt them. France's impending recognition of a Palestinian state has been greeted with horror by Israel and the United States, but wonders why Emmanuel Macron left it until the UN convenes in September. After all, more than 140 UN member states recognise a Palestinian state since 1988. Much of Europe has been reticent, however, despite the knowledge that it would not make much difference.
Europe was instrumental in backing the Zionist project nearly 80 years ago, when a new colonial-settler state was established even as previous ones were beginning to be dismantled. There was a degree of absurdity in the notion that the recompense for the Nazi-led Holocaust lay in occupying Palestinian land, and that murdering or driving out many of its inhabitants was the obvious means of achieving this objective. But its sponsors have always forgiven Israel's deadly excesses.
Token gestures have never made much of a difference, and the French vow of eventual recognition falls pretty much in the same category, while exposing the even more blatant hypocrisy of nations such as Australia and the United Kingdom, which occasionally spell out their horror at Israeli actions without offering to take any steps that just might interrupt the genocide. Ceasing to supply Israel with the means of perpetrating its deadly designs could be an initial step, but would even that make much difference as long as the US wholeheartedly backs its chief Middle Eastern protégé?
Even Donald Trump's concession this week that 'those children look very hungry ... that's real starvation stuff', is meaningless unless the US stops facilitating the genocide. The so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation it has sponsored has served as a means of mass murder. There is little prospect of a reversal. Images of emaciated children from Gaza that echo the horrific visions of Auschwitz survivors are here to stay.
Holocaust scholars such as Omer Bartov have left no doubt where they stand today, even if it took them long to recognise what seemed obvious in the immediate aftermath of Oct 7, 2023, when Hamas and its associates broke out of Gaza and faced little resistance in committing crimes that initially went uncontested, but eventually unleashed a genocide by those who had faltered in defending their kibbutzim, partly because they focused on backing the Zionist offenders in the West Bank.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is not expected to pronounce its verdict on whether Israel is committing genocide until late 2027 or early 2028, ie, after the killing is done and the ethnic cleansing is complete. What would be the point of that, beyond an acknowledgment that history will not absolve Isra¬el's collaborators? Its enablers range across the globe, but the Middle East stands out as a particularly egregious transgressor. And while India is one of the few nations in the Global South that deplorably stands solidly behind Israel's genocidal intentions, Pakistan is on the same page as Israel in proposing a Nobel Peace Prize for the US president.
Pakistan was among the 30 or so nations represented in Bogotá this month at a conference intended to halt the genocide, alongside the likes of Qatar, Oman, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. Colombia and South Africa, though, have been the leading lights of the initiative. A few decades ago, India might have fit into that category. Once it stood out as a staunch defender of Palestinian rights, but today it prefers the Zionist narrative.
What the future might hold for Palestine is uncertain, but any notion of resurrecting a two-state solution that was buried long ago by Israel and its western backers is absurd. A Palestinian-free Gaza Riviera along the lines proposed by Trump and backed by much of the genocidal Netanyahu cabinet might prove unachievable, but tens of thousands of lives could be lost in the process, long before the ICJ musters up the courage to acknowledge what is thus far this century's worst crime against humanity. — Dawn/Asia News Network
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
19 minutes ago
- The Star
UN plastic pollution treaty talks progress not 'sufficient', says chair
GENEVA (AFP): Talks at the United Nations on forging a landmark treaty to combat the scourge of plastic pollution have made insufficient progress, the negotiations chair warned Saturday in a frank mid-way assessment. The negotiations, which opened on Tuesday, have four days left to find consensus on a legally binding instrument that would tackle the growing problem choking the environment. "Progress made has not been sufficient," Ecuadoran diplomat Luis Vayas Valdivieso told delegates in a blunt summary as all 184 country delegations gathered in the main assembly hall. "We have arrived at a critical stage where a real push to achieve our common goal is needed", ahead of the Thursday deadline. "August 14 is not just a deadline for our work: it is a date by which we must deliver." The draft text, as it stands, released publicly ahead of Saturday's session, has now ballooned from 22 to 35 pages, with the number of brackets in the text going up from 371 to almost 1,500. It does not specify which countries or groups inserted the proposed text -- meaning the changes could have majority support or be backed by one country alone. "Some articles still have unresolved issues and show little progress towards reaching a common understanding," Valdivieso said. "We have had two and a half years of opportunities for delegations to make proposals," he said, adding: "There is no more time" for such interventions. Countries have reconvened at the UN in Geneva to try and find common ground after the failure of what was supposed to be the fifth and final round of talks in Busan, South Korea, which closed in December without agreement. - AFP
New Straits Times
an hour ago
- New Straits Times
Iran arrests 20 alleged spies of Israel
TEHERAN: Iran has arrested 20 people it alleges are operatives of Israel's Mossad spy agency in recent months, the judiciary said today, warning that they will face no leniency and will be made an example of. On Wednesday, Iran executed a nuclear scientist named Rouzbeh Vadi, who was convicted of spying for Israel and passing on information on another nuclear scientist killed in Israel's airstrikes on Iran in June, state media reported. Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangiri said in Teheran today that charges against some of the 20 suspects arrested had been dropped and they were released. He did not give a number. "The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all," Jahangiri was quoted as saying by Iranian media. He said full details would be made public once investigations were complete. Executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel have significantly increased this year, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Israel carried out 12 days of airstrikes on Iran in June, targeting Iran's top generals, nuclear scientists, nuclear installations, as well as residential neighbourhoods. Iran responded with barrages of missiles and drones on Israel. Rights group HRANA reported 1,190 Iranian deaths during the 12-day Israeli attacks, including 436 civilians and 435 security personnel. Israel said 28 were killed in Iran's retaliatory attack.
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Trump's chip tariffs may drive South-East Asia into China's arms, analysts warn
US plans to impose 100 per cent of tariffs on imported chips are a heavy blow to South-East Asia's chip industry and could push the region closer to China, according to observers. US President Donald Trump announced the duties on semiconductors and chips on Wednesday, saying that only companies that were 'building in the United States' were exempt. It is unclear just how much of a US manufacturing presence companies would need to have to qualify for tariff exemptions or reductions, or whether the policy will differentiate between the more advanced AI chips and legacy semiconductors. South-East Asia, led by Singapore and Malaysia, has emerged a key manufacturing hub for legacy semiconductors, integrated circuits that use older technology. Vietnam, which has stepped up investment in semiconductor production and workforce training in recent years, is also emerging as a key player in the global supply chain. With the region already struggling to absorb other tariffs imposed as part of Trump's 'America first' policy, the latest US duties – as well as Washington's policy unpredictability – could open the way for China, analysts said. Antonio Fatas, professor of economics at INSEAD business school, said Trump's tariffs on imported chips showed that the American leader was still testing the limits of economic policies, even though they were damaging global growth and adding to inflation in the United States. 'For South-East Asian countries, this is a confirmation that exporting to the US has become much harder, that the US is not a reliable partner and that you cannot trust it even if you manage to sign a deal,' he said. Fatas said the US had 'clearly become an unreliable partner' and would become more isolated, and that meant that countries – and firms – would try to find opportunities and build trade relations with others. 'Countries like China where saving rates are too high should step in and provide that impetus. If they did, we would see a regionalisation of trade flows as they move away from the US. But before we get there, there will be pain,' he said. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, Beijing has ramped up its charm offensive to South-East Asia, a region that is now a priority for China's neighbourhood diplomacy to offset its own pressure from the US. In April, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia, and in May, Chinese Premier Li Qiang also paid an official visit in Indonesia and Malaysia. Beijing also rolled out red carpet for Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in June, when Xi urged Singapore to join China on 'right side of history' and to promote an 'equal multipolar world'. City University of Hong Kong professor Julien Chaisse noted that China's most attractive feature at the moment was its sense of certainty – something Beijing was deliberately projecting to strengthen its long-term appeal to Asean. 'China is quietly positioning itself as the more predictable option. It is not offering perfection, but it is offering clarity ... And that is exactly the kind of language that appeals to Asean leaders who are trying to shield their economies from policy shocks,' Chaisse said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. And while Southeast Asian countries had been 'cautious by nature' about taking sides between China and the US, there was a limit. 'If one partner keeps disrupting the system while the other offers to support it, the choice starts to become less about politics and more about survival,' he said. However, there is no sign that Asean is about to give up its neutrality, according to Dylan Loh, assistant professor in the Public Policy and Global Affairs Programme at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. 'US tariff pressure does present an opportunity for China to strengthen its economic ties in the region, insofar as China is positioning itself as a reliable partner through trade agreements and investment. That said, this alone will not portend any major shift or alignment with China – we do not see clear evidence of this,' Loh said. He said countries in the region continue with 'a mix of hedging, balancing, deeper Asean integration, and diversification of their ties [with other countries] while maintaining their relationship with the US and China as best as possible'. Still, countries in the region will have to take the semiconductor tariff pain, at least for now, according to Xu Tianchen, senior China economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit. 'There is no doubt that Southeast Asia will be the first in line to be affected. If Trump expands tariffs to consumer goods such as mobile phones containing foreign chips, the impact will be even greater. This is because Southeast Asia is an important production base for consumer electronics,' Xu said. Like China, South-East Asia's position in the global semiconductor industry is largely cemented by its strength in cost-efficient operations, with very limited access to advanced-node processor chips. The 100 per cent US tariffs would erode its edge for China as a low-tariff launch pad for chip exports to the US. 'China was selling low-end semiconductors elsewhere, but in a way, packing in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia. Now, it would not be able to do that with the 100 per cent tariffs,' said Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at French investment bank Natixis. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
