Israel's ‘Vietnam'?
The UN's humanitarian office OCHA said 98 children had died from acute malnutrition since the start of the conflict in October 2023, with 37 deaths since July 2025, figures that are probably a gross underestimate. OCHA's Coordination Director Ramesh Rajasingham says, 'This is no longer a looming hunger crisis – this is starvation, pure and simple.'
People do not need this belated description of events in Gaza when they are confronted daily by pictures of emaciated children in hospitals being cared for by distraught but incredibly calm mothers. Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said 'over two million victims are enduring unbearable agony', while Israel's plans for the takeover of Gaza City are 'illegal and immoral'.
All this diplomatic huffing and puffing is taking place in the hallowed halls of the UN in New York, where the Security Council is meeting to address the issue of Israel's plans for Gaza. Notable absentees at the meeting are the veto-bearing US and its ally Israel, both berating even this articulate waterfall of words, which nevertheless remain as hollow as the shameful inaction by Arab and Muslim countries in solidarity with their oppressed Palestinian brothers and sisters.
Some of these worthy neighbours of Israel continue to enjoy diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv and others even feel little or no compunction in entering into lucrative trade and economic deals with the Zionist entity. So much for Muslim solidarity.
The death toll (probably an underestimate) since October 2023 has climbed to 61,430, most of whom have been killed while seeking food at aid centres. All the hot air emanating from Palestine's original Muslim supporters and, lately, Western capitals finally appalled at Israeli cruelty and falling back on the moribund 'two-state solution' for fear of worse, cannot and will not change an iota of the misery and suffering of the people of Gaza.
Only action will. There has been unceasing talk, and protests by people in Western countries, to boycott Israel in arms and the economy, on the lines of the boycott that so successfully hollowed out South Africa's apartheid regime. But this holy campaign has yet to see the light of day in any meaningful sense, misgivings and vows of cutting off arms supplies by Germany and others of late notwithstanding.
Benjamin Netanyahu's plan is to take over Gaza City and another area not yet fully in the control of the Israeli army to destroy Hamas and rescue the remainder of the Israeli hostages still with Hamas. But even his own military chief has expressed strong reservations regarding the plan, fearing the hostages will be lost and the Israeli army bogged down in a protracted guerrilla war with Hamas.
He was firmly overruled by Netanyahu and has now agreed to implement the plan. The far-right in Netanyahu's Cabinet wants the plan to be strengthened and made more rigorous. It feels the plan does not go far enough. By this they mean their desire to capture Gaza and eject the Palestinians. Netanyahu's 'short timetable', destruction of Hamas and rescue of the hostages are all likely to fail. The Israeli military's professional assessment is probably nearer the mark.
Netanyahu intends, if his plans succeed, to impose a government in Gaza composed of neither Hamas nor the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). He is hoping to impose a government of the elements opposing Hamas, composed mostly of bands of Bedouin criminals. Hamas has clearly messaged that any such collaborationist regime imposed on Gaza will be treated as an arm of the Israeli enemy.
Interestingly, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in an interview has put a new twist on Israel's plans for Gaza. He thinks the invasion of Gaza risks turning into a 'Vietnam' for Israeli soldiers. That is surely not a fate Israel's main unremitting supporter the US would wish to see replicated and visited on its beloved Zionist 'pet'.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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