War on Gaza: Former French PM de Villepin denounces ‘greatest historic scandal’

 The former right-wing premier under Jacques Chirac vilifies the French political and media response to Israel’s onslaught

 

Dominique de Villepin, renowned for his 2003 address before the UN Security Council opposing the invasion of Iraq, is a vocal critic of Israel’s policy towards Palestinians (AFP)

By Elodie Farge, MEE,13 September 2024

Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin condemned the ongoing “silence” surrounding Israel’s war on Gaza and criticised the French government’s “stepping aside” on the conflict during a radio interview with France Inter on Thursday.

When asked to comment on the appointment of Michel Barnier as prime minister and the political and economic challenges facing France, de Villepin concluded the interview by expressing his anger over the French political and media response to Israel’s war on Gaza.

When the journalist brought up the conflict and cited the death toll as provided by “Hamas’ health ministry”, de Villepin quickly interrupted her.

“I hear that all the time… It is not only the Ministry of Health of Hamas that says that there are 40,000 dead; there are probably many more. Let’s not give the impression that this is a truncated figure,” he said.

Visibly angered, he continued: “No, it is, unfortunately, an everyday reality. In Gaza, bodies are in pieces; hearts are in pieces; souls are in pieces; heads are in pieces.”

New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch

Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters

On Thursday, Palestinian authorities announced a new toll of 41,118 dead in Gaza and an additional 95,125 wounded since the war began nearly a year ago.

De Villepin said it seems there is “no prospect” of reconstruction on the horizon. “Israel is creating the conditions for a reoccupation [of Gaza],” he said.

‘In Gaza, bodies are in pieces; hearts are in pieces; souls are in pieces; heads are in pieces’

– Dominique de Villepin, former French PM

“Whether it is in the southern line or in the line that cuts [the enclave] in the middle, the creation of a perimeter around, Israel has taken back possession of Gaza. Gaza is completely besieged.”

De Villepin warned that “at a time when the West Bank itself is breaking down, as we can see in the north and in the south, we are in front of a real pressure cooker”.

The former centre-right prime minister, who served under Jacques Chirac from 2005 to 2007, went on to describe Gaza as “undoubtedly the greatest historic scandal, which no one talks about in this country anymore”.

“It is silence, a lead weight; the media doesn’t discuss it… I have to turn to Google to find news that gives me the number of deaths in Gaza. It is a real scandal in terms of democracy,” he said.

“And all this in the name of what? War. It is war; that’s how it is. However, it is not quite a war like the others. These are civilian populations who are dying. We are in Absurdia and France is stepping aside.” 

When asked what France, the European Union or the United States should do, de Villepin pointed out that the West has “levers in terms of armaments, in the economic field”. He said: “We continue to accept trading with territories where Israeli colonisation is active… but we refuse to [use these levers] under absolutely unheard-of arguments.”

“Israel must be allowed to wage its war to the end?” he questioned. “But to what end? Yoav Gallant, Israel’s minister of defence, says that Hamas has been eradicated in Gaza, so what is the end?”

‘Not surprised by this hatred’

De Villepin, renowned for his February 2003 address to the United Nations Security Council as foreign minister, where he voiced France’s opposition to an allied military intervention in Iraq, has long been a vocal critic of Israel’s policy in the Palestinian territories.

Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October, which killed around 1,200 people and saw about 250 others taken captive, de Villepin said he was “not surprised by this hatred”.

‘Israel cannot be safe until there is recognition of a Palestinian state alongside it that shares responsibility for security in this region’

– Dominique de Villepin

“I am surprised by the scale, the horror, by the barbarity that was expressed on 7 October, which calls on all of us to act with humanity and solidarity towards Israel and the Israeli people,” he said at the time.

“But I have to say it and I say it with infinite sorrow: I am not surprised by this hatred that has been expressed. When we remember Gaza – since 2006, the wars of 2008, 2012, 2014 and in 2021 – when we remember this open-air prison, this pressure cooker, [it is no surprise] that such a situation could invite hell on Earth.”

In the tradition of former President Charles de Gaulle, who predicted in November 1967 following Israel’s capture of Palestinian territories that it was setting up “an occupation that will inevitably involve oppression, repression and expulsions and a resistance to this occupation [that] Israel in turn [would] class as terrorism”, de Villepin stressed that “Israel cannot be safe until there is recognition of a Palestinian state alongside it that shares responsibility for security in this region.”

While current French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Gaza and condemned attacks against civilians, the declarations have seemingly fallen short of translating into effective action and using the means at France’s disposal to pressure Israel.

In June, when asked about the possibility of France recognising the state of Palestine, following the lead of several European countries such as Spain, Norway and Ireland, Macron responded that it was not “the right solution”.

France’s ‘apology for terrorism’ law used to ‘criminalise’ Palestine solidarity

Read More »

“It is not reasonable to do it now. I denounce the atrocities that we see with the same indignation as the French people. But we do not recognise a state based on indignation,” he added.

Rights groups and investigative media have also criticised the lack of transparency surrounding French arms sales to Israel.

Last week, an article by French media outlet Mediapart examined “the millions of euros of French weapons delivered to Israel”.

According to a defence ministry report to parliament obtained by Mediapart, France delivered €30m ($33m) worth of military equipment to Israel in 2023.

However, since the report does not specify the months, the outlet noted that it is impossible to determine whether these deliveries continued after Israel’s offensive on Gaza began on 7 October, adding that the Ministry of the Armed Forces was unable to clarify the issue.

Meanwhile, activists in the country have condemned the increased repression of pro-Palestine voices since 7 October, with hundreds of investigations being launched into remarks about the Israel-Palestine conflict under the so-called “apology for terrorism” offence.

Share this:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• More

UN Chief Says US Must Do More to ‘Force Israel to Stop’ Gaza Onslaught

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres speaks at the opening of the 55th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on February 26, 2024.

(Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

However, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres added, “I know the American political life sufficiently to know that it will not happen.”

Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams, Sep 13, 2024

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres this week urged the United States to pressure Israel into stopping its assault on Gaza, which over the course of 343 days has left more than 146,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, even as he acknowledged the low likelihood of the Biden administration heeding his call.

In a yet-to-be-published interview with Al Jazeera, Guterres said that “we have urged Washington to take a stronger stance against Israel to end the war,” and that “the U.S. needs to apply pressure to force Israel to stop.”

“I have no power to stop the war,” the U.N. chief admitted, according to a partial interview transcript. “We have a voice, and that voice has been loud and clear to say from the beginning this war must stop. The suffering of the Palestinian people must stop and the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people must be recognized.”

Noting that the U.N. Security Council has “systematically failed”—mainly due to U.S. vetoes of cease-fire resolutions—to end the war on Gaza, Guterres lamented “a situation in which any country or any movement anywhere in the world feels that they can do whatever they want because there will be no punishment.”

The U.N. chief turned his attention to the recent advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—a U.N. organ where Israel is on trial for genocide—that the 57-year Israeli occupation of Palestine is an illegal form of apartheid that must immediately end.

“We must absolutely reject any prospective annexation of West Bank or the land grabbing or the illegal settlements that move on,” he said. “The West Bank together with Gaza and East Jerusalem, which is part of the West Bank, must be the state of Palestine in the future.”

The far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing ahead with plans to steal more West Bank land from Palestinians and build or expand Jewish-only settler colonies there. This, as pogroms and other deadly attacks by Israeli extremists and soldiers—who often stand by or even join rampaging settlers—have claimed more than 600 lives in the West Bank, including more than 140 children, since October.

Guterres stressed the importance of achieving a cease-fire agreement and an independent Palestinian state—a policy supported by the vast majority of the world’s nations—even as he expressed skepticism about the prospects for peace.

“I know the American political life sufficiently to know that it will not happen,” he said of the chances that the U.S. will pressure Israel into a cease-fire.

Guterres’ remarks came as U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the world body has “no evidence” that Hamas militants were operating at a U.N.-run school-turned shelter that was bombed earlier this week by Israeli forces. The twin airstrikes killed at least 18 people including women, children, and half a dozen staffers with the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency.

The agency says around 200 of its staff members have been killed in more than 450 Israeli attacks on its facilities since October. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed while seeking shelter under the U.N. flag.

Share this:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn

 

Blinken Signals US Will Allow Long-Range Strikes in Russia With NATO Missiles

British sources indicated to The Guardian that the US and the UK have already decided to lift restrictions but won’t announce it yet

by Dave DeCamp, Antiwar. com, September 11, 2024

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken strongly hinted that the US was preparing to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of US and NATO missiles to support long-range strikes inside Russian territory, which would mark a significant escalation of the proxy war.

Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv alongside UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Blinken said he discussed the issue of “long-range fires” with Ukrainian President Volodomy Zelensky and said he would bring the discussion back to Washington. He said President Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will discuss the issue when they meet this Friday.

Signaling the US is ready to support long-range strikes in Ukraine, Blinken said, “Speaking for the United States, from day one, as you’ve heard me say, we have adjusted and adapted as needs have changed, as the battlefield has changed, and I have no doubt that we’ll continue to do that.”

(Left-right) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Foreign Secretary David Lammy attend a trilateral meeting during a visit to Kyiv in Ukraine on Wednesday, September 11, 2024 (PA Images via Reuters Connect)

The Guardian reported that British government sources indicated there’s already been a decision made in private to allow Ukraine to use British-provided missiles inside Ukraine, which have a range of about 155 miles. The sources said Biden and Starmer are not expected to announce the decision on Friday, and it’s unclear when it might be made public.

Later on Wednesday, POLITICO reported that the White House is finalizing plans to expand the area where Ukraine can hit inside Russia using US and British-provided missiles.

Ahead of Blinken’s visit, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the hawkish chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that he believed the Biden administration was ready to loosen restrictions on Ukraine’s use of US missiles to allow Army Tactical Missiles Systems (ATACMS) to be used in strikes inside Russia. ATACMS have a range of about 190 miles.

Blinken’s visit to Ukraine comes Russian forces are beginning to push back Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk Oblast. Fighting has been raging in the Russian region since August 6, when Ukrainian forces invaded using US armored vehicles and British tanks. The offensive has failed to distract Moscow from eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, where Russian forces have continued to make gains.

Military situation in Kursk on September 11, 2024 (SouthFront.press)

The Ukrainian invasion of Kursk came a few months after President Biden gave Ukraine the greenlight to use US weapons in attacks on Russian border regions. Russia has strongly warned the US against allowing US weapons to be used in strikes deep inside Russian territory, but the Biden administration doesn’t appear to be concerned about the risk of escalation.

Share this:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• More

UN Rights Chief: World Can’t Accept Israel’s ‘Blatant Disregard’ of International Law

 

Palestinians attend the funeral of the four Palestinians killed during an Israeli army raid at a refugee camp in Tubas, West Bank on August 29, 2024.

(Photo: Nedal Eshtayah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“We can either continue on our current path… and sleepwalk into a dystopian future, or we can wake up and turn things around for the better,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.

Olivia Rosane, Common Dreams, Sep 09, 2024

Other countries must hold Israel accountable for violating international law in its war on Gaza and escalating violence in the illegally occupied West Bank, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Monday.

Türk’s remarks came as he opened the 57th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva with a wide-ranging warning about the rise of international violence and human rights violations worldwide.

Ending Israel’s war on Gaza and “averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority,” Türk said.

“States must not—cannot—accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the (U.N.) Security Council and orders of the International Court of Justice, neither in this nor any other situation.

In particular, Türk referenced the International Court of Justice’s advisory ruling in July that Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem is illegal. The ICJ also called on Israel to evacuate its settlers from the West Bank and on other nations not to recognize Israel’s occupation as legal or to render any aid to Israel that maintained the status quo.

Türk on Monday called for the situation to be “comprehensively addressed.”

He added that Israel’s war on Gaza had forced 1.9 million people to flee their homes since October 7, 2023, many more than once, as Hurriyet Daily Newsreported. The war has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to official figures, though experts say the true death toll is likely much higher.

“I urge voters to ask themselves which of the political platforms or candidates will work for the human rights of everyone.”

Türk added that “deadly and destructive” operations in the West Bank, such as 10-day period of raids that concluded Friday, are at a scale “not witnessed in the last two decades” and are “worsening a calamitous situation.”

He also spoke out for the rights of the likely more than 10,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and the 101 hostages still held in Gaza.

Beyond Israel and Palestine, Türk also highlighted ongoing conflicts in Sudan and between Russia and Ukraine, noting that the international community seemed to accept the “crossing of innumerable red lines, or readiness to toe right up to them.”

“We are at a fork in the road,” the human rights chief advised. “We can either continue on our current path—a treacherous ‘new normal’—and sleepwalk into a dystopian future, or we can wake up and turn things around for the better, for humanity, and the planet.”

In a record election year, Türk argued that committing to the protection of human rights was especially important.

“I urge voters to ask themselves which of the political platforms or candidates will work for the human rights of everyone,” he said.

In particular, he encouraged voters to “be wary of the shrill voices, the ‘strongman’ types that throw glitter in our eyes, offering illusory solutions that deny reality.”

“Know that when one group is singled out as a scapegoat for society’s ills, one day your own might be next,” he said.

Share this:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• More

US State Department declines to Condemn Israel for Shooting American Activist in the Head, Killing Her

 

Juan Cole, Informed Comment, 09/07/2024

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Basil Maghrebi at the Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that on Friday, Israeli troops killed an American observer in the West Bank with a gunshot to her head, as she participated in a procession at Beita south of Nablus in the Palestinian West Bank. Aysenur Eygi, 26, a US citizen, was a recent graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle and was volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Beita residents are constantly harassed by illegal Israeli squatters who have stolen Palestinian land at nearby Eviatar for their squatter-settlement.

The occupation army said in a statement, “During activity of the security forces near the village of Beita today, the force responded with fire toward a principal instigator who was throwing stones toward the forces and constituted a danger to them. We are undertaking an investigation of reports of the death of a foreign national in the area, and the circumstances and details of her injury.”

(Cole: I call bullshit on this “statement.” It is illegal to fire live ammunition at unarmed protesters. Protesters do not pose a danger to heavily armed Israeli security forces. Eyewitnesses say that the real reason the Israeli troops opened fire was an attempt to stop the protest march, which of course is a war crime every which way from Sunday, or from Friday as the case may be.

Fellow protester Jonathan Pollack said, “It was quiet. There was nothing to justify the shot. The shot was taken to kill.”)

Moreover, The US State Department, which would have gone ballistic if Hamas or Putin had killed an American, issued mealy-mouthed pablum. They are going to “gather information.” But they didn’t act that way in other instances where a foreign military shot down an American in cold blood.

The Turkish foreign ministry said, “We condemn the crime of murder committed by the Netanyahu government.”

Maghrebi writes that medical sources revealed that Eygi was struck by Israeli live fire in the head, suffering a grave wound, during the occupation army’s attempt to suppress a weekly march at Beita protesting the Israeli colonization of the West Bank. Strenuous efforts were made to save her life, but she succumbed to her wounds.

The director of the hospital, the Rafidia Surgical Hospital in Nablus, Fuad Nafiah, announced the death of the American solidarity protester, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. As she reached the hospital, there was brain tissue outside her cranium. The medical team provided her with cardiopulmonary resuscitation for a few minutes, but she died of her injuries.

Local sources said that the occupation troops tried to stop the protest march at Beita, which lead to confrontations, in which Israeli troops let loose a volley of live fire and threw flash bombs and fired tear gas canisters (which can be fatal if they hit you) toward the protesters.

“Hope,” Digital, Dream / Impressionism v3, Clip2Comic, 2024

Eygi was participating in a program seeking to protect Palestinian farmers from harassment by Israeli squatters and by the Israeli military.

In 2003, an Israeli driving an earth mover bore down on Rachel Corrie, who had also gone to the West Bank as part of the International Solidarity Movement, killing her.

The Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hussein Sheikh, said that the Israeli occupation army’s killing of Eygi was “another crime added to the series of crimes being committed daily by the Israeli forces, which cry out for international courts to hold their perpetrators accountable.”

On Friday, as well, Israeli squatters also attacked the the village of Qaryout in Nablus, in the north of the Palestinian West Bank, beating a 30-year-old young man so badly they sent him to the hospital.

The Middle East Monitor has written,

• 
  

Earlier this year, the current fascist government in Israel legalized Eviatar in Israeli law, though it remains a gross violation of the 4th Geneva Convention and of the judgment of the International Court of Justice that the Israeli occupation is illegal.

Filed Under: Featured, Israel/ Palestine, US Foreign Policy

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Israel must be investigated for war crimes of ‘wanton’ destruction in Gaza, Amnesty report says

 Roger McKenzie

 
Morning Star, Thursday, September 5, 2024

A man walks on a damaged road following an Israeli army raid in Jenin, West Bank, September 4, 2024

ISRAEL must be investigated for war crimes of “wanton destruction,” says Amnesty International UK in a damning report published today.

The human rights group said Israel’s campaign to expand a “buffer zone” along the eastern perimeter of the occupied Gaza Strip should be the subject of a war crimes probe.

This came as the Israelis continued deadly raids across the occupied West Bank.

Amnesty said that its researchers had interviewed residents and farmers, studied satellite imagery and tracked statements by the Israeli authorities, Hamas and other armed groups to determine whether the destruction was lawful or justifiable in military terms.

The report said that in four areas, “the destruction was carried out after the Israeli military had operational control over the areas, meaning that it was not caused by direct combat between the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups.”

In those areas of Gaza, “structures were deliberately and systematically demolished,” the authors added.

Amnesty said the “punitive demolition of civilian property solely because it has been used by armed groups is prohibited as a form of collective punishment.”

Research, advocacy, policy and campaigns director Erika Guevara Rosas said: “The Israeli military’s relentless campaign of ruin in Gaza is one of wanton destruction.

“Our research has shown how Israeli forces have obliterated residential buildings, forced thousands of families from their homes and rendered their land uninhabitable.

“Our analysis reveals a pattern along the eastern perimeter of Gaza that is consistent with the systematic destruction of an entire area.”

She added: “These homes were not destroyed as the result of intense fighting. Rather, the Israeli military deliberately razed the land after they had taken control of the area.”

In the West Bank, Israeli forces were inflicting widespread destruction in the city and refugee camp of Tulkarem as a large-scale military operation in the area entered a third day, the Wafa news agency reported.

Citing correspondents on the ground, the agency said Israeli forces had dropped bombs on the refugee camp, starting fires in al-Shamaliya neighbourhood.

The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that Israeli forces are using “lethal war-like tactics,” including air strikes, in the occupied Palestinian territory, with people being killed, injured, displaced or deprived of access to basic services.

The Israeli military’s latest assault across the West Bank is now in its eighth day. At least 33 Palestinians have been killed and 130 wounded since last Wednesday, the vast majority in Jenin.

Others liked

Monday 02nd Sep 2024 A worrying sign of Britain’s deepening authoritarianism Thursday 29th Aug 2024 Starmer’s poll ratings slump Tuesday 03rd Sep 2024 Starmer’s Israel U-turn shows protest works: now let’s push for a complete arms embargo and sanctions Wednesday 04th Sep 2024 Grenfell report indicts capitalism Wednesday 04th Sep 2024 Grenfell culprits must face justice ‘with no corporate or state veil to hide behind’, campaigners demand

Donate to the Fighting Fund You can’t buy a revolution, but you can help the only daily paper in Britain that’s fighting for one by donating to the Fighting Fund.The Morning Star is unique, as a lone socialist voice in a sea of corporate media. We offer a platform for those who would otherwise never be listened to, coverage of stories that would otherwise be buried. The rich don’t like us, and they don’t advertise with us, so we rely on you, our readers and friends. With a regular donation to our monthly Fighting Fund, we can continue to thumb our noses at the fat cats and tell truth to power.Donate today and make a regular contribution. Donate here »

Share this:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn

Warning of ‘Genocidal Violence’ on the West Bank

 Consortium News, September 4, 2024

As the Israeli military’s largest assault on the West Bank in decades continued into its second week, U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said the “writing is on the wall.”

Israeli military photo of its forces in Jenin in the Occupied West Bank on Monday. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams

An independent U.N. expert warns that “Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole” as Western governments, corporations, and other institutions maintain support for Israel’s military, which stands accused of grave war crimes.

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement that “there is mounting evidence that no Palestinian is safe under Israel’s unfettered control.”

“The writing is on the wall, and we cannot continue to ignore it,” said Albanese, who released a detailed report in May concluding that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza.

Albanese’s statement came as the Israeli military’s largest assault on the West Bank in decades continued into its second week on Monday. At least 29 Palestinians have been killed during the series of military raids, according to Al Jazeera, including at least five children.

“Apartheid Israel is targeting Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously, as part of an overall process of elimination, replacement, and territorial expansion,” Albanese said Tuesday. “The longstanding impunity granted to Israel is enabling the de-Palestinization of the occupied territory, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of the forces pursuing their elimination as a national group.”

“The international community, made of both states and non-state actors, including companies and financial institutions, must do everything it can to immediately end the risk of genocide against the Palestinian people under Israel’s occupation, ensure accountability, and ultimately end Israel’s colonization of Palestinian territory,” Albanese added.

Defense for Children International–Palestine noted Monday that “dozens of Israeli military vehicles” have “stormed” the West Bank city of Jenin over the past week as “Israeli forces deployed across the targeted refugee camps, seizing Palestinian homes to use as military bases and stationing snipers on the roofs of buildings, subjecting their residents to field investigations.”

“The military bulldozers began destroying the civil infrastructure in Jenin city and camp, which led to the destruction of the main water networks and power outage in several neighborhoods in Jenin and surrounding villages,” the group said. “Israeli forces besieged several hospitals in Jenin and impeded the movement of ambulances and paramedics.”

Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 620 people in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7, on top of the roughly 40,800 killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.

Unlawful Israeli land seizures have also surged in the West Bank as settlers and soldiers wipe out entire Palestinian communities. The BBC reported Monday that, according to its own analysis, there are “currently at least 196 across the West Bank, and 29 were set up last year — more than in any previous year.”

Israel’s multi-day attack on the West Bank that began last week has intensified fears that unless there’s a permanent cease-fire, the assault on Gaza could expand to the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories and throughout the Middle East.

David Hearst, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye, wrote Monday that “even with the obvious reluctance of Hezbollah and Iran to get involved, all the ingredients are there for a much larger conflagration.”

“An Israel in the grip of an ultra-nationalist, religious, settler insurgency; a U.S. president who allows his signature policy to be flouted by his chief ally, even at the risk of losing a crucial election; resistance that will not surrender; Palestinians in Gaza who will not flee; Palestinians in the West Bank who are now stepping up to the front line; Jordan, the second country to recognize Israel, feeling under existential threat,” Hearst wrote.

For U.S. President Joe Biden or Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, he added, “the message is so clear, it is flashing in neon lights: The regional costs of not standing up to Netanyahu could rapidly outweigh the domestic benefits of being dragged along by him.” 

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, similarly argued Tuesday that “the U.S. must reverse course — and do so dramatically.”

“A long-overdue cut-off of U.S. arms to Israel and recognition of the Palestinian right to self-determination would provide exactly the shock to the system that is needed,” Zogby wrote. “It would force an internal debate in Israel, empowering those who want peace. It might also serve to send a message to the Palestinian people that their plight and rights are understood.”

These actions, especially if followed up with determination and concrete steps, won’t end the conflict tomorrow,” Zogby continued, “but they would surely put the region on a more productive path towards peace than the one it is on now.”

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

This article is from Common Dreams.