As world anger mounts over deaths and destruction in Gaza, Netanyahu heads a pariah state

A displaced Palestinian woman, who fled her house due to Israeli strikes, carries a child as she walks through a tent camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb 20, 2024. (PHOTO / REUTERS)

Gaza Strip has been under months of heavy bombardment and grotesque scenes of devastation are unbearable to look at. Huge swathes of congested urban living blasted into nothingness. Twisted metal, broken stone and charred wood coalesce with torn apart children. As I write, there are about 30,000 dead, and 70,000 wounded, with the majority of the victims women and children. A child dies in Palestine every 10 minutes. 

As of now, Israel has dropped more than 65,000 tons of bombs on the besieged Gaza enclave. Given that the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in Japan during World War II was equivalent to 15,000 tons of high explosive, Gaza can be said to have been hit by four atomic bombs. 

According to the UN, at least 65 percent of the housing in Gaza has been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. More than 1.7 million people have become internally displaced. The entire population subsists without adequate food, water and electricity. 

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The Israeli military bombs hospitals, schools, mosques and churches, including the third oldest church in the world — Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church, then callously claims Hamas operatives were hiding there. It claims that the United Nations’ relief agency UNRWA hired Hamas terrorists, yet offers no hard proof. Now, the forces are in preparations for a ground assault on Rafah, an area they hitherto described as a safe zone. Still, the US has decided to veto the third UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire, describing that as ‘wishful’. 

Yet, make no mistake, with all the death, destruction and deception, Israel has lost the war.

Now, consider the words of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during the recent Munich Security Conference. She described the situation in Gaza as “untenable” and asked participants to “‘imagine our own children living without parents, any water, any food”.

Meanwhile, the leaders of Australia, Canada and New Zealand issued a statement that they were “gravely concerned” about Israel’s catastrophic planned military operation in Rafah. Echoing that, former UK defense minister Ben Wallace lambasted Israel’s “crude and indiscriminate” bombing and said Israel “is losing support from allies and friends across the world”.

And the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said foreign ministers from 26 EU states had finally agreed on “an immediate humanitarian pause that would lead to a sustainable cease-fire”, urging Israel not to attack Rafah. Finally, US President Joe Biden chimed in, describing Israel’s military response in Gaza as “over the top”. 

What this all indicates is that Israel’s allies are starting to push back. Still, there are more serious challenges confronting them.

First, the ideological forefathers of Israel had taken great pains to underscore the sanctity of Jewish life. There was an unwritten social contract between world Jewry and the Zionist state giving it legitimacy dependent on its ability to project power, protect its people and avenge wrongs committed against them. 

Today, that sacred bond is broken. Israeli civil society and the world Jewry are confounded by the cold indifference that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ilk display towards Israeli hostages. The Israeli right-wing have shown blatant disregard for Jewish life, especially orthodox or secular, humanist liberals, in pursuit of their political aims. This is further problematized by credible reports of Israelis being killed by Israeli ‘friendly fire’ on Oct 7 last year.

Above all, Israel has not succeeded in freeing most of the hostages, while most likely leaving some of them killed in own bombings.

Is there any wonder why mass protests are taking place in Israel? The once formidable bond between Jewish leadership and its people — both inside and outside Israel — is in shambles. This has led to the most serious internal conflict of world Jewry in the last century.

Second, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the war on Gaza highlights how divided world geopolitics is with a global order that is “not working for anyone”. The carnage, indiscriminate targeting of civilians, and the inability of the international community to stop the bloodshed, has delegitimized the Israeli campaign. Continued disregard for international law hurts the entire geopolitical construct. 

Hegemonic powers need to regain some semblance of propriety to maintain their privileged position. Yet, doing so would weaken Israeli plans of dispossession and depopulation. It is this upheaval of the status quo, instead of just potential war crimes and crimes against humanity, which forces Israel’s allies to insist on a humanitarian cease-fire, which Israel so far has refused. 

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Together, the disregard for a canonical value in Jewish thought and culture, and challenges to the global world order are a paradigm shift. In addition, both the case of genocide against Israel — led by South Africa — and the current ongoing court case over Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, are accelerating the transformation. The latter case, during public hearings that lasted until Feb 26, has seen as many as 52 countries and three multilateral organizations — the African Union, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Countries — address the United Nations’ top court.

Israeli operations are putting the entire edifice of the rules-based global order, the Geneva Conventions, and the United Nations and International Human Rights Law at stake. This coincides with a plummeting of the perception of Israel, worsening in 42 out of 43 countries surveyed in a poll. One by one, global leaders are calling out the hypocrisy of the Western-led order that allows Israel to remain above the law. 

Yet, Netanyahu seems oblivious to Israel’s disappearing diplomatic clout and respectability, as he says that The Hague (the International Court of Justice) is irrelevant and “nobody can stop us”. Israel has become a pariah state, slowly shunned by friends and foes alike. Because of that, it has lost.

The author is a visiting research faculty member at the Al Waleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.