Thousands of people have demonstrated in Tel Aviv calling for the
return of hostages held in Gaza and early elections to oust Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [photo credit: X]
In this perverse Alice in Wonderland world truth is stood on its
head, reality denied over and over again. The claim that most of Gaza is
pacified is undercut by the evidence in front of us as Khan Younis is
pummelled and the IDF suffers significant losses. The claim that the
military goes out of its way to protect civilians is daily revealed as a
grotesque lie. On 24 January a UN shelter
in Khan Younis was hit by Israeli tank fire killing at least 20
civilians, an attack the IDF initially denied but then said it was
investigating. Yesterday saw the shelling
of civilians lining up for humanitarian aid in Gaza City with a death
toll of more than 20 and many dozens wounded. Earlier in the week an unarmed civilian
under a white flag was killed on the outskirts of Khan Younis. He was
shot just after an ITV camera-journalist had finished interviewing him.
The entire sequence is captured on film: the interview, the shooting,
the attempt to retrieve the body, the victim's wife rushing forward
screaming her grief, the scattering of survivors as the IDF renewed
firing on unarmed civilians.
The IDF declared the film had been selectively edited and was an “extension of Hamas propaganda.” When queried
in the House of Commons by the SNP on Wednesday Prime Minister Sunak
shrugged off the question of whether the shooting constituted a war
crime with the now-ritualistic response that “international humanitarian
law should be respected and civilians should be protected. I have made
that point expressly to Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Foreign
Secretary is in the region making exactly the same point.” So, to borrow
from Private Eye, that’s alright then.
Lord Cameron in his meeting with Netanyahu again presented
the two-state solution which again the Israeli PM will brush aside. In
his long political career Netanyahu has always sought to destroy the
possibility of a viable Palestinian state but it is only in the past few
days that he has so nakedly declared his intentions,
perhaps in obeisance to the fascists in his government who will bring
him down if he even so much as hints he is succumbing to pressure from
Washington.
In the midst of this mad and dangerous inversion of reality, the
Huthis have increased their attacks in the Red Sea. So much for US and
UK strikes that were supposed to cow them. The Huthis have made their
position abundantly clear: in return for a ceasefire in Gaza they will
cease the targeting of shipping in the Red Sea. Stripped bare it is a
muscular call for de-escalation. The response of the US has been to hit
back and reinforce the path of escalation. The UK, bizarrely claiming self-defence,
has gone along on two of the raiding parties while steadfastly clinging
to the fiction that events in the Red Sea have nothing to do with the
Gaza war. Both of those reality-warping positions are supported by the
opposition Labour Party and its leader Keir Starmer.
The Huthis are now claiming
successful ballistic missile attacks on US Navy vessels in the Gulf of
Aden and the Bab al Mandab straits, a claim which the Americans have denied.
It may indeed be a piece of bombastic Huthi propaganda but on the other
hand Biden is well aware of the traction Donald Trump gains every time
the US enters into another foreign military engagement. Publicly
acknowledging the attack on naval vessels would up the ante
substantially and risk further embroiling the US in Netanyahu’s war.
That’s an outcome the Israeli PM wants to see but it is one that Biden
needs to avoid as it becomes clear that after his rival’s New Hampshire
primary win Trump will be the GOP presidential candidate in November.
Meanwhile Israel has conducted strikes on the IRGC in Damascus and Hezbollah in Beirut
with Netanyahu talking of a long war on several fronts. Even as the
Israelis continue to poke and prod them, the Iranians want to avoid an
all-out war. But should Teheran’s patience snap the war that Bibi wants
will become reality. So yes that would make him the world’s most
dangerous man.