The US penchant for aiding Israel’s violence
Extending the twisted narrative employed by Zionists, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened regional violence in the Middle East after two targeted assassinations within a few hours of each other. The two strikes killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. “We are prepared for any scenario and will stand united and determined against any threat,” said Netanyahu on Wednesday.
The only entity threatening anyone and everyone around it in the Middle East is Israel, and it has now brought the region closer to war. The occupation state is still disseminating its warped security narrative, and the US was swift — like any loyal poodle — to assert its support.
“We will certainly help defend Israel,” US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin toldreporters during a conference in the Philippines, referencing Washington’s recent assistance to Israel after Iran retaliated to the colonial entity’s targeting of the Iranian Consulate in Damascus earlier this year.
According to the Pentagon, Austin and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant discussed “threats to Israel posed by a range of Iranian-backed terrorist groups.”
The EU was not far behind when spouting its purported neutrality. “We call on all parties to exert maximum restraint and avoid any further escalation,” declared the European Commission’s spokesperson Peter Stano. “No country and no nation stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East.”
To put the balance even more in Israel’s favour, Stano noted that the International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued an international arrest warrant for Ismail Haniyeh on account of alleged war crimes. According to EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell, meanwhile, “We have to ask for ways to de-escalate tensions and avoid the war which would have an impact on the whole region and beyond. And we need a ceasefire in Gaza now.”
The countries which Israel has been consistently targeting to build its security narrative? The victims of Israel’s contempt for international laws and conventions? Israel has violated territorial sovereignty by imposing its targeted assassination policy on foreign countries. The actual killings have been marginalised swiftly to pave the way for any possible aftermath, thus empowering Israel with even more impunity, and both the US and the EU are more likely to seek retribution and diplomatic manoeuvring respectively, rather than set the blame where it should lie: with apartheid Israel.
Speaking to Channel News Asia, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was reluctant to discuss the immediate and future implications of Haniyeh’s killing. “It’s very hard to speculate, and I’ve learned over many years not to speculate on the impact one event may have on something else,” he intoned. Politics should ban this type of generalised rhetoric. Behind closed doors, officials worth their salt always speculate and plan the next moves. It is only that the US prefers civilians to be kept in the dark, until their time to be illuminated by US-Israeli weapons that kill, maim, behead and butcher people beyond recognition. Israel has unleashed itself on Gaza and is not averse to controlling the region through its violence. The US has already asserted its support for additional violence planned by Israel. No need to look too far back in history to see that the US has been given an opportunity to meddle in the affairs of too many sovereign states, as befits its rotten record.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.