The Israeli military operations against the Palestinians are continued with full-might and now the death-toll has reached to 9,448 according the health-related authorities of Gaza. The number is feared to increase fast due to continuity and escalating mercilessness of the Israeli army and the relevant agencies. The attacks on hospitals have become a routine matter, however the attack on a school in Jabalia refugee camp where-in 15 people were killed has indicated towards a new trend. The supply of fundamental human needs have also been disrupted in the war-torn areas, which is gradually making the local population dependent upon two pieces of bread per day supplied by the UNO. The addition to local problems is the non-availability of drinking water: no workable solution of the issue has yet been found by the local population or the world agencies as yet. Simultaneously, huge number of protestors has taken to streets around the globe intensely demanding a cease-fire. However, indifferent to all to the factors, the Israeli forces have tightened their encirclement of Gaza city on the basis of their air-support and further advance is a matter of time. The Israeli military’s order to 1.1 million people to leave densely populated northern- Gaza, including Gaza city, and relocate the South of the strip is sensational. The UN has cautioned that the instruction of the Israeli authorities would cause ‘devastating humanitarian consequences’.
The US Congress has meanwhile approved an almost $14.5 billion military-aid package for Israel called ‘Johnson’s package’ that affects with cuts in official spending elsewhere. The said consignment would provide Israel ‘with the assistance needed to defend itself, free hostages held by Hamas, and eradicate the militant Palestinian group’. However, practically the passage of this move, termed as ‘stunningly unserious’, has no scope in the upper house i.e. Senate. Most of the pressmen have commented that it was sign of a ‘partisan’ approach by new Speaker Mike Johnson that posed a direct challenge to Democrats and President Joe Biden. The President reacted sharply and without delay, that he would veto the bill because it was ‘approved on a largely party-line vote’.
Simultaneously, the US has repeatedly pleaded a ‘break’ in the war to allow air-deliveries or other humanitarian activities, after which Israel could re-commence its military operations, however PM Netanyahu has out-rightly ruled-out a ‘break’ in his military adventure. The Americans plead that the idea is ‘modeled on a smaller-scale pause’ that made it possible to obtain the release of two American hostages from Hamas captivity almost a month ago. The US President Joe Biden has indicated that progress has been made in the White House’s attempts to persuade Israel to stop military strikes, at-least temporarily. Few American and the European pressmen have expressed that ‘Israel and the US appear to be following divergent approaches to securing the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza’: this difference of opinion and action has prolonged the episode.
The voices against Israel’s operations to punish Palestinian population in Gaza are also increasing. A powerful voice like that of Senator Bernie Sanders is important who has openly branded the Israel’s ‘indiscriminate’ killings of civilians as unacceptable. The prominent member of the US Senate described the situation ‘as one of the most horrific moments in the modern history’ particularly referring towards the killing of innocent people in violation of international law. He directed the attention towards provision of 3.8 billion annually to Israel. A number of newspapers particularly the daily ‘Al-Jazeera’ dated November 4, 2023 attributed special significance to the illustrious Senator’s statement.
It is also important to highlight that pressure is also building-up upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the responsibility for failing to prevent the Hamas October 7 attack on Israeli communities that triggered the on-going Israel-Hamas war. However, Netanyahu is trying hard to side-step accountability by blaming others. A number of observers have criticized his behavior who is ‘thinking more about his own political survival than soothing and steering a traumatized nation’. Netanyahu’s biographer and well-known journalist Anehel Pleffer, without mincing words, has charged him to fight ‘a personal battle of survival that takes precedence over fighting Israel’s war against Hamas’ and to gain his objective his objective ‘he is perhaps to malign those who are now commanding Israel’s army and intelligence services’. However, apparently the under-pressure Prime Minister is not likely to survive for long after the return of normalcy as he will not be able to cover his inability and inefficiency to forestall the Hamas adventure.
The last visit of the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken dated November 5 to stabilize the ever-aggravating situation is also mentionable. The US SOS visited Ramallah for an exchange of views with Palestine Authority President Mahmud Abbas amid escalating violence in the West Bank. The highest Washington diplomat also interacted with top Middle Eastern leaders during ‘Jordan Conference’ and latter stopped-off in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus to have discussions on the Israel-Hamas on-going conflict. Blinken’s three visits to the area since the eruption of war manifest Biden administration’s advocacy for a ‘humanitarian pause’ to the fighting for allowing life-saving measures, however with no solid result. The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned-down the US call for a ‘humanitarian pause’ in the war and informed the SOS that they were going ‘full steam ahead’ unless the hostages in the custody of Hamas were released.
Simultaneously, Pope Francis pleaded for cease-fire in Israel-Hamas conflict, while addressing the Sunday prayers. Side by side, the European Commission stated that ‘European Jews today are again living in fear’, however the representative of the EU totally neglected the feelings and the plight of Palestinian Muslims. Fears have also started mounting that the conflict will regionalize: Hasan Abdullah, the leader of Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group declared that his group was undeterred by US threats to stay out of war.
Mark Leonard, vide his analysis dated November 3, 2023 in ‘Project Syndicate’ commented that for years PM Benyamin Netanyahu operated under illusions that Israel could normalize the relations with the Arab world without addressing the Palestinian ‘question’, have now been shattered. The analyst stressed that ‘regardless of its offence in Gaza, Israel will have to do some serious soul-searching, possibly, rethinking its strategy towards the moribund Middle East peace process entirely’. This writer has the same view: Israel must revise its traditional thought-pattern. It should settle its pending issues justifiably with all the concerned and shatter the idea to settle peacefully, in this region, with the US support.
