Over 9,000 Palestinian women have been killed since the
start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. Mothers have been the largest share
of Israeli killings, at an average of 37 mothers per day since
October 07, 2023.
The numbers above, from the Palestinian Health Ministry in
Gaza and the Red Crescent Society respectively, only convey part of the
suffering experienced by 2.3 million Palestinians in the Strip.
There is not a single section in Palestinian society that
has not paid a heavy price for the war, although women and children are the
ones who have suffered most, constituting over 70% of all victims of the
ongoing Israeli genocide.
These
women and their children are killed at the hands of Israeli soldiers, but they
are murdered with US-western supplied weapons.
We are told that the world is finally turning against
Israel, and that the west’s nod of approval to Tel Aviv to carry on with its
daily massacres may soon turn into a collective snub.
This
claim was expressed best in the March 23 cover of the Economist
magazine. It showed a tattered Israeli flag, attached to a stick, and planted
in an arid, dusty land. It was accompanied by the headline “Israel Alone”.
The image, undoubtedly expressive, was meant to serve as a
sign of the times.
Its profundity becomes even more obvious if compared to
another cover, from the same publication soon after the Israeli military
conquered massive Arab territories in the war of June 1967. “They did
it,” the headline, back then, read. In the background, an Israeli military
tank was pictured, illustrating the west-funded Israeli triumph.
Between the two headlines much, in the world and in the
Middle East, has changed. But to claim that Israel now stands alone is not
entirely accurate, at least not yet.
Though many of Israel’s traditional allies in the west openly
disown its behavior in Gaza, weapons from various western and non-western
countries continue to flow, feeding the war machine as it, in turn,
continues to harvest more Palestinian lives.
Does Israel truly stand alone when its airports and seaports
are busier than ever receiving massive shipments of weapons coming from all
directions?
Almost every time a western country announces that it has
suspended arms exports to Israel, a news headline appears shortly afterwards,
indicating the opposite. Indeed, this has happened repeatedly.
Last year, Rome had declared that it was blocking all arms
sales to Israel, giving false hope that some western countries are finally
experiencing some kind of moral awakening.
Alas,
on March 14, Reuters quoted the Italian Defense Minister, Guido
Crosetto as saying that shipments of weapons to Israel are continuing, based on
the flimsy logic that previously signed deals would have to be ‘honored’.
Another country that is also ‘honoring’ its previous
commitments is Canada, which announced on May 19, following a parliamentary
motion that it had suspended arms exports.
The celebration among those advocating an end to the
genocide in Gaza were just getting started when, a day later, Ottawa
practically reversed the decision by announcing that it, too, will
honor previous commitments.
This illustrates that some western countries, which continue
to impart their unsolicited wisdom about human rights, women’s rights and
democracy on the rest of the world, have no genuine respect for any of these
values.
Canada
and Italy are not the largest military supporters of Israel. The US and Germany
are. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in the
decade between 2013 and 2022, Israel has received 68% of its weapons
from the US and 28% from Germany.
The Germans remain unperturbed, even though 5% of the total
population of Gaza has been killed, wounded or are missing due to the Israeli
war.
Yet, the American support for Israel is far greater,
although the Biden Administration is still sending messages to its constituency
– majority of whom want the war to stop – that the president is doing his
best to pressure Israel to end the war.
Though only two approved military sales to Israel have been
announced publicly since October 07, the two shipments represent only 2% from
the total US arms sent to Israel.
The news was revealed by the Washington Post on
March 06. It was published at a time when US media was reporting on a widening
rift between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
“That’s an extraordinary number of sales over the course of
a pretty short amount of time,” a former senior Biden Administration official
told the Post. Jeremy Konyndyk reached the obvious conclusion that the “Israeli
campaign would not be sustainable without this level of US support”.
For
decades, the US military support to Israel has been the highest anywhere
in the world. Starting 2016, this unconditional support exponentially increased
during the Obama Administration to reach US$3.8 billion per year.
Immediately after October 07, the weapons shipments to
Israel reached unprecedented levels. They included a 2,000-pound bomb known as
5,000 MK-84 munitions. Israel has used this bomb to kill hundreds of
innocent Palestinians.
Though Washington frequently alleges to be looking into
Israel’s use of its weapons, it turned out, according to the Washington Post,
that Biden knew too well that Israel was regularly bombing buildings
without solid intelligence that they were legitimate military targets”.
In some
ways, Israel ‘stands alone’, but only because its behavior is rejected by most
countries and peoples around the world. However, it is hardly alone when its
war crimes are being executed with western support and arms.
For the Israeli genocide in Gaza to end, those who continue
to sustain the ongoing bloodbath must also be held accountable.
