Our Wednesday News Analysis | Only a failing US empire would be so blind as to cheer Netanyahu and his genocide

Activists participate in a pro-Palestinian protest near the US Capitol in Washington on 24 July 2024 (Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP)

There is only one country in the world right now, amid Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is guaranteed dozens of standing ovations from the vast majority of its elected representatives.

"This looked less like a visit by a foreign leader than a decorated elder general being welcomed back to the Senate in ancient Rome or a grey-haired British viceroy from India embraced in the motherland’s parliament after brutally subduing the ‘barbarians' on the fringes of the empire.

This was a scene familiar from history books: imperial brutality and colonial savagery recast by the seat of the imperium as valor, honor, and civilization.

And it looked every bit as absurd and abhorrent as it does when we look back on what happened 200 or 2,000 years ago."

That country is not Israel, where he has been a hugely divisive figure for many years. It is the United States.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu was back-slapped, glad-handed, whooped, and cheered as he slowly made his way - hailed at every step as a conquering hero - to the podium of the US Congress.

This was the same Netanyahu who has overseen during the past 10 months the slaughter - so far - of some 40,000 Palestinians, around half of them women and children. More than 21,000 other children are reported missing, most of them likely dead under the rubble.

It was the same Netanyahu who leveled a strip of territory - originally home to 2.3 million Palestinians - that is expected to take 80 years to rebuild, at a cost of at least $50bn.

It was the same Netanyahu who had destroyed every hospital and university in Gaza, and bombed almost all of its schools that were serving as shelters for families made homeless by other Israeli bombs.

It was the same Netanyahu whose arrest is being sought by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, accused of using starvation as a weapon of war by imposing an aid blockade that has engineered a famine across Gaza.

It was the same Netanyahu whose government was found last week by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to have been intensifying Israel’s apartheid rule over the Palestinian people in an act of long-term aggression.

It was the same Netanyahu whose government is standing trial for committing what the ICJ, the world’s highest judicial body, has termed a “plausible genocide”.

Read more: Only a failing US empire would be so blind as to cheer Netanyahu and his genocide

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WHY THE WORLD MUST STAND BEHIND ICJ DECISION ON ISRAELI OCCUPATION

Source: Jews for Justice for Palestinians
https://jfjfp.com/why-the-world-must-stand-behind-icj-decision-on-israeli-occupation/

Richard Falk writes in Middle East Eye on 24 July 2014

A protester holds a sign saying ‘No to the occupation’ as Israeli forces arrest Palestinians & solidarity activists demonstrating against Israel’s illegal settlement and expulsion policies in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, 22 September 2023

“… the ICJ found that Israel was responsible for
blocking the Palestinian right to self-determination,
wrongfully annexing Palestinian territory by force,
violating the Fourth Geneva Convention through
its large-scale settlement project, and
relying upon discriminatory policies and practices
to administer the occupied territories."

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) overwhelmingly decided last week that Israel is no longer legally entitled to act as the occupying power in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, noting that its further presence in these territories is unlawful.

The decision took the form of an “advisory opinion” in response to two “legal questions” put to the ICJ by the United Nations General Assembly in 2022.

Israel declined to participate in the court proceedings except by way of a written statement objecting to the whole process as improper, arguing that Israel’s consent was needed before its governmental conduct could be legally evaluated by the ICJ, even in a process labelled as “advisory”.

Does being an “advisory opinion” rather than a formal judgment in a “contentious” case make a decisive difference in the political weight or legal authoritativeness of the outcome in this comprehensive legal scrutiny of Israel’s prolonged occupation of the Palestinian territories?

An important question is raised by the formal, obligatory format of the ongoing South African ICJ case alleging Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

From Israel’s point of view, these two cases are not very different, beyond the ICJ focusing on the alleged legal wrongdoing associated with 57 years of prolonged occupation in one instance, and in the other, South Africa seeking the court’s support to end the Gaza genocide that started last October.

In both instances, Israel has denounced the ICJ for reaching legal conclusions that it says compromise its security and right to defend itself. With such reasoning, Israel gives every sign of ignoring the ICJ as it works to “finish the job” in Gaza while continuing the policies and practices associated with its approach to occupation since 1967...

Read more: Why the world must stand behind ICJ decision on Israeli

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ISRAEL’S GENOCIDAL WAR ON CHILDREN

Source: Middle East Monitor
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240727-israels-genocidal-war-on-children/

By Adham Abu Selmiya
Published July 27, 2024

Palestinians, including children injured after the Israeli attack hit the house belonging to the Abu al-Qas Family at the Bureij refugee camp, are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on June 09, 2024. [Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency]

From day one, Israel’s war on Gaza has unequivocally been a war on children.
The harrowing testimonies of Dr Perlmutter and other medical professionals reveal an unprecedented targeting of children, painting a chilling picture that this is not an outlier but the everyday reality in Gaza.

The numbers tell a stark story: thousands of children were killed and maimed, with countless more suffering from chronic diseases in the wake of relentless bombardment and siege. This deliberate targeting is further validated by the incendiary rhetoric from Israeli leaders, who openly advocate for the eradication of Gaza’s future generation.

               “I’ve seen more incinerated children than I’ve ever seen in my entire life combined. I’ve seen more shredded children in just the first week,” shared Dr Mark Perlmutter, a Jewish-American doctor, in a harrowing testimony that reminds us of the true nature of Israel’s war on Gaza.

His interview on CBS, which went viral this week, provided a shocking account of the suffering endured by Gaza’s children due to the Israeli aggression. Dr Perlmutter, an orthopedic surgeon, has been on over 40 mission trips in 30 years, including disasters like earthquakes and Ground Zero. However, nothing prepared him for the civilian carnage he witnessed in Gaza.

He recounted seeing children with severe injuries, including sniper wounds. He described the dire medical and humanitarian crisis, with hospitals in Gaza essentially destroyed and children facing extreme trauma without adequate care. In this piece, we try to dive deeper into the reality of Israel’s war on children in Palestine...

Read more: Israel’s genocidal war on children