ISRAEL continues horrific and barbaric attacks on Gaza where more than 60,000 Palestinians have been martyred and 1,30,000 seriously wounded .
If Trump is truly seeking a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, he must leverage US military aid to Israel to pressurise savage Benjamin Netanyahu to end attacks on Gaza. Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump called for a ceasefire but showed unwillingness to press Israel to end the attacks on Gaza. If a ceasefire is indeed the ‘utmost priority’ of the White House, it has the leverage to bring it about without further haste. Trump could push Netanyahu to stop attacks on Palestinians. Trump could use the threat of suspension of military support to attain ceasefire which very much would be in the interest of the US and the interest of the President Trump himself in terms of scoring a diplomatic win because he is desirious of having Nobel Peace Award. Israel’s blockade has caused life threats to patients and doctors. Because of Netanyahu’s barbarism largest hospital in Gaza could turn into graveyard.
Ironically, the US provides Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance each year, on top of offering it diplomatic backing at international forums like UN. While US expressed optimism about reaching a 60-day truce this week that could lead to a permanent ceasefire. The butcher Netanyahu has still to finish the job and agenda in Gaza and perish innocent Palestinians and Hamas. Peace deal can’t be achieved amid Israeli barbaric attacks on unarmed Palestinians. To achieve permanent peace in the Middle East, the US will have to stop flow of arms to Israel. Ironically, Trump has taken pride in resuming the transfer of heavy bombs to Israel – the weapons that Biden temporarily withheld during the war on Gaza. While truce talks are ongoing, the horrors of Israel’s war on Gaza, which UN experts and human rights groups have described as a genocide, are intensifying. Israeli attacks on Palestine should be stopped first. Hospitals are running out of fuel, cases of preventable diseases are on the rise, hunger is rampant, and hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli fire over the past weeks while trying to receive food at privately-run aid distribution sites.
Trump and Netanyahu want a deal with Palestinian leaders by further squeezing blood of Palestinian masses. Netanyahu is standing in the way of ceasefire. Hamas has already demanded a lasting end to the war. The atrocities in Gaza could not be stopped with just verbal calls for ceasefire. If it is not accompanied by action – as in the suspension of aid or suspension of arms to Israel – Netanyahu doesn’t have any reason to actually go forward seriously with peace negotiations. Netanyahu is willing to do forced displacement of Palestinians which is unacceptable. Trump appears to be interested in Gaza ceasefire in part to boost his own image as a peacemaker and to win a Nobel Peace Prize. During the presidential campaign, Trump promised to bring peace to the world. The idea of depopulating Gaza is not new. Far-right Netanyahu has been publicly championing it since the start of the war. But the international community started taking the idea seriously when Trump floated it in February as part of his desire to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Even if a 60-day truce is reached, human rights advocates are concerned that Israel may not only return to war afterwards, but it might also use the time to drive Palestinians out of Gaza and further entrench its occupation. Hamas had agreed to release 10 Israeli captives as part of the proposed deal, but the remaining sticking points are about the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and guarantees for permanent ceasefire. Before Netanyahu arrived in Washington, Israeli Minister of Defence Israel Katz revealed an unacceptable plan to create an internment camp for Palestinians in southern Gaza. Israel would implement an “emigration plan” to remove Palestinians from Gaza, which would amount to ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity. While Trump has not re-endorsed the ethnic cleansing scheme in Gaza this week, the White House still suggested that Palestinians cannot remain in the territory.
Netanyahu brought it up again during his visit, saying that Palestinians in Gaza should be free to leave the territory if they choose. The entire world should reject idea of forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. Forcing people to leave Gaza under the threat of bombardment and starvation is unacceptable at all. Gaza has become an uninhabitable place for human beings. Palestinians want Gaza to be a prosperous, safe part of the region where is it people and families can thrive. People under bombardment and with no access to basic necessities cannot live. Trump and Netanyahu are working to ethnically cleanse Gaza and displace its Palestinian residents elsewhere.
—The writer is author of several books based in UK.
(naveedamankhan@hotmail.com)
