If Netanyahu besieges northern Gaza, the civilised world has to consider military intervention
The proposed siege would be many steps too far
Many of us called it from the beginning that the Gaza genocide was not about rescuing the hostages (who Israel keeps killing) or even about destroying Hamas (who Israel is helping recruit). It was always about ethnically cleansing the land of Gaza to establish a “Greater Israel”. We’ve seen Israelis talking of buying real estate in Gaza. We’ve seen boat trips along the Gaza coast so Israelis can get a close look at the genocide like it’s a spectator sport. We’ve seen plans to drive Palestinians into the Sinai desert.
We just have to look at how Palestinians have been forced to abandon their homes, and even their hospital beds, and walk from “safe zone” to “safe zone”, hoping they don’t succumb to injury and exhaustion or get shot by sniper drones. We’ve seen Israel force people to leave northern Gaza for the south and squeeze them into a tiny corner of Rafah as they laughed at Biden’s red lines. We were told this cruelty was necessary to end Hamas as a fighting force and then we were told Hamas had indeed been ended as a fighting force.
Well, now Israel wants to tell everyone who returned to northern Gaza to the wreckage of their homes in the hope of salvaging their belongings and searching for missing loved ones and starting the agonising process of rebuilding their lives, that they must leave northern Gaza again. This is because the carpet bombing has failed to eradicate Hamas and therefore it wants to impose a starvation blockade that will also fail to eradicate Hamas.
At this point, Israel will impose a starvation blockade on southern Gaza too. So what happens when this barbaric plan also fails? Will Israel say it has no choice but to kill everyone? When does this madness stop?
The siege plan has been put forward by retired Israeli war criminals, I mean generals, and submitted to a parliamentary committee for approval. Twenty-seven members of the Knesset have written to the government, urging them to adopt the plan. Bizarrely, they claim the plan will force Hamas to release the hostages when in reality, it will be a death sentence.
We are talking about hundreds of thousands of civilians in northern Gaza, many of who will be unable to leave, or afraid to leave, or might not even receive the instruction to leave. And what will happen if the civilians who don’t leave go out looking for food? Is Israel going to shoot them?
Given that Israel carpet bombs every designated safe zone, Palestinians can surely be forgiven for staying put, yet if they do, our leaders will blame them for their own starvation. Centrist Israeli politician Meirav Cohen said of the Palestinians: “The only threat that they are facing is obesity.” In case you’re unclear, this is how so-called moderates talk in Israel. Not that moderates in the West are any better. I’m just waiting for Sir Keir Starmer to reaffirm Israel has the right to withhold food, water, and medicine from Palestinians, and backtrack two weeks later, pretending he never said any such thing.
I can’t believe I have to type out these words, but Palestinians are human beings and you can’t expect them to walk from end to end across a country, not least when they don’t have access to the basics of life. Every time you put them through this process, many more are going to die, and that is absolutely Israel’s intention.
When asked if they will ever be allowed back, Retired Major-General Gershon Hacohen said: “It will all depend on what will happen in the future.” Israel is giving no indication if these people will ever be allowed to return to northern Gaza, and my guess is it will use its failure to eradicate Hamas as the excuse to stop civilians going back.
At the start of this conflict, Netanyahu told his war cabinet he wanted to reduce the Palestinian population to the lowest number possible and that is what he plans to do. The survivors will spend the rest of their lives living in tents and our leaders will pretend this is self-defence.
One fear I have is what if Netanyahu manages to spark a regional conflict? My guess is he will have both a distraction and an excuse to carpet bomb the tent cities into oblivion and the genocide will be complete. Whether things would ultimately go that far or not, we have enough evidence that there is a serious risk they will. That evidence provides enough legal and moral justification to act.
US warships are currently heading towards the region to protect Israel, should a regional war kick off, due to Israel’s terror attacks on Lebanon. If the US had a shred of decency, it would not be focusing on the countries Israel is provoking, it would be focusing on Israel itself. It would be saying loud and clear that if this genocide does not stop, we will have no choice but to militarily intervene to protect civilian lives.
The fact the US would never do this should be enough to undermine its war machine forever. How can anyone possibly think any US war is one of liberation? How can anyone think the warmongers give the slightest crap about civilians in Ukraine, or democracy in Venezuela, or human rights in China? We can see quite clearly just what the empire thinks of human rights and democracy and civilian lives. It’s time to apply your disgust about Gaza to all of the empire’s actions because there is never a time when they are the good guys.
Now I can’t see this happening in a million years, but the United Nations, if it’s to have credibility, needs to start talking about intervention. The argument for acting in Gaza is much stronger than in any conflict for decades. The infuriating thing is we wouldn’t have to send a single troop to Gaza to achieve peace. If the UN approved the use of military force by member states, Israel would have no choice but to back down. But then again, we could accomplish this goal by stopping arms to Israel and our leaders won’t even do that.
The Biden administration has admitted it has given up on the possibility of a peace deal that it never tried to achieve. The actions of the US, including its abuse of vetoes, should be enough to expel both it and Israel from the United Nations. If the US can’t and won’t make the slightest effort to stop this genocide, the rest of the world must do more to stand up to it. It’s time to create a new world where the US can’t just get its own way.
Civilised world? What civilised world?
Time to remove Netanyahu for good