Standing alone against the world, on Dec. 8 the U.S. government vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza that has been sponsored by 100 nations. Washington’s backing of Tel Aviv occurred after a week of the most intense Israeli bombing of Gaza and its civilian population to date.
The resolution would have demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the immediate and unconditional release of all captives held in Gaza. Of the 15 Security Council members, 13 voted for the resolution with the United Kingdom, Washington’s junior partner in imperialism, abstaining.
The Biden Administration blocked the cease fire call even after UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres invoked the rarely used Article 99 of the UN Charter to emphasize to the Security Council of an “impending human catastrophe” if there wasn’t an immediate cease fire in Gaza.
Just a day after blocking the cease fire call, the Biden administration’s State Department announced that it would bypassed Congressional review to rush through the emergency sale of 45,000 tank shells to Israel.
A war to ‘save Western Civilization’
These U.S. actions show clearly that the carnage taking place in Gaza is a U.S.-Israeli genocide. It is also clearer than ever that the regime it is arming and protecting is a settler-colonial one, racist to the core, and hostile to the people of the Middle East. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, told MSNBC on Nov. 30 that, “This war is a war that is not only between Israel and Hamas … It’s a war that is intended, really, truly, to save Western Civilization, to save the values of Western civilization.” Such racist tropes have been used many times to justify mass murders from the killing off of colonials peoples, to the Holocaust, to the U.S. war on Vietnam, to the KKK attacks here at home.
Bombing the heaviest ever
According to health officials in Gaza, more than 17,170 Palestinians have been killed by U.S.-supplied bombs dropped by Israel to date. Some 40% of them are children. An additional 46,000 have been wounded since the Israeli military operations began two months ago. Thousands more area buried under the rubble. Now, the U.S. veto is a green light for even more Israeli aggression.
This week’s Israeli bombing of Gaza was the heaviest ever. Palestinians were urged by Israel to evacuate from Gaza City to Khan Younis, the largest city in the South, but now that city is under heavy bombardment. Tel Aviv is bombing the road from north to the south, making it impossible to travel. Attempts are being made now to force this population of 2.2 million Palestinians onto Gaza’s beaches.
Israel says its goal is to “destroy Hamas,” but clearly people are being bombed not because they are Hamas but because they are Palestinian. The goal is ethnic cleansing, to make Gaza uninhabitable, and to push its Palestinian population into Egypt.
Attempts to humiliate the population
In a cowardly act meant to humiliate Palestinians, this week the Israeli war machine arrested scores of Palestinian men, stripped them to their underwear and released photographs of some being paraded through a central square in Gaza city, others taken away in army trucks. Other photos showed Palestinain men sitting with their hands tied behind their backs, some blindfolded.
At first the Israeli military claimed these men were fighters who had surrendered. Later the IDF said the Palestinian men they mistreated were from “fighter strongholds” that “should have been evacuated weeks ago,” and were “suspected fighters.”
But Palestinians in Gaza maintain that the roundups were arbitrary, and that many of the men were displaced by Israeli bombings. Many were released, some only to find that while they were arrested their homes had been destroyed. The whereabouts of some are still unknown.
In addition to blatant humiliation, this was an attempt by the IDF to claim some military gains from their ground invasion when in fact the Israeli military has not been able to secure any permanent territory in Gaza to date. They have met fierce resistance from Palestinian fighters at every turn.
Fighters represent the Palestinian people
Contrary to establishment media reports, it is not just Hamas doing the fighting. This is a fight waged by several groups representing the entire Palestinian people. Fighting from Gaza are: Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command.
The combined resistance reports that it has demolished or disabled close to 500 Israeli military vehicles since the beginning of the ground offensive. Fierce fighting continues in close combat with Israeli forces throughout Gaza. At the same time, the resistance is able to lob rockets as far away as Tel Aviv and occupied Palestine.
This week Hamas released a video on how it was able to manufacture the missiles it now fires in Gaza itself, under the nose of the occupation, even though the siege did not permit the metal to enter Gaza. At great risk to themselves, they dug up unexploded Israeli ordinance left from the many Israeli bombings of Gaza and used that. They found a whole network of underground pipes that Israel was using to steal Gaza’s water and direct it to nearby Israeli settlements. They dug up these pipes and used this metal to make missiles. Palestinian divers discovered sunken British warships off the coast and brought up metal from the wrecks and melted it down for rockets.
This kind of determination and ingenuity reflects the will of the entire Palestinian people to fight with whatever they have to regain their stolen lands. It shows that even with all the bombs that the U.S. supplies, Israel will never be able to destroy the Palestinian struggle.
Protest actions continue
Meanwhile, by blocking a ceasefire resolution in the UN when one is so sorely needed, Washington stands isolated and exposed as the real power behind the genocide in Gaza. This has raised mass anger. Inspired by the Palestinian struggle, revolted by the U.S and Israeli government war crimes, demonstrations supporting Palestinian liberation continue.
Just last week in the U.S., for example, thousands in New York City marched on Wall Street to point the finger of blame at corporate America for supporting Israel and to demand that U.S. companies divest from Israel. Protesters are also hounding U.S. politicians wherever they go. This week activists agathered outside a fundraiser for Joe Biden in Los Angeles and in front of the home of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in North Virginia to demand a ceasefire, a stop to U.S. aid to Israel and freedom for Palestine.
