Israel's actions threaten US credibility on the world stage

ISRAEL’S daring bombardment of Qatar this week revealed more than meets the eye. Let me cut to the chase: Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israelis have neither regard nor interest in brokering peace with the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, a movement that was born in the 1970s as a militant response to the decades-long illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories by the Jewish State.

Secondly, Qatar, a relentless honest broker that has been working evidently hard to bring about peace between Hamas and Israel that would result in the release of hostages – dead and alive – did not in the least deserve to be meted out the Jewish State terror.

Israel’s audacious attack on a building in which Hamas leadership was meeting with Qatari authorities to discuss, favourably, we learn, the latest US peace proposal could only mean one thing: To hell with diplomacy.

But thirdly, which bears perhaps more ghastly meaning, is that Israel under Netanyahu is consciously and deliberately dragging the US into unsavoury spaces in geopolitics.

Washington is the singular most economically and militarily powerful behind Israel. In addition, in international relations, the US single-handedly offers diplomatic cover to Israel, thereby shielding the Jewish State from any consequences whatsoever for its illegal and heinous activities in the occupied territories, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Qatar or anywhere.

As Israel’s rapidly growing status as the world’s pariah state intensifies, and the end is nigh for Israel’s impunity under international law, Netanyahu’s modus operandi becomes clearer by the day. Put bluntly, Netanyahu wants to go down like the Biblical Samson – with the pillars of the temple.

Enormous domestic pressure on the man they call Bibi appears to fall on deaf ears. Hundreds of thousands of decent and logical Israelis have been marching week in and week out, imploring Netanyahu to make peace with Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages so that they may be reunited with their loved ones.

As for the dead, too, a peace agreement with Hamas will mean their bodies are handed over to their distraught families so they may perform their rituals, say their final goodbyes and have some closure to what has been a truly horrendous period.

But any peace deal will, of course, precipitate a period of reflection and stock-taking of October 2023 when Hamas bridged the hitherto impenetrable Israeli defence lines.

The Israeli population is seething with anger over the 2023 glaring security lapses that resulted in more than 1000 people dead and many others captured. Additionally, Netanyahu has pending criminal cases of a personal nature to deal with in the courts when peace returns.

Bibi, and Bibi alone, holds the keys to that peace. That peace remains so elusive is his choice. He has put personal interests ahead of the interests of his entire nation. He exhibits characteristics of a psychotic leader, an autocrat wrapped in a democracy blanket. He is a devious, self-serving modern-day version of the Biblical King Herod who massacred scores of innocent people and pursued an expansionist programme.

Netanyahu’s agenda of a “Greater Israel” that is premised on the extinction of the Palestinians is not dissimilar to that of Herod the Great. They both possess an evil streak that knows no bounds, as it leaves plenty of harm and mayhem in its wake. Evil men, that’s what they are.

There are clearly ample cases to pin against Netanyahu’s criminal conduct and his go-to-hell attitude to diplomacy and regard for international law that is aimed at keeping civilised people and nations at peace with each other.

His attack on Qatar this week was so indefensible that it left even the US President Donald Trump momentarily lost for words before he called the Emir of Qatar to apologise and pledge that it would never happen again.

The US has the biggest military base inside Qatar, and utterly inconceivable that Washington would have lacked full prior knowledge of the ill-advised Israeli bombardment inside the territory of a massive US ally.

And this not only put the US under scrutiny from the Qataris. It puts Washington in a spot of bother. The Gulf States are correctly reassessing their strategy of engagement with the US, particularly Saudi Arabia, which came out with a public condemnation of the strikes on Qatar.

Internationally, the world is watching with increasing disbelief and exasperation at the rogue behaviour of Netanyahu and Israel. The UN Security Council is unable to take any step against Israel due to the veto power that the US has as a permanent member of the 15-member body.

Feeling hamstrung by Washington’s blind loyalty and support for Netanyahu and his apartheid state, the nations of the world are adopting an alternative route to making their feelings known. They are recognising the State of Palestine, much to the dislike of the US, but there is no one who can stop the recognition.

At the imminent UN General Assembly meeting later this month, traditionally allies of the US, such as France, the UK and Spain, will be part of a growing list of countries officially recognising the State of Palestine.

When Israel bombed a mediator in her own backyard while trying to work out an end to a conflict and the return of Israeli hostages, all logic went out of the window. How could Israel claim any semblance of seriousness in negotiating with Hamas and then unleash a bomb on a Hamas meeting to discuss the peace proposals? Bill Clinton once said to George W Bush on the eve of the invasion of Iran: “You can’t kill all your enemies.”

Methinks Netanyahu is a deeply troubled man on the inside. He exhibits no iota of being a mentally stable leader. War crimes charges await him at the appropriate time when the hegemony that protects him disintegrates further.

The Gaza genocide, the deliberate starvation that Netanyahu has masterminded against the Palestinians, the building of more illegal settlements against international law, detention without trial of Palestinians and many more gross human rights violations will surely come to haunt Bibi. I know, the world knows, soon Netanyahu will have his day in court.

Evil can never triumph over good, no matter how long it may take. Through it all, great and perhaps irreparable harm is being done to the standing of the US in world affairs.

* Abbey Makoe is the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Global South Media Network (gsmn.co.za). The views expressed are personal.

** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, IOL, or Independent Media.

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