Certainly not before time, the British government on Tuesday suspended trade talks with the Netanyahu administration and slapped it with further sanctions over its “egregious” military operation to “take over” Gaza – or whatever remains of it. So, too, have other close allies of Israel warned Benjamin Netanyahu to permit urgently needed humanitarian aid through. They must also act.
It is some months since anything resembling an adequate supply of food and medicines were provided to keep blameless Palestinian civilians alive, and famine, as well as war and pestilence, now stalks the Holy Land in grim Biblical fashion.
Tom Fletcher, the UN relief chief whose powerful speech last week did so much to mobilise global opinion, warns now that the lives of some 14,000 infants will be lost over the next 48 hours – if aid remains held up by the Israeli authorities. As Mr Fletcher notes, a mere five trucks of aid have gone into Gaza recently – a “drop in the ocean”. And even this minuscule contribution is only just inside the border, and hasn’t reached many civilians.
As the lorries contain baby food, they are unlikely to be compelling targets for Hamas to steal. Now reports say 100 lorries are coming through, but many thousands are needed on a consistent basis for disaster to be averted.
The situation, always appalling, has now reached unimaginable levels of desperation in Gaza, and the images of obviously malnourished, starving children have been so graphic that international pressure has forced Mr Netanyahu to bend – a little.
In a defiantly candid broadcast, the Israeli prime minister informed his people that such has been the outrage in the United States Congress from those normally automatically loyal to the Netanyahu administration that he has had to relent and permit essential supplies to move into the war zone. Mercy, in other words, has nothing to do with it.
With a knowing expression on his face, Mr Netanyahu stressed that the only reason even token aid was being allowed in was for “practical and diplomatic reasons”. Specifically, Mr Netanyahu cited US senators – Israel’s “greatest friends in the world” – who told him they would withdraw support for the country because of the media images of starving Palestinians. In his own account, they apparently informed him: “We cannot accept images of hunger, mass hunger. We cannot stand that.”
That statement is telling in a number of ways. First, it does prove that even this man, whose instinct for political survival is well-developed, and his even more extreme cabinet colleagues, are susceptible to political pressure. Second, as has been obvious since the foundation of the state of Israel, it is always the United States above all that counts.
Such has been the wanton destruction and newly stated ambition of Israeli territorial control in Gaza – a distinct break with past policy – it raises questions around what has been discussed between President Trump and Mr Netanyahu, given that even the modest restraints on Israeli aggression and expansionism that had been urged during the Biden administration (and many of its predecessors) seem to have gone.
Recent events involving settlers on the West Bank are also suggestive of an unprecedented level of American indulgence. How far prospective Israeli military occupation of the rubble-scape of Gaza is consistent with President Trump’s ambition to create an American-administered resort remains to be determined. But there appears no sign of President Trump exerting himself to save Arab lives.
The US National Security Council spokesperson James Hewitt has stated: “Hamas has rejected repeated ceasefire proposals, and therefore bears sole responsibility for this conflict.” That may be true, but Israel has long since abused its inalienable right to defend itself after the 7 October atrocities, and conducted the conflict such that it has provoked charges of war crimes at the International Court of Justice. The war has become obscenely disproportionate.
Given that the Trump administration apparently remains content with this situation, that is all the more reason for America’s and Israel’s partners to step up the pressure. “Concrete measures” must start with clear and unambiguous condemnation of the Netanyahu government by Emmanuel Macron, Mark Carney, and all of Israel’s other friends.
On Tuesday, MPs from five political parties – Labour, the Tories, Lib Dems, Greens and SNP – told the foreign secretary David Lammy that the British government needs to go further and faster, including suspending arms sales to Israel and sanctioning ministers in the Netanyahu government.
As The Independent put on the front page of our daily edition on 11 May, we must end the deafening silence on Gaza; it is time to speak up. This must be allied to quiet but forceful diplomatic activity, with a focus on persuading Washington to realise the enormity – and danger – of what is happening.
There is a moral, humanitarian case for the Trump White House to act – but also a political and diplomatic one, which the president and his circle might find more persuasive. Mr Netanyahu is not acting in America’s interests. The war in Gaza, now seemingly with the objective of levelling the place and forcing its people out, makes Mr Trump’s ambition to extend the Abraham Accords, and formal recognition of Israel to his friends in the Gulf states, virtually impossible.
Despite the lucrative public and private deals recently secured by Mr Trump, the region will never be stable unless the war in Gaza is ended, and neither will American investment in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar be secure – nor a nuclear deal with Iran be possible.
On the Houthis, relations with the new Syrian leader and on Iran, President Trump has shown he is capable of independent thought and action that is not to Mr Netanyahu’s tastes; but on Gaza he is, as yet, unmoved. Soon the tragedy in Gaza may lead to a wave of many thousands of perfectly genuine refugees fleeing Palestine for a new life in the West – another powerful reason to end the conflict immediately.
There are other measures that may be raised by the international community. The supply of lethal or dual-use weaponry to Israel could be incrementally, gradually curtailed – something President Biden did with the heaviest of ordnance, which was being used by the Israeli army inappropriately in densely populated areas.
The question of recognition of the state of Palestine could also be more openly discussed, preparatory to the two-state solution that may feel far distant now, but remains the official policy of most Western nations. Recognition might put it back on the table. Further, more assertive, economic pressure on the Netanyahu government is also an option, though never to be deployed in a manner that would endanger Israel’s right to exist.
It would also be useful for British ministers, and their international counterparts, to win the arguments with Mr Netanyahu about his war. He did not succeed in the rapid release of the hostages. He has not broken Hamas and ended the threat of terrorist attacks. He has eliminated a few Hamas leaders, but usually not as a result of indiscriminate mass bombings but by carefully targeted assassinations.
Put simply, Mr Netanyahu’s war in Gaza has not only been a continuing humanitarian disaster, it has failed in its stated objectives. It has left the Israeli people less secure than they were before the 7 October attacks. That, for him, should be the greatest indictment of all.
