Famine as a weapon of war

Gaza is sinking into a pit of death, insalubrity and hunger, which particularly affects the most vulnerable. The famine has already begun. The blockade and invasion mix the visible horror of medieval sieges with the stealth of digital warfare, in which bombing targets are precisely calculated and supplies are carefully meted out to increase pressure on Hamas. Only an immediate and definitive ceasefire, allowing for the massive delivery of supplies, could save Gazans from disaster.

Is there any sincere friend of Israel left in the White House who has not remonstrated with Benjamin Netanyahu? President Joe Biden has done so with more or less discretion; so has Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and the top Democrat in Congress and himself Jewish, Chuck Schumer. They join the chorus of European voices, humanitarian organizations and international institutions, the WHO, the FAO, UNICEF and, of course, the United Nations Assembly and its secretary general, who have called for a ceasefire and denounced the planned catastrophe. It is famine as a weapon of war, as EU foreign policy representative Josep Borrell accurately described it. Only the voice of Donald Trump, the most suspicious and extremist voice of all, unconditionally supports Netanyahu and denounces as antisemitic any Democrats who criticize Israel, even and most especially those who are Jewish.

All in vain. Netanyahu listens to no one. He wants to enter Rafah at all costs. For now, the current negotiation for the release of the hostages is holding him back in a ceasefire that he does not want in any case to be definitive. If the guns fall silent, the pressure will increase on him to give up invading the last corner of Gaza, but if the ceasefire fails, the new offensive will begin immediately. Everything is prepared for the attack according to Netanyahu, including measures to avoid the catastrophic consequences of a military entry into such a populated area. Although it does not follow from the events of the last five months of war that the protection of the civilian population demanded by the White House is anywhere among his greatest concerns.

Biden’s discomfort is increasingly explicit. With an increasingly sensitized public opinion, his second presidential term hangs in the balance. He knows that the Israeli prime minister only has military plans and does not have a political exit strategy. Netanyahu’s known ideas about the future are all negative. He does not want the Palestinian Authority to administer the Gaza Strip. Nor do the United Nations and UNRWA play a role, in his view of things. He rejects the two-state solution. There are many who fear that his silences are just the prelude to the extremist purposes of his government partners, who are willing to drive out the Palestinians and keep all of Gaza.

Israel’s specialty, which Netanyahu masters like a virtuoso, is buying time. Thus, the occupation of Palestinian territories has advanced relentlessly, waiting for favorable circumstances. A Trump presidency, for example. For Biden, on the other hand, it is urgent to stop the war, safeguard Gaza for the Palestinians and get something on track that at least looks like a peace process, with the two states at the end of it. It is a decisive moment that coincides with the end of his presidential term. All will be lost if the war continues and Gaza sinks into the abyss of famine.

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