Washington is blindly committing Harakiri in regards to its international image. AIPAC and other Zionist billionaire funded US politicians, irrespective of their party affiliation, have irrevocably damaged the reputation of arguably, the most influential superpower or empire ever existed, by its logic-defying obsession for Israel. The world has been witnessing 24/7 televised genocide of Palestinian people by the occupying army of the Zionist state for nearly eight months now. Israeli army has so far killed more than 35000 people in Gaza and West Bank, seventy percent of which are babies, children and women. The number of injured people has exceeded 150,000. Considering the population of 5 million in the two occupied enclaves, Israeli army either killed or wounded about 4 percent Palestinians living there. Many of the injured have lost their limbs. This genocide is equivalent to killing and wounding 13.5 million people in America in terms of its population. Mass graves continuously being unearthed in and around multiple hospitals in Gaza systematically destroyed by indiscriminate bombardment. It is estimated that additional 10000 dead bodies are still buried under the rubbles in Gaza.
US has enabled the ongoing massacre along with Germany, UK and few other European countries by arming, funding and providing diplomatic cover. The US and UK armed forces have directly intervened in favor of Israel when Iranians responded with massive missile and drone attack to the destruction of their embassy in Damascus by Israeli air force, one of many acts against international law by the current extremist Netanyahu government. Grotesquely, some US politicians are not satisfied with the death toll in Palestine. They want many more Palestinian dead bodies. Lindsay Graham, a Republican politician and Senator from South Carolina has suggested to nuke Gaza like Hiroshima and Nagasaki during a recent interview with NBC. It may be a shocking and evil statement for any sane person, but may not be a fringe idea among the mainstream, very powerful, staunch pro-Israeli political establishment in America. Lindsay Graham has publicly stated what many of his colleagues in Senate and Congress want to see.
In the light of the US position in regards to war crimes in Gaza, it is a blatant exercise of hypocrisy that, the US State Department annually publish reports on human rights practices of other countries. Since October 2023, Anthony Blinken has to regularly respond to a common question in most of his press conferences, whether US has double standard regarding Israel. As the topmost diplomat of American government, we understand that, it is his job to reject the strong allegation with a usual “no”, and to insist that US applies “same standard” for all countries. However, his facial expression lately, shows some sign of exasperation while answering these unpalatable questions. Blinken is an intelligent person and should realize that nobody has any faith in his routine public statement of non-existent US morality. The perception of US double standard is not only widespread in Islamic world, entire Global South recognizes their hypocrisy. Even many employees inside the State Department have expressed internal dissent. A few of them have also resigned in protest. Commenting on the absurdity of Washington’s position, Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur commented that some US government officials would not admit genocide in Gaza even if Israel admitted to its crimes.
Young Americans are now protesting against greenlighting of Gaza genocide by Biden administration. Many analysts have possibly, prematurely started terming the protests as “Vietnam moment”. Perturbed by the intensity of public anger in an election year, the supposed champion of human rights and freedom of expression has shown its true color. US government has come down heavily against the opponents of Israel’s war in Gaza. Influenced by AIPAC and pro-Israel billionaires, Washington decided to use brute force to crack down on pro-Palestine protests at the universities to stifle dissent. The net result of this blind and self-destructing submission of the US politicians to serve the interest of Israel is the creation of an isolated superpower with no credibility. It is an irony that Joe Biden started his presidency with the foreign policy statement that, “the United States is committed to a world in which human rights are protected, their defenders are celebrated, and those who commit human rights abuses are held accountable”. Now his administration has cracked down on those young American citizens who are protesting against the most heinous human rights abuse in the 21st century in Gaza. Even if we follow Machiavellian concept to surrender the sense of morality for achieving geopolitical objective, it is rather impossible to understand how such act of insane support for Israel in defiance of world opinion can protect US interest and national security!
Probably, the US politicians cannot remain oblivious of the fact that views about Israel have started to sour among younger generation in their country in recent times. According to Pew Research, favorable view for Israel among adults under 30 has fallen 17 percent since 2019. This generation is less likely than older Americans to say that Israel’s reason for fighting Hamas are valid. According to same research, 46% of adults under 30 finds Israel’s response unacceptable. However, any meaningful change in the US policy in the Middle-east is not expected in the near future. Possible defeat of the self-declared Zionist, Biden in the November election as a consequence of his infamous Netanyahu “Bear hug” and unconditional support for annihilation of Gaza may prompt the establishment of Democratic Party to evaluate their policy. A New York Times poll found that 13% of voters defecting from President Joe Biden in protest to his support for Israel’s war. But, change of guard at the White House will have no effect on US-Israel relationship. We know from Trump’s first term of presidency that, he will not be any less Zionist, if not more. Not only huge majority of the Republican Party leadership are openly Islamophobic, Trump’s influential Zionist son-in-law, Jared Kushner has already started to publicly promote the idea to sale Gaza’s beach front real state, post-ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the enclave. Whether dream of Kushner will materialize will depend on the resistance of the people of Palestine.
With protest against US policy expanding across college campuses in the US and other pro-Israel western countries, there has been some shift in public opinion. According to ABC News Ipsos poll, 38 percent respondents say that United States is doing too much to support Israel, up 7% from January. This displeasure has to exceed at least 60% for the Democrats and the Republicans to seriously consider any policy change. In the UK, although more than 70% people support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, there has been little change in the Israel policy of both ruling Conservative and opposition, Labour. Such is the political and financial power of pro-Israel lobbies in the western countries that public opinion can be ignored to a considerable extent. Under the circumstances, there is little possibility of change in the lopsided support for Israel in the Washington establishment until it become really unpopular among the voters. And that possibility is not in the horizon yet. There is no sign that American support for Israel may break down even though that makes the strongest superpower isolated and hated in the international arena. This may happen for the first time in history that a superpower has pushed the self-destruction button for the sake of a distant, pariah state.