In this up-is-down world, where Western democracies who pride themselves on their “rule of law” and “respect for human rights” are standing firmly on the side of an occupying power as it prepares to slaughter a largely defenseless civilian population, nothing seems remarkable anymore.
The stated international consensus is for a two-state solution to the Palestine issue. The US, UK and Europe all publicly say this is the outcome they seek. The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority want this. Even Hamas has said it is prepared to enter a long-term truce if Israel withdraws to 1967 boundaries.
It is Israel alone that is opposed to a Palestinian state emerging. Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel for all but one of the past 14 years, has long insisted that there will be “no Palestinian state on my watch.”
In the US, meanwhile, politicians are falling over themselves to encourage Israel to “level” Gaza, respond “disproportionately,” or simply “treat sick people the way they deserve to be treated and eliminate them.” This is preparing public opinion for genocide.
More than 40 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are children under the age of 15. That is roughly one million children. That means that right now, Israel is depriving one million children of food, water, electricity and medicine. And it is doing so with the full support of the “Free World.”