Biden, israel and gaza  | thearticle

The decision by Joe Biden to establish a humanitarian pontoon on the shores of the Gaza Strip to supply food and other necessities to the besieged Palestinian exclave is extraordinary. It’s

unprecedented, imaginative, controversial and risky. With one hand the US is supplying arms and ammunition to its staunch ally, Israel, in its campaign to destroy Hamas. On the other it’s

offering to help victims under fire from those very weapons. Biden has stressed there will be “no American boots” on the ground. But the move will inevitably mean some co-operation with

Hamas officials in Gaza on its littoral frontier, while the strip’s land border remains under assault from Israel. It will be portrayed, by some, as throwing a lifeline to Hamas while it

still holds over 100 hostages. The immediate motive is to relieve an increasingly desperate situation in Gaza while it is pummelled into a wasteland by Israeli forces. But it’s much more

than that. The move sends the strongest signal to Israel so far that it no longer has _carte blanche._ The US wants an end to the war and a path to an eventual two-state solution. To this

end it is, in all likelihood, preparing the ground for a time when Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israel Prime Minister, and his coalition — which includes far-Right religious ministers — will be

replaced. David Cameron, the UK Foreign Secretary, has said that Britain will work with the US to set up a maritime humanitarian corridor. People in Gaza, he said, are in desperate

humanitarian need. Humanitarian aid from Israel — or for that matter Egypt — into Gaza has been sporadic, slow and stingy. Convoys have held up for days by inspecting Israeli troops. Some

supplies, including medical equipment and generators intended for shattered hospitals, have been turned back on the grounds that they’re “dual use” which Hamas might use. At two or three

checkpoints, including the Kerem Shalom crossing close to the border with Egypt, Israeli protestors have sought to block aid convoys going into Gaza. This despite the fact that the crossing

has been declared a closed military area forbidden to civilians.  UN representatives have accused Israel of systematically obstructing aid. There has been obstruction from within Netanyahu’s

cabinet. The hardline Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced in mid-February that he was blocking a shipment of flour from the United States, destined for Gaza. He argued that the

supplies would be passed on to Hamas by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA), some of whose employees have been accused of taking part in the October 7 attack. Aid to

Gaza has become a political football as Israel’s relentless assault enters its sixth month since the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. Some Israelis see providing aid to Gaza’s

beleaguered population as an abomination. Why would you help your enemy after the terrible things they did? Most others, including the IDF’s commanders, view doing what they can to keep

Gaza’s civilian population alive as an ethical obligation underpinned by the rules of war. Haaretz, Israel’s left-of-centre daily, recently quoted an Israeli general in what it described as

a “closed discussion” saying: “Of course it’s our obligation… if we’re now in operational control of an area, we have to make sure those living there have all they need for their basic

existence. It’s not just our legal obligation but our moral obligation as well.” Israel’s aid policy towards Gaza since October 7 has been, to say the least, inconsistent. It has changed as

the war has gone on depending on the public mood, foreign pressure and the rising number of dead, which the Hamas-controlled health ministry says is now over 30,000, many of whom are the

elderly, women and children. The day after the attack, Benny Gantz — Israel’s then Energy Minister, now Foreign Minister and a member of the war cabinet — turned both the water and fuel

spigots off, to international alarm. That has gradually changed over the months. Limited amounts of food, fuel and medical supplies have been allowed into Gaza. We can argue whether there is

“famine” in Gaza or whether civilians are merely living a nightmare. There’s very little independent corroboration. It’s been a particularly difficult war to report. With the exception of a

few accompanied by Israeli forces, independent international reporters can’t operate in the strip. The outside world depends largely on local journalists (a horrific number of whom have

died under bombardment, some with their families), posts by Gazans on social media and NGOs. What is not in doubt is that many thousands of innocent civilians have died. Biden, in his State

of the Nation address this week, said that “more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of whom are not Hamas”. Israel’s closest ally has no reason to inflate these numbers. The war

is taking a desperate toll. If, as some on the right claim, there “is no famine”, why would America and Britain embark on such a risky venture? This is an election year on both sides of the

Atlantic. There’s inevitably an element of electioneering involved in the face of strong support for the Palestinians in both countries. But criticism of the way Israel is prosecuting this

war is not confined to the streets of London or New York. _Haaretz_ has described Israeli government’s policy on humanitarian supplies to Gaza as a combination of “vengeance, ignorance and

incompetence”. Israel is the occupying power and has been since 1967 in Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. Its responsibilities towards the civilian population are

unambigious. If it wishes to retain its international standing, even its legitimacy, to pursue Hamas, it will have to abide by the rules that democracies should observe in war. Biden spoke

of a battle for the soul of America. He could have been referring to the soul of Israel. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We

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