On the brink and into the abyss: Israel's ground invasion of Gaza
"The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned"--William Butler Yates, "The Second Coming" (1919)
“Even the most heinous acts of barbarism do not give the victims the right to resort to barbarism of their own in their quest for vengeance.”
Reasoned analyses have been made. But reason does not always carry the day.
The only thing that might stop Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza would be if Joe Biden and the United States broke America’s long tradition of vetoing any U.N. Security Council resolution critical of Israel,1 and joined the rest of the world in approving or at least abstaining on a U.N. Security Council resolution like the one the U.S, vetoed on October 18, 2023,2 which called for a “ humanitarian pause” to permit the supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
That resolution was supported by America’s friends and allies except the U.K. which abstained, as did Russia. The vote was 12-1 with 2 abstentions.. The one opposing vote was the U.S. veto.
Such an American abstention is not likely to happen. For the U.S. to abstain, Biden would have to acquire a keen strategic vision and a courage to act which he has not manifested to date.
The United States may be in the process of losing the Ukraine war in Gaza.
Listening to the more than 40 representatives including a number of foreign ministers who spoke at the Security Council meeting on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, one is left with the impression that U.S. support for Israel as it proceeds with its ground invasion of Gaza could mark a turning point in America’s relations with the countries in the Middle East, and indeed with many countries in the Global South.
It is hard to see how Russia can be brought to withdraw its forces from Ukraine without the support for Ukraine of the countries in the Global South. So far they have refused to join the sanctions regime prohibiting trade with Russia.
Many countries in the Global South complain of the U.S. employing a double standard, one to condemn Russia for its aggression and war crimes in Ukraine, and another in which the U.S. protects Israel in the Security Council and is seen as enabling or complicit3 in the commission of war crimes in Gaza—from Israel’s medieval siege of the enclave, blocking water, food, fuel, and electricity, to its widespread destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure.
Israel wants to exterminate Hamas, although carrying that out may be problematic under the laws of war. If Hamas fighters are captured, under international humanitarian law they cannot simply be killed.
On Wednesday, October 25, the wife and children of the Al Jazeera bureau chief in Gaza City were killed by an Israeli air strike on the home of relatives where they were staying in a refugee camp in southern Gaza. They had fled there from their home in Gaza City in the North.4
Many from the Global South would say if you believe the targeting in this case was merely coincidental then surely you also believe that the fact that Vladimir Putin’s opponents happen to fall out of windows and from great heights at an alarming rate is purely a matter of coincidence.
The first stanza of William Butler Yeats’s famous poem, “The Second Coming", inspired by the experience of World War I, comes readily to mind:
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
The Second Coming (1919)
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
There are a couple of legal observations that can be made.
The first is that Israel’s claim to be exercising its right of self-defense under international law and the U.N. Charter raises the question of whether Israel is implicitly acknowledging that the Gaza Strip is a state or part of a state under international law. Article 2 (4) of the Charter prohibits the use of force by a state.
The second observation is that the argument of some countries in the Security Council on October 25 that Hamas’s actions on October 7 actually can be justified as part of an independence struggle, a battle for self-determination, lack merit. The wanton killing of innocent civilians on October 7 would in any event constitute the commission of war crimes. Israel may have an obligation to try the responsible Hamas fighters for the commission of these war crimes.
However, at the present moment, matters seem to have moved beyond the realm of reason and law.
For now, reason seems to have run its course.
At this point, only a courageous Joe Biden might be able to turn things around. One can only hope that he has an epiphany.
James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and professor of international law at other universities.
Shakeeb Asrar and Mohammed Hussein, “How the US has used its veto power at the UN in support of Israel; The US has used its veto power at least 34 times to block UN Security Council resolutions that were critical of Israel,” Al Jazeera (English)., October 26, 2023.
See Press Release, MEETINGS COVERAGE, SECURITY COUNCIL, 9442ND MEETING (AM), U.N. Doc. SC/15450 (18 OCTOBER 2023), “Security Council Fails to Adopt Resolution Calling for Humanitarian Pauses in Israel-Gaza Crisis on Account of Veto by United States,” October 18, 2923.
See,
1)”Pentagon to send military advisers and air defense systems to Israel; Assistance comes ahead of Israel’s anticipated ground assault into Gaza but advisers will not engage in fighting, says US official,” The Guardian, October 23, 2023 (23:54 BST);
2) Chivani Chauhan, ”US Sends Military Advisors to Israel amid Concerns over Gaza Operation,” BNN Network ( Hong Kong), October 26, 2023 (1:00 pm EDT);
See,
1)Associated Press, “Israeli strike kills family members of Al Jazeera bureau chief in Gaza,” Boston Globe, October 25, 2023 (5:55 p.m.);
2) Virginia Pietromarchi, Hamza Mohamed and Mersiha Gadzo, “Israel launches ‘relatively large’ Gaza incursion, ramps up West Bank raids; Al Jazeera correspondent’s family members among latest casualties from Israel’s continued Gaza bombardments,” Al Jazeera (English), October 26, 2023;
3)Ben Farmer (Jerusale), ”Al Jazeera journalist reporting from Gaza learns that family died in Israeli air strike; Wael al-Dahdouh's wife and children were sheltering in a refugee camp when they were hit by what he claims was a ‘targeted’ missile,” The Telegraph, October 26, 2023 (7:32 pm);
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