TheAltWorld The Gaza truce talks farce
Arab ‘mediators’ are helping Netanyahu prolong his war of extermination
The relocation of the four-way talks (involving the intelligence chiefs of the US, Egypt, and Israel and the prime minister of Qatar — who is officially his country’s head of intelligence) on a truce to end Israel’s war of extermination from Cairo to Doha to Rome is a reward for Benjamin Netanyahu. It amounts to adopting his policy of continuing the war and slaughter, hailing his hubristic speech to the US Congress on Wednesday and joining the standing ovation, and endorsing all the lies he spun to justify his daily massacres in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu, who does not want to halt the war, has effectively obtained a licence from the four states to continue and prolong it. On Saturday, he committed another massacre in Deir al-Balah. His forces fired five missiles at a school, killing 30 civilians. This deliberate mass killing was a ‘salute’ to the Rome talks due to begin on Sunday, to which he sent a delegation in order win him time and pose as a ‘man of peace’ who wants the war to end.
The purpose is to entrap the Arab delegates, who scurried to attend despite the failure of all previous rounds as soon as they received the summons from their US master who is directly complicit (with money, arms, personnel, and intelligence) in the genocidal war
The Israeli prime minister has not budged from his rejection of all the main points of agreement reached by the mediators under the auspices of CIA director William Burns in the previous rounds that began nine months ago. He even added extra conditions as a slap to all their faces: US approval for any renewed invasion of Gaza after the agreement has been implemented; insistence on searching all evacuees returning to northern Gaza to verify they are not resistance fighters; and Israeli forces remaining in occupation of the Salaheddin (Philadelphi) border strip separating Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
The return of the Arab mediators(Egypt and Qatar) to the demeaning and futile negotiations in Rome is an additional badge of shame, facilitating Netanyahu’s plan to gain time to carry on the killing. They are acting as false witnesses, if not far worse, whatever their reasons or pretexts for performing this role.
I have urged, and continue to urge, the leaders of the resistance in Gaza not to take part, either directly or indirectly, in these useless and highly damaging talks. They constitute one of the cruellest forms of deception of and illusion-peddling to the people of the Strip. This leadership provided written responses to all the points in the draft agreement so as not to be accused of obstructionism. But rather than appreciation, the reward for this responsible behaviour was more massacres, starvation, and destruction.
Our people in the Gaza Strip are being martyred in their thousands by starvation, bullets, and bombs. Hospitals can no longer treat the wounded because most have been bombed and destroyed and lack electricity and medication. A relative told me that those still functioning have stopped receiving regular patients suffering from every kind of sickness and disease because they lack the time and resources, and their teams devote all their energy to dealing with the huge numbers of incoming victims and treat only the most seriously injured.
By continuing to engage in this theatrical farce of negotiations with eyes wide open, and to assist Netanyahu’s strategy of wasting time and continuing the war of extermination, the Arab mediators share responsibility for the consequence. They should end this engagement immediately and not heed any new American summonses.
Egypt is the most to blame, as the largest and leading Arab country which neighbours Gaza and bears historic and legal responsibility for protecting its people and their security and lives. We’re not asking it to send in its forces, tanks and warplanes to confront the Israeli aggression and force the entry of humanitarian aid, though we are entitled to. We merely urge it to withdraw from this failed mediation, stand up to Israel’s violation of agreements signed with it at Camp David and elsewhere, insist on its immediate and full withdrawal from the Salaheddin corridor, and end the war of starvation by every means.
Egyptians know that the people of Gaza have started eating leaves and grasses after running out of animal feed. How long will this silence persist? Say ‘no’ just once to Israel’s American partner in crime. This silence has been the source of all Egypt’s woes, and its persistence will not resolve the country’s crises but make them worse. Impoverishing and parching Egypt and destroying its economy is also a US-Israeli policy objective. Worse is yet to come.
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