Genocide is embedded in US diplomacy

Israel is only conducting occasional atrocities that do not align with US interests, if we are to believe US rhetoric. The Israeli air strike that killed at least 20 children in Beit Lahiya was “a horrifying incident with a horrifying result,” according to US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller.

“We have reached out to the Government of Israel to ask what happened here,” Miller continued, before adding, “But step back and look at where we are in this campaign.” According to the US State Department, the kill toll in Gaza is merely a result of Israel’s relentless attack on Hamas, its leadership and its weapons. As such, the 20 children killed in Beit Lahiya – indeed all the Palestinian civilians killed – pale into insignificance when compared with Israel’s purported aim.

When questioned about the US supplying Israel with weapons, Miller responded, “It’s something that we have to be very deliberate about and take time to assess the underlying circumstances to decide whether there was any particular potential legal violation and what the implications of that would be.” Ending the war, Miller added, is the US aim.

While still supplying Israel with weapons, one might add.

Miller also said that the US is not calling for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza to avoid a power vacuum that Hamas may fill again. Hamas did not come to power through a power vacuum, but through a democratic election that the West pushed for, but then adamantly refused to accept the result. If a power vacuum exists in Palestinian politics, it is the West that created it by refusing to recognise a legitimate election result and allowing the Palestinian Authority to rule without political legitimacy.

Mahmoud Abbas’s mandate ended in 2009, in case you have forgotten.

Meanwhile, at the UN Security Council, imperialism wasn’t faring much better in imparting convincing rhetoric. Speaking about starvation in Gaza, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield blamed Hamas for the lack of food, not Israel’s genocidal plan. Astonishingly, Thomas-Greenfield then proceeded to list many of Israel’s international law violations along with the expectation that Israel complies with international law. The bottom line, according to the US, is that Israel still needs to be protected, while Palestinians do not.

This was made very clear in Thomas-Greenfield’s rhetoric regarding UNRWA. Israel and the UN need dialogue, she stated, “to address the fears that led to the Knesset’s legislation.” What fears, exactly? A premeditated plan to close down UNRWA, a plan built on earlier attempts to discredit the agency as well as the Palestinian right of return, is not built on fear but is part of the settler-colonial framework that paves the way for ethnic cleansing and forced expulsion.

If there was a shard of fairness in this world, Thomas-Greenfield would not be given a platform to speak of her memory of a child dying of starvation, while the diplomats she aligns herself with do the same to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Asking Israel to provide humanitarian aid does not stave off starvation.

It merely tells Israel that the US will do nothing but offer mild criticism from compromised international platforms, while weapons transfers continue unhindered.

Between Miller and Thomas-Greenfield, the US is merely stating what is now obvious to the rest of us: feed Palestinians, maybe, but kill them later, definitely. Genocide is embedded in US diplomacy.

Genocide is embedded in US diplomacy