At last! Israel has uncharacteristically owned up to killing seven aid workers in Gaza as a “grave mistake.” Unsurprisingly, up to this point, Israel has never admitted to any culpability whenever a Palestinian or foreign journalist is killed by the Israeli Defence Force. Instead, it has always chosen to brazen it out no matter how gossamer-thin their excuses were in the past. Doubling down in denial has been its trademark all this while. So, to see Israeli politicians and military personnel mustering every protesting fibre in their collective body to confess without much ado to the killing of the World Central Kitchen staff is abjectly painful. This time the unequivocal admission of guilt is more a case of in flagrante delicto than a change of heart on the part of Tel Aviv. “Grave mistake” or not, the killing of the aid workers can never be condoned. However, the seven did not die in vain. It has opened the eyes of the world to the hypocrisy and cant of the US and its Western allies to their mantra-like moralising about human rights and humanitarian issues when they, themselves, have turned a blind eye to the plight of the Palestinians.
Already, the tide of world opinion has decidedly turned against Israel in the Gaza war, while the US will have to wear the collateral damage. The revolting manner in which the aid workers were killed brings into sharp focus the utter hypocrisy and double standard displayed by the US and its Western allies on the Gaza genocide. Before the targeting of the aid workers, the stance of the US and the West towards Israel’s relentless Gaza campaign was blithely insouciant. Similarly, their criticisms of the Netanyahu government were deafeningly muted despite the unspeakable human tragedy wrought on the hapless Palestinians. The grotesque statistics since October 7 cry out for attention: more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 14,500 children; the injured total 77,000; hundreds of thousands have been displaced; 177 UN workers and 70 journalists killed. Indeed, there is no disputing that the majority of Palestinians killed were innocents. Was their massacre simply a “grave mistake” too? Or intentional? Sadly, all these deaths have gone unremarked, shamefully though, as far as Western governments are concerned. All faceless and nameless in life and in death. Simply nonentities that keep piling up in the graveyards of this war. Were their lives not worth as much as the seven WCK aid workers? In the ensuing days following their deaths, the world got to know each of them intimately: their nationality (six of them were Westerners), their visages, their families, their sacrifices, their selflessness, thanks to the widespread reportage of the assault, especially in Western media. Contrastingly, the carnage of Palestinians hardly made a dent on the collective consciousness in the corridors of power in the West.
Then came the explosive news of the Israel’s blasting of the WCK aid convoy. In chorus-like fashion, the US and the West erupted, lashing Israel for such a vile attack. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was “shocked, saddened and appalled”, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was “absolutely unacceptable.” Neither did US President Biden hold back, declaring that he was “outraged and heart-broken”. What outrage? Isn’t it too little, too late for him to excoriate Washington’s staunchest ally on its prosecution of the Gaza war which has exacted such an astronomical toll on the civilian population? But the US will not emerge unscathed from this war; instead, it will end up as the biggest loser. Israel will come a close second. Perhaps, even the remaining sympathy accruing to Israel as a result of the Holocaust may have been expended by the Netanyahu government’s seeming thirst for the vengeful annihilation of the Gazan population.
Indeed, the fallout from the attack on the WCK convoy will diminish the stature and standing of the US as well as the West in the eyes of the world with long-term geopolitical ramifications to boot. Their hypocrisy and double standard in the Gaza war will exact from them the highest price. After all, it is the US which has wittingly facilitated this unremitting Gaza genocide by continuing to supply bombs, bullets, and funds to Israel to prosecute the war. Where is its supposed leverage vis-a-vis Israel? When Biden failed to prevail upon Netanyahu to relent on its victory-at-all-cost campaign, the US resorted to airdropping food to starving Palestinians and even going as far as building a port to bring in supplies to stave off famine. Was its conscience pricked? But this risible humanitarian gesture is negated by its continuing to fuel Israel’s military machine – a situation altogether farcical. A case of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds? So, when the seven aid workers lost their lives, Biden seized the opportunity to ratchet up the pressure on Netanyahu’s government to contain the fallout on civilian casualties knowing that the war has inevitable consequences for America’s image and credibility. However, the impotence of Washington in prevailing upon Netanyahu to change tack is matched by the latter’s dogged defiance. When Biden cuts such a pathetic figure in failing to persuade Netanyahu to relent on his unswerving determination to pulverise Gaza and every soul there, he knows that Washington’s reputation as a global power and a champion of humanitarian values is at stake, while its Middle East influence is hitting rock bottom. The latest indication of Washington’s waning influence on Tel Aviv came from US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who in his latest toing and froing from Tel Aviv, said this week that he could not prise out of Netanyahu the exact date of Israel’s offensive on Rafah city in south Gaza with its huge concentration of displaced Palestinians, except that it will be sometime “next week”. That US opposition to the impending offensive has been completely ignored by Netanyahu speaks volumes of Washington’s helplessness in reining in Israel.
As Washington becomes increasingly wary that its staunchest Middle-East ally has become a geopolitical millstone round its neck, its hardening stance towards Israel can be seen as entirely self-serving. Biden is not oblivious to the fact as the Gaza war drags on, America’s reputation will suffer irreparably. Washington can hardly afford this collateral damage in a region contested by other powers for influence. On Israel’s part, it is becoming increasingly isolated worldwide as it prosecutes the Gaza war with such ruthless efficiency and detachment. This has whittled down the groundswell of sympathy that accrued to Israel following the October 7 Hamas massacre of its citizens.
All told, it takes the demise of the seven WCK aid workers and the so-called “grave mistake” of the Israeli Defence Force to bring about a perceived change in Western attitude towards Israel’s intransigence. Their martyrdom may yet buy some respite for the Palestinians as the world ponders how this ineffable human tragedy can be resolved.