Israel insists on a scorched-earth policy in Gaza (Anatolia)

Five weeks into its war on the Gaza Strip, Israel seems to be clinging to a scorched-earth policy, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promises to defy the world if necessary.

With this phrase, Alia Brahimi, a researcher at the Atlantic Council in Washington, began her article in the American magazine Newsweek, noting the extent of the suffering experienced by the residents of the Strip.

Brahimi, a specialist in Middle East and North Africa politics, says that beyond the serious and ongoing threat of Israeli bombardment of Gaza, parents can no longer find milk for their young children, mothers are forced to drag their babies to safety without access to clean water, and dogs eat the bodies of martyrs.

In light of the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding before our eyes, some of the dangers are not limited to the people of Gaza or Palestine.

Brahimi believes that Israel's devastation of Gaza is unlikely to provide real security for Israelis and Jews.

Then there are non-Israeli Jews around the world who do not want to have anything to do with what some have termed "genocide," yet they must deal with the vision of the Israeli leadership that Israel is the "nation-state of the Jewish people."

Cycles of violence will not stop

Israelis themselves will soon have to face new waves of Palestinians adopting a harder line toward Israel and the occupation, as an inevitable consequence of the staggering numbers of children "deliberately" killed in repeated Israeli raids, according to a Newsweek article.

Israelis as a society – and Brahimi is still talking about – must also deal with the moral damage caused by their government's campaign in Gaza, especially the overt racism and dehumanization that accompanies it, and its long-term consequences.

In addition, they must deal with Israel's sweeping isolation from the many Arab peoples and governments with which it shares the region.


The region faces threat

Brahimi warns that this violence is pushing the region itself to the brink of a deep slope, and that the unhealed wounds of "hypocrisy, occupation, humiliation and the killing of civilians", whether in times of war or peace, are the cornerstone of most, if not all, ideologies and "extremist" Islamist movements.

The author criticized the comparison between Hamas and the Islamic State, arguing that Hamas is ultimately a regionally based ethno-national group that emerged from the Independence movement, participated in elections and does not refuse to negotiate, meaning that the path to disarming and uprooting Hamas is essentially political and can only be achieved through partnership with the Palestinian people.

More than the sins of Israeli aggression, the silence and complicity of the leaders of major democracies may be remembered as a key turning point in the global democracy crisis.

She drew attention to US President Joe Biden's analogy of Israelis to Ukrainians, to the distortion of public sympathy for besieged civilians, and to racial hatred by the deposed British Home Secretary, noting that the Gaza war has urgently asked democratic governments questions about the consistency and strength of Western values.

The glitter of liberalism fades

Violating international humanitarian law, human dignity and basic morals in Gaza degrades all of us. The same is the case with the dishonesty in attempts to hide the reality of the occupation as the strategic context and the ultimate driver of all this bloodshed.

By demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, negotiating the release of "desperate" prisoners, and then sponsoring a well-intentioned political process to end the Israeli occupation, Western leaders will protect Israel, the Palestinians, and the rights of all civilians trapped in future wars, and safeguard the fading global liberal order.

Source: Newsweek