Category Archives: Palestine

Gaza, Israel, Palestine, United Nations, United States

Donald Trump’s Board of Peace

BOARD OF PEACE

Intro: This newly created body was supposed to give Gaza a future, but the US president is using it to attack and undermine the UN, international law, and multilateralism

Just a cursory glance at the logo of the Board of Peace tells you all you need to know. It is the globe and laurels of the UN – only gold, because this is Donald Trump’s initiative, and shows little of the world beyond North America.

The charter of the board, formally launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos just days ago, suggests that this is less America First than Trump Always. It is not “the US president” but Mr Trump himself who is named as chair, for as long as he wishes. He can choose his successor, decide the agenda, and axe whomever he chooses – even if they have down-paid the $1bn demanded for permanent membership. It is the institutional expression of his belief that he is bound not by law but “my own morality, my own mind”.

The body was born and constituted through subterfuge: the UN security council authorised a board of peace chaired by Mr Trump to oversee administration and reconstruction in Gaza. There were misgivings about the colonialist model and the free rein given to the US president, as well as the vagueness of the resolution. A desire to ensure his buy-in to a ceasefire won its passage.

What the US has created is something entirely different. The board’s charter does not mention Gaza once. A man increasingly fixated on landgrabs now heads an “international peace-building body” to replace “failed” institutions. To what extent this is a serious attempt to encroach upon, if not supplant, the UN, versus a symbolic declaration of power and creation of another forum for polishing his ego, is unclear. The early signs indicate that Mr Trump has overplayed his hand again. His claim that Vladimir Putin had joined (Putin disagreed) made it easier for the UK and others to back away from an offer they were not supposed to refuse.

Benjamin Netanyahu, another leader indicted by the International Criminal Court, will sit alongside stakeholders from Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Hungary. Eight Muslim-majority states, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey have together agreed to join. Traditional US allies, however, are conspicuously absent. It remains unclear how others can make themselves heard on Gaza’s future if they rightly shun a deliberate attempt to undermine multilateral institutions. But they must. The already difficult, almost intractable task of winning peace in Gaza and justice for Palestinians has been further compromised. With an executive board – featuring Tony Blair and Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – and a Gaza executive board containing regional officials, Palestinians are relegated to a fourth-tier technocratic committee.

For 2 million Palestinians enduring a brutal winter amid the ruins and ongoing bombardment by the Israeli Defence Force, the presentation of plans for the next 100 days by Palestinian and US officials suggests that the administration has not totally lost interest. Mr Kushner’s ambitious proposals will displease those on the Israeli right who want to displace Palestinians entirely. Increases in aid, the reopening of the Rafah crossing, repairs to essential infrastructure, and the reconstruction of homes and hospitals are all desperately needed. But what will materialise and on what terms?

Mr Trump’s real-estate fixation and desire to be applauded as a peacemaker may be the best hope of keeping him engaged, and reducing Netanyahu’s sway. Nonetheless, the rights of Palestinians are most certainly being treated as an irrelevant detail. That cannot stand. Mr Trump has contempt for international law; others must continue to strive to defend it.

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Aid, Foreign Policy, Gaza, Israel, Middle East, Palestine

Decisive action is needed in Gaza if it is to be saved

ISRAEL-GAZA WAR

Intro: Palestinians need deeds, not words

THE UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher has signalled his fears that thousands of babies are at imminent risk of death in Gaza unless aid reaches them. Inconceivable, is that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, is concerned that foreign politicians could now see too many graphic pictures of Palestinian children in dire need of aid and is doing everything in his power to censor and suppress such images.

Two months after all supplies were cut off, the Israeli government denies the obvious truth: that Gaza is on the brink of famine. A few days ago, Netanyahu announced that “minimal” aid deliveries would restart, adding that his country’s “greatest friends in the world” had told him that they could not “accept images of… mass hunger”. His entirely cynical response saw a handful of aid trucks permitted to cross into Gaza. Reportedly, 100 aid deliveries a day will now be permitted, but even if that happens that is still grotesquely inadequate given the vast scale of need. Reaching the most vulnerable will be perilous and extremely dangerous anyway amid Israel’s intensified offensive. Netanyahu vowed that Israel would “take control” of all of Gaza.

His words show both that Western allies can shift Israel’s behaviour, and that they are insufficiently willing to do so. The trickle of supplies is meant to ensure the continuation of a war that enables his political survival, but has killed almost 54,000 Palestinians. That death toll may be a grave underestimate, say many researchers.

Foreign leaders are finally stirring as Palestinians starve and the enormity of Israel’s plan sinks in. Britain, France, and Canada have described conditions in Gaza as intolerable and have threatened further “concrete” actions if Israel’s “egregious” campaign continues and aid restrictions are not lifted. An unrepentant Netanyahu accused the trio of “offering a huge prize” for the murderous Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, which triggered Israel’s assault. In a separate statement, 23 other countries including Australia and New Zealand, condemned the aid blockade and ongoing military offensive. And, the European Commission has launched a review of trade ties with Israel. Relatives of Israeli hostages continue to press for a ceasefire and release deal. Outrage has also broken through in mainstream domestic politics in Israel, with Yair Golan, opposition leader of the Democrats, saying that his country was “on the path to becoming a pariah state”.

The growing condemnation is spurred not only by the grotesque suffering in Gaza and ministers’ explicit calls for ethnic cleansing but also by a growing new gap between Netanyahu and the Trump administration. On his recent Middle East tour, Donald Trump didn’t bother stopping in Israel and repeatedly overrode its interests – on Syria, on the Houthis, and on Iran. He has emboldened the Israeli government’s annihilationist approach and would be happy to see a Gaza without Palestinians, but seems now to be tiring of the conflict. Nonetheless, any perceived shift in approach should not be overstated. Support for Israel endures in Washington even as other governments think again.

Others must match rhetoric with action. The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, condemned the “repellent” words of the extremist minister Bezalel Smotrich. But suspending trade talks is barely a start. The same goes for the sanctioning of settler activists: imposing sanctions on Mr Smotrich and his colleague Itamar Ben-Gvir should have happened some time ago. The UK should follow the example of France, which has said it is “determined” to recognise a Palestinian state. Most of all, it should ensure that no arms, including parts for F-35 fighter jets, continue to reach Israel. Until it does so, it will be complicit in these war crimes.

The US has the ability to stop the slaughter and achieve a desperately needed ceasefire. But pressure from other allies can make a difference. If they care about saving lives – and not just their own optics – it really is time for decisive action.

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Britain, Government, Middle East, Palestine, Politics, Society

Guarding our freedoms in the battle against extremism

BRITAIN

HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE shows that where there is an increase in tension in the Middle East is often followed by an increase in terrorist activity in the West.

It should come as no surprise, then, that our intelligence agencies are warning of an increase in “chatter” on the communication networks used by Islamist fanatics.

The analysis suggests that the situation is as bad now as at any time since the terror outrage of 9/11, 2001.

This is a worrying indication of a rising temperature, and Westerners would do well to heed it. You do not even have to take sides on the long-running Israel-Palestine dispute to recognise that events in Gaza are causing immense distress throughout the Arab and Muslim world – angst which violent zealots will be happy to exploit for their own ends.

Such people swim in the murky waters of extremism, so when there is more extremism, they are safer and stronger.

We must add to this the appalling increase of anti-Semitism in Britain over recent months, including the open support for Hamas expressed by some participants in repeated demonstrations in London and elsewhere.

Enter now the maverick George Galloway, whose undoubted victory in the Rochdale by-election, will be disturbing for many. Mr Galloway’s political win arises directly out of the failure of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party to sort out its deep internal contradictions on anti-Semitism in its ranks.

Sir Keir seemed tough enough on this nasty form of bigotry when it flourished among hard-left supporters of the deposed leader Jeremy Corbyn. But as the behaviour of Labour’s now-disowned official Rochdale candidate, Azhar Ali, showed, Labour’s past wooing of the Muslim vote had made it less vigilant about anti-Semitism in such places. And so, Sir Keir had to abandon his own standard-bearer in what is being perceived as one of the most important by-elections, pre general election.

For the Labour leader, this is a question of competence, leadership, and principle. He claims to have changed his party so often that it is tempting to wonder whether he isn’t all that sure he has done so. Anti-Semitism in the Labour Party remains rampant and rife.

For the nation, however, the election of Mr Galloway is a warning that the civilised majority among all faiths must work a great deal harder to resist the siren calls of militancy and extremism.

The vote for Mr Galloway is understandable, but for voters elsewhere in the country not really excusable in anyone who values civilised debate. The attitude of his Workers Party of Great Britain to Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel places him far from the civilised limits of our political discourse.

There is much in Britain that brings citizens together, whatever our faith and background. But as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has rightly warned: “There are forces here at home trying to tear us apart.” So, how do we beat these forces?

There are Government initiatives, such as the Prevent programme, which try to identify the problem of radicalisation early and to counter it with education.

There is simple vigilance and awareness, though the Government must be careful before imposing any more of the travel restrictions and surveillance that followed 9/11. The long-suffering public have had their liberties and freedoms more than constrained in recent years.

There is the public condemnation of repellent views – and at the very limit, there can be the prosecution of people for bigoted incitements.

Britons should never forget that our nation is founded on freedom. We will not save that freedom by restricting it out of existence.

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