My take on the Gaza situation is “complicated,” to say the least.
I cannot reconcile what Israel is doing in Gaza with any serious application of historical notions of “just war theory” from a traditional philosophical, moral, or religious perspective. Nor can I reconcile it with modern laws of nations/laws of war. I would ultimately have to agree with Rev. Chuck Baldwin, a fundamental Baptist pastor who was the Constitution Party presidential candidate some years back, on this question.
I tend to agree with John Mearsheimer that South Africa has made a credible case against Israel regarding charges of war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.
Also, I would concur with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson that Israel is a net liability concerning foreign policy, national security, and fiscal outlays.
Israel has way too much influence in the West, especially in the USA, to the point of contributing to serious security threats, including terrorist blowback, refugee crises, unnecessary entanglement in Middle Eastern conflicts, and pushing world opinion away from the West toward the Eastern powers. The influence of the various “Israel lobbies” in the West would preferably be curbed.
In my opinion, the circumstantial evidence supports the claim that Israel’s long-term goal is to continue to expand until Israel controls all the territory they consider to be the biblical “promised land” and/or the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah, which means war with the surrounding countries. And they want the USA and the wider West to fight on their behalf. Such a conflict would be at least as horrific as the Vietnam War and probably worse. See this.
I regard Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza in the same way as many other examples of totalitarian, autocratic, or “Third World” rogue states that have engaged in ethnic cleansing, war crimes, or enforced starvation, etc. Examples include Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Yemen, Myanmar against the Rohingya, China in the Xinjiang province, Saddam in the Kurdish territories, purges by the Communist regimes of Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War, massacres by Suharto’s Indonesia in East Timor in the 1970s, death squad regimes in Central America during the 1980s, atrocities committed by various African states, and other examples too numerous to mention. It’s not a matter of being pro- or anti-Western. Some of these regimes were anti-Western, and some were Western client states at the time.
Whether anyone agrees with my outlook or not, what is fascinating is the impact of Gaza on US domestic politics. Many pre-existing divisions within our own power elite have been exacerbated and made more visible as a result of Gaza. I’m strongly influenced by Carl Oglesby’s thesis from the 1970s that the “Yankee-Cowboy war” (the northeastern establishment versus the Sunbelt) is the major dividing line among the US “ruling class.” The Sunbelt wing is very pro-Israel because it includes arms manufacturers that generate huge profits from sales to Israel underwritten by US taxpayers. The evangelicals, most of whom are dispensationalist Christian Zionists, are a major “Sunbelt” constituency. “Right-wing Zionists” (e.g., the Adelsons) are major GOP donors.
The northeastern wing (whose home is now firmly in the Democratic Party) is a much larger coalition and has many more interests to appease. Certainly, this includes centrist/liberal/left-wing Zionists or pro-Israel interests. But it also includes rising elites among minorities, including Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Americans who are pro-Palestine for obvious reasons. Additionally, the Democratic coalition includes non-white people who regard Israel as white racist or European colonialist state, along with younger people, including younger Jews, who share such views as well. There is also a further left wing of the power elite (e.g., Soros types) that is ultra-globalist and ultra-multilateralist and would be critical of Israel on anti-nationalist grounds. The mainstream technocratic progressive-liberal and corporate-managerial Democrats seem to be either pro-Israel, moderately pro-Israel, or at least trying to balance contending views in their own coalition. However, the most left-wing Democrats and certainly the left of Democrats are obviously pro-Palestinian. What we have here is a major fracture in the PC/Woke coalition.
A recent article from Tablet about the campus protestors and their backers is interesting.
It is likely that the power elite are highly divided on how to respond to the protests. Some sectors of the ruling class likely wish to co-opt the protests to ensure the relevant interests remain under the Democratic umbrella and don’t start voting for third parties like the Greens. Given the history of these things (e.g. the legacy of programs like COINTELPRO), it may be that the intelligence services are encouraging the more aggressive protests to provoke a backlash, leading to crackdowns on civil liberties like the implementation of “hate speech” laws. Other elite interests may be trying to fuel both sides of the conflict to advance a “divide and conquer” strategy. The liberal Rockefeller wing of the ruling class is notorious for this, along with its allies in the intelligence services.
The current situation is reminiscent of 1968, with Gaza being Vietnam, Biden being LBJ, and the Democratic Party even holding its convention in Chicago this year. So I guess the question is whether Trump will play the role of Nixon?
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