The Palestinian “Tet Offensive” – 1 – Washington’s Response

Palestine chewed up

__________

Instead of pushing for a ceasefire, President Biden is pushing warships towards that tormented area. As usual, U.S. taxpayers will pay the bill. Who is Joe Biden representing and what is he standing for in terms of the UN charter, international law and U.S. national interests?

Ralph Nader on X (former Twitter)

__________

Hello

This blog entry is in response to numerous requests from many friends to give my take on the Palestinian military offensive from Gaza into parts of Southern Israel. It is impossible for me to respond to all the requests personally. Indeed, if I had my druthers, I’d be waiting another week or so to comment. Consider what follows as preliminary comments. Nor will these entries be long and complex. It is difficult making sense of the flood of news bombarding us these days, to tease out fact from fiction, misinformation. as so many developments are happening so quickly it can be confusing.

Still the main outlines of the current situation are taking shape.

My goal in this series is to provide just a few levers for folks to try to see through the media haze and hysteria surrounding these events. I will not write every day but every 3,4 days depending on the developments.

Keep in mind that historically Middle East Wars in which Israel has been involved  don’t last very long, rarely more than a month. They are limited military operations meant to shift the balance of power to enable negotiations to take place in a more favorable light for whomever takes the offensive. I do not see the current conflict in any different a light.

Time to move from the battlefield to the negotiating table as soon as possible so that the fighting does not spread – which it might – and that more civilians on all sides do not unduly suffer the consequences of war

In this brief commentary I want to look mostly at what the Biden Administration is up to. I will offer, for those interested, a more in depth analysis of the situation on the ground in further commentaries over the coming period. For now I limit my remarks to a few aspects of how Washington is responding to the current situation as there has been little attention shown in the mainstream media to Israel’s silent – and not so silent – partner. Keep in mind the long, detailed bipartisan support that the United States has offered Israel and, its rhetoric aside, its stubborn opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state, Palestinian national rights, glaringly evident in the Biden Administration’s response to the current military exchange.

I also understand, that, as in so many other instances, my take “goes against the grain” of what is being reported in the mainstream media, and from the Biden Administration. Let me start off by citing what needs to be done, even in the heat of battle, to cool off the situation here in the United States. We are not in Gaza or Israel but in Denver, Detroit, Houston, Atlanta. What are U.S. responsibilities in bringing the fighting to a close? Can out of the bloodshed currently being shed a path to peace, peace with justice be found?

1. For those of us in the United States the most important thing that can be done: call on our elected officials, the Biden Administration to publicly call for an immediate ceasefire. It is to be noted that the State Department website did have such a demand but eliminated it after Netanyahu spoke with Biden Failing to call for a ceasefire translates into giving Netanyahu “a green light” to bomb Gaza with impunity and the intensify the repression against Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israel proper. The bombing of Gaza has no military value whatsoever; it is revenge bombing, targeting civilians. Besides, bombing civilian targets in Gaza will do little-to-nothing to weaken or defeat the Palestinian military units fighting Israel nor shift the changing balance of power on the ground.

2. Tied to calling for a ceasefire, those working for peace should oppose the transfer of military hardware from the United States and Israel and for the withdrawal of the 12 ship U.S. Armada currently sailing towards the Israeli coast. Such actions – besides frankly being as useless as sending weaponry to the Kiev government in Ukraine – only increase, rather than reduce tensions. Unable to use the threat of nuclear weapons – after all, U.S. allies besides its adversaries would be incinerated – the Biden Administration has chosen to send the USS Gerald R. Ford, a $13 billion high tech boondoggle as a show of support for Israel. Now it appears that a second carrier group that includes the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is now headed for the Eastern Mediterranean. You would think the one million Palestinians in Gaza are some kind of superpower requiring such a bloated show of force. As Washington’s ability to influence the situation on the ground erodes, it flexes its muscles militarily.

Might play well at home but no one is in the least impressed in the Middle East, that the Israelis know it is more symbolic than real and the Palestinians understand that it is little more than “a paper tiger”.  I am convinced that the presence of this fleet is meant to intimidate not only Gazan Palestinians but Hezbollah in Lebanon, a warning that should Hezbollah engage Israeli forces in Northern Israel that the fleet will bomb their positions in Lebanon. I would be surprised if Hezbollah is intimidated in the least. The political stupidity of such a move cannot be exaggerated. In today’s world of high tech missile and drone warfare, the USS Gerald R. Ford is more of a rather easy target than an offensive weapon in the hands of Washington and Tel Aviv. Furthermore, this “show of force” is an attempt to avoid what Washington is most reluctant to do: place U.S. troops on the ground in Israel to fight the Gazan Palestinians. Such a move can only, in the current environment, only inflame the entire region that much more in its already intense anti-American sentiment. Finally it renders any claim by Washington to be an unbiased mediator in any future round of negotiations null and void.

As the recent Jewish Voice for Peace message notes:

“Members of Congress are beating the drums of war and we need you to act immediately: https://jvpaction.org/noweapons1

“As we hold the devastating pain of the last few days, we are terrified. The U.S. government is rushing to send

more weapons to the Israeli military as it wreaks devastation on over the 2 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza.We must act together to demand the U.S. immediately de-escalate to prevent further loss of life after 75 years of Israeli military occupation and apartheid. https://jvpaction.org/noweapons1

Summing Up … At the moment the best concrete steps that can be taken for peace are

1. Support an immediate ceasefire

2. Oppose sending military and financial aid to Israel; return the USS Gerald R. Ford to its United States and make it into a museum for the uselessness of war, kind of a modern American version of the Swedish battleship Vasa (which sank in 1628).

(In the next blog entry: Geopolitical consequences of the Palestinian military offensive into Southern Israel [in a few days]).

Friends Committee on National Legislation calls for a ceasefire

Comments policy: I welcome comments supportive, critical whatever but with certain caveats. I will not post personal attacks

Will the USS Gerald R. Ford’s fate be the same as the Vasa’s?

of a non political nature, irrelevant remarks that have nothing to do with the posting. In a similar light – If you have questions regarding this blog entry or other specific questions concerning the current conflict, you can either put them in the comments section or send them to me by email. I will do my best to respond to them when possible. (robertjprince@gmail.com)

___________________

Palestine Tet Offensive – 2 – The Hezbollah Factor