Fantasy land

We have now entered the comforting world of delusions. Earlier this week, 14 members of the United Nations Security Council agreed on a resolution that called for an “immediate ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas and the “unconditional release of all hostages”.

The US delegation abstained, allowing the resolution to pass. Applause broke out in the chamber. It was a surreal, farcical scene, punctuated by an expression of self-congratulatory delusion that something tangible had finally been achieved to end Israel’s killing rage in the shattered, dystopian remnants of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

These delighted diplomats – many of them inconsequential underlings who devote careers to doing what they are told to do by presidents and prime ministers – seemed to have forgotten that up until this latest vote they were instructed to oppose a host of other ceasefire resolutions.

They also appear to have forgotten that the presidents and prime ministers who appointed them UN ambassadors rushed to Tel Aviv not too long ago and embraced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and advised him, in effect, to do whatever he wanted to Palestinians in Gaza and beyond, by whatever means he wanted to, for as long as he wanted to.

Now, some of these same presidents and prime ministers apparently want Netanyahu to stop doing what he has been doing with their unequivocal blessing, and they want you and me to believe them.

It is a farce and a delusion. Even if there was a sliver of sincerity in their craven volte-face, it is far too late. They championed Netanyahu. He could erase Gaza and its people – with their approval or not.

Netanyahu and his fanatical cabinet – who have long claimed that the UN is a cesspool of anti-Semitism – are not going to be dissuaded from achieving their aim of turning Gaza into dust and memory by a resolution that they consider as disposable as toilet paper.

Anyone, in any quarter, who believes otherwise is delusional, too.Remember, in January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which arguably enjoys a touch more gravitas than the UN Security Council – a spent, feckless anachronism – ordered Israel, almost unanimously, to stop doing what it is doing to Palestinians in Gaza given that it amounts “plausibly” to genocide.

Israel’s response has been to keep doing what it has been doing in Gaza every ruthless day since the ICJ issued its interim ruling. If anything, Israel’s killing rage has surged in its cruelty and ferocity. So, on Thursday, the judges issued “new provisional measures” amid “the worsening conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza”.

The ICJ acknowledged the obvious: Israel has, by deliberate design, engineered a famine in Gaza meant to starve Palestinians into submission and capitulation.

The ICJ has demanded that Israel, as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, allow food, water, fuel and the other stuff of life to enter Gaza “unhindered” at “land crossings” more often. It is another delusion. Israel will reject the “new provisional measures” just as it rejected wholesale the ICJ’s “interim ruling”.

The ICJ’s answer for Israel’s preening arrogance and obstinance is as pathetic as the court itself: “ … the State of Israel shall submit a report to the Court on all measures … within one month.” Yes, that ought to get Netanyahu and company to abandon their “plausibly” genocidal destruction of Gaza tout de suite.

Meanwhile, back at the UN Security Council, the US delegation gave quite the vacuous performance that was hailed by a batch of hyperbolic Western commentators as evidence that US President Joe Biden has lost patience with the recalcitrant Israeli government.

Excerpted: ‘Delusions at the United Nations’.

Courtesy: Aljazeera.com