The starvation and genocide in Gaza and Israel’s unconstrained colonial and imperial arrogance have reached a point beyond redemption. Benjamin Netanyahu’s endless wars now bleed into Syria, attacking the heart of Damascus with absolute impunity. Meanwhile, the United States, supposedly the world’s leading superpower, remains tragically mired in subservience to successive Israeli governments, often sacrificing core American values and international law.
Nowhere has this dynamic been clearer than in Gaza over the past 21 months. Former President Joe Biden, alongside his Israeli-first Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, have repeatedly enabled Netanyahu’s most extremist and racist tendencies. One of the most absurd manifestations of this complicity was the construction of a floating pier, allegedly to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. In reality, it was a PR stunt – a Netanyahu-devised diversionary tactic to deflect international diplomatic pressure and give Israel diplomatic cover while maintaining a genocidal starvation siege.
The Biden administration embraced the scam, and funded the pier with hundreds of millions of US taxpayer dollars. It was a farcical undertaking from the start: a $320 million structure that took months of planning and military coordination. By the time the pier became marginally functional – enough days for a few photo ops – it was soon swallowed by the Mediterranean waves. The pier wasn’t just an engineering failure. It was a moral disgrace.
The floating pier was a symbol of Biden’s impotence and Netanyahu’s mastery of deception. It gave Washington the appearance of trying to help without actually helping. It let Israel continue its starvation siege while numbing the world conscious. Instead of demanding Israel open land crossings, the US chose optics over substance, willingly participating in a theatrical stage-managed sideshow.
And just when you thought the pageantry couldn’t get more cynical, Israel came up with another cunning scheme: the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). After four more months of starvation and bombardment, the solution was another distraction – designed by Israel, paid for, again, by the US, aimed not at ending the blockade, but at neutralizing international pressure. Unsurprisingly, Trump like Biden with the pier, bowed to the same servitude to Israel.
Following three months in operation, GHF has turned out to be another Israeli lethal treachery. Instead of serving as a lifeline, GHF’s lines have transformed into a deadly Russian-Rollet. According to the UN almost 900 Palestinians, or 300 per month – desperate mothers, fathers, and children – have been murdered seeking aid. Starvation awaited them at home; Israeli bullets met them at distribution centers. The very military that engineered the famine is gunning down its victims at the gates of so-called salvation.
Excerpted: ‘From Auschwitz to Gaza’s “Humanitarian City”’. Courtesy: Counterpunch.org
