Now Putin has more friends than Israel

 

The war between Israel and Hamas

Israel - loneliest in the world

Wolfgang Hansson

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.

Published 20.59

 
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has fewer friends than Putin today, writes Wolfgang Hansson. Photo: Abir Sultan / AP

Is there any country in the world right now that stands more alone than Israel?

When the United States yesterday released a resolution on a cease-fire in Gaza, a deep gap was created for the only real ally.

Today, Putin has more friends than Netanyahu.

Tragic because Israel was the victim of the Hamas terrorist attack.
 

Quick version

• The United States released a UN resolution on a ceasefire in Gaza, creating a rift with former ally Israel as it continues its warfare.
• Israel is accused by Human Rights Watch and the United Nations of using starvation as a weapon in the war against Hamas, leading to accusations of genocide.
• The decision in the UN Security Council shows that US support for Israel is not undivided and future support may come with conditions.   
  

If you are a news magazine with a weekly publication, you either have to have very good intuition or a little luck when deciding what should be on the cover.

I don't know what prompted The Economist, the respected British weekly magazine, to have a picture of a lone, tattered Israeli flag in a desolate desert landscape on its front page, but the picture heartbreakingly sums up Israel's isolation right now.

The whole world is clamoring for a cease-fire in Gaza so that more aid shipments can reach the hard-suffering civilian population.

Israel refuses.

Until yesterday, they had help from the United States, which vetoed any proposal for a ceasefire in the UN Security Council.

But now President Biden has had enough of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's solo playing. Time and again, in conversations with Netanyahu, Biden has emphasized that Israel must better protect the civilian population and ensure that it receives food, water and medicine. Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken has delivered the same message on every trip to the Middle East.

Netanyahu has refused to listen.

 

US representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield cast her vote during the vote in the UN Security Council. Photo: Craig Ruttle/AP

So instead of a veto, the United States yesterday cast its vote when the Security Council voted 14-0 to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and for Hamas to release its hostage.

In practice, this means passive support from the US for the proposal.

Netanyahu was furious. He ordered the delegation he had just sent to the United States to brief Biden on plans for a military offensive in Rafah, Gaza, to cancel all meetings.

The anger of the Israeli prime minister cannot hide how alone Israel stands on the world stage right now. Not only the country's main ally the United States but also other reliable friends such as Germany, France and Europe as a whole have put their foot down against Israel's warfare.

Everyone still believes that Israel has the right to defend itself, but almost everyone thinks that Israeli warfare has gone beyond all limits.

The Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza, whose statistics even Israel does not really dispute, reports that 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war. Of these, nearly half are women and children.

In recent weeks, the UN and a number of other humanitarian organizations have increasingly warned of a widespread famine in northern Gaza in particular.

Injured Palestinians are taken to al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza after an Israeli attack, March 25. Photo: Ismael Abu Dayyah / AP

Organizations such as Human Rights Watch accuse Israel of using starvation as a weapon in the war against Hamas.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories claimed yesterday that Israel is on the verge of genocide.

South Africa has previously brought Israel before the International Court of Justice in The Hague with charges of genocide.

In fact, today it is difficult to find a country that wholeheartedly supports Israel's warfare.

Vladimir Putin, who is carrying out an unprovoked attack on a neighboring country and is already facing charges of war crimes, has more friends in the world than Israel.

The development is extremely tragic for Israel.

After all, it was the Jewish state that was subjected to a bestial terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7 last year. A deed that shocked not only ordinary Israelis but the whole world.

Israel rode a wave of sympathy and understanding.

That Israel would try to wipe out Hamas was a given.

But despite Israel's crushing military superiority on the battlefield, after six months of intense warfare, it has not succeeded in achieving its goal.

Hamas's leadership appears to be more or less intact. Israel says leader Yahya Sinwar and his close associates are hiding in Gaza's extensive tunnel system. Israel does not venture there for fear of suffering its own losses.

New fighting erupts in areas Israel thought it had cleared of Hamas fighters.

Netanyahu claims that Israel must launch a ground offensive in the border town of Rafah against Egypt to finally defeat Hamas. The US and the rest of the world consider it a lousy idea because over a million Palestinians have taken refuge there at the behest of Israel.

Given the UN resolution, it is difficult to imagine Israel carrying out a large-scale ground attack in Gaza anyway.

Otherwise, it is not particularly likely that neither Hamas nor Israel will comply with the Security Council's decision.

But the Security Council decision is an indication that US support for Israel is no longer absolute. There is an outer limit.

The next watershed will be if the US imposes conditions on continuing to send weapons to Israel.