{"id":1407008,"date":"2023-12-22T06:51:43","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T06:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=308419"},"modified":"2023-12-22T06:51:43","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T06:51:43","slug":"why-we-need-a-ceasefire-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/12\/22\/why-we-need-a-ceasefire-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Need a Ceasefire Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Thousands

Thousands of marchers gather in Philadelphia to support peace and Palestinian rights. Photo by Joe Piette.<\/p><\/div>\n

There is no military solution \u2014 this was true in Afghanistan and Iraq and it is true in Gaza. It is not possible to destroy Hamas militarily.<\/b><\/p>\n

Going to war against a small group of militants doesn\u2019t work \u2014 with nearly 20,000 Palestinians killed, it still appears as of this writing that Israeli forces haven\u2019t killed any top leaders of Hamas. Such military action only breeds greater resistance.<\/p>\n

Hamas isn\u2019t only made up of its military wing. It has a political wing that carries out Islamic education, social welfare, and other functions. And while its religious focus is not particularly popular, it is perceived by Palestinians across Gaza as the only Palestinian force standing up to Israeli occupation, apartheid, and the 17 years of siege Israel has imposed on Gaza since before October 7.<\/p>\n

Destroying Hamas would require the destruction or expulsion of much of the population of Gaza (and even then, the group and its ideas would likely continue in exile).<\/p>\n

Getting the Israeli hostages returned is hugely important \u2014 and cannot be achieved while the bombing assault continues.<\/b><\/p>\n

Without a ceasefire, there is no way to keep hostages safe to safely transfer them to Red Cross (ICRC) custody for return home once Israel returns to Qatar-based negotiations over terms of the hostage exchange.<\/p>\n

As long as bombardment continues and the IDF continues its ground invasion of Gaza, the risk of more hostages being killed (like the three hostages killed mistakenly by the IDF on December 15) rises.<\/p>\n

Israelis are increasingly viewing the hostage families as the moral center of their country, and many of the families are demanding a ceasefire.<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The families understand that the safety of their loved ones can only be maintained if the bombing and ground assaults are ended.<\/p>\n

The actions of Hamas and other militants against civilians on October 7 constituted terrible violations of international humanitarian law, and the perpetrators should be held to account. All those violating international law should be held to account.<\/p>\n

But the actual work of investigating international law violations, and the identification and locating of perpetrators, cannot go forward while the constant bombing raids and tank battles continue against a densely-packed civilian population of over 2 million. That work can only happen once a ceasefire is in place.<\/p>\n

The vital concept of \u201cholding perpetrators to account,\u201d in this case Hamas and other militants, does not mean international law allows for the collective punishment of millions of people, half of them children. It can\u2019t justify killing thousands of civilians and destroying cities, towns, refugee camps, and the civilian infrastructure therein.<\/p>\n

What President Biden and so many others have rightly called \u201cindiscriminate bombing\u201d has turned Israel into a pariah state, completely isolated in the region, in Europe, across the Global South, and in the United Nations.<\/b><\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s numerous violations against Palestinian civilians in Gaza have earned Israel a stigma in the international community that will endure well beyond the end of this particular set of military operations. Initial sympathy with Israelis after the October 7 attacks has been largely exhausted and conversation about that day eclipsed, as Israel\u2019s widespread and disproportionate destruction in Gaza and refusal to yield to international pressure for a ceasefire have come to the fore.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military actions have dashed plans for its own international relations efforts, particularly the expansion of the Abraham Accords, other normalization agreements with regional states, and ensuring European support for Israel through the Association Accord and beyond.<\/p>\n

Although there\u2019s a growing recognition that the current Israeli government is extreme and includes authoritarian and self-defined fascist elements in high positions of power, that doesn\u2019t mean that governments and people around the world think that a mere change of leadership in the Knesset will reverse Israel\u2019s commitment to continue this assault. The leadership of the political opposition in Israel includes numerous military leaders who were responsible for many earlier assaults on Gaza based on the strategy of \u201cmowing the grass\u201d to justify sequential indiscriminate attacks on the Gaza Strip. (As the Washington Post<\/i><\/a> defined it, \u201cThe phrase implies the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and their supply of crude but effective homemade weapons are like weeds that need to be cut back.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The U.S. is more isolated than at any time at least in the past 20 years and is similarly seen as a pariah around the world.<\/b><\/p>\n

Washington \u2014 and the Biden administration in particular \u2014 is increasingly seen as enabling, funding, and arming an Israeli assault shaped by violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and more.<\/p>\n

Statements from Biden and Congressional leaders that \u201cwe stand with Israel\u201d and that \u201cwe always will have Israel\u2019s back\u201d \u2014 combined with the continuing U.S. provision of seemingly unlimited amounts of weapons known to be used to attack Gaza \u2014 undermine U.S. claims of concern about civilians, support for a supposed \u201ctwo-state solution,\u201d or commitment to international law.<\/p>\n

When the U.S. cast its veto on December 8 to stop the UN Security Council from calling for an immediate ceasefire, even the UK did not support Washington. When the same resolution went to the veto-free General Assembly five days later, the U.S. and Israel stood virtually alone, with 153 countries supporting the resolution and only 8 others voting no with Washington and Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

The General Assembly votes are often dismissed as \u201cnon-binding.\u201d But this vote was taken in an Emergency Session under the UN\u2019s \u201cUniting for Peace\u201d resolution of 1951, which under U.S. sponsorship allows the Assembly to consider and vote on peace and security issues generally limited to Security Council consideration. Under those conditions General Assembly resolutions are widely considered not only indications of global opinion, but arguably binding as well.<\/p>\n

On this issue, the Biden administration is isolated across the country. It\u2019s showing itself to be farther out of touch with the most active and engaged sectors of its political base than ever before \u2014 and the level of passion in the response of Biden\u2019s base is higher than for any other foreign policy issue without U.S. troops in harm\u2019s way.<\/b><\/p>\n

The statistics are clear: 66 percent of the American people<\/a> want an immediate ceasefire, including 80 percent of Democrats. Protests in favor of a ceasefire are continuing across the country and include Jewish organizations, unions, city councils, elected officials at all levels, churches of all denominations, and many others.<\/p>\n

There is also an unprecedented outpouring of public and private, named and anonymous, opposition from a wide swathe of federal workers \u2014 from White House interns to congressional staff to State Department and USAID workers \u2014 all refusing to remain silent as the U.S. aids and abets the Israeli assault.<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s direct financial and military support for Israel\u2019s assault undermines its claims of commitment to the rule of law \u2014 and especially its claimed commitment to diplomacy.<\/b><\/p>\n

The administration\u2019s efforts to persuade Congress to send Israel an additional $14 billion in cash and weapons on top of this year\u2019s previous $3.8 billion undermine any claims that the U.S. government requests for a changed Israeli strategy are serious. The recent announcement of a U.S. \u201cemergency\u201d sale to Israel of $106 million worth of replacement tank armaments and more further undermines that claim.<\/p>\n

The Biden administration\u2019s increasingly public requests for Israel to pay more attention to civilian safety have so far failed \u2014 and will continue to fail so long as Israel understands there will be no consequences for saying no.<\/b><\/p>\n

Those \u201crequests\u201d must be turned into requirements, linked to direct changes in actual U.S. policy \u2014 such as conditioning all aid to Israel on ending its violations of the Geneva Conventions and other parts of international humanitarian law, and ending the longstanding U.S. protection of Israeli officials from accountability in the International Criminal Court. Otherwise polite requests will continue to fail.<\/p>\n

Regardless of Washington\u2019s public requests for Israel to scale back its ground invasion in favor of Special Forces operations, what most people across the U.S. see is the continuation of President Biden\u2019s bear-hug diplomacy, shaped by \u201cwe have Israel\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever changes happen or don\u2019t happen in the tactics of the IDF\u2019s ground invasion of Gaza, it is not possible to end or even significantly reduce the direct killing of civilians as long as the bombardment continues.<\/b><\/p>\n

Gaza was one of the most crowded pieces of land on earth before this most recent assault. Now almost all of the 2.3 million people imprisoned in the Strip have been forced to move to the southern third of the territory. That means the lack of water, sanitation, electricity, fuel, food, medicine are all much more drastic and urgent. According to the World Food Program, 90 percent of Gazan families are now hungry and half the population is starving<\/a>, while diseases are spreading due to the lack of clean water and sanitation as well as shelter.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s bombing has destroyed about 60 percent of all housing in the Strip, and most of the rest is severely damaged. Israel has also targeted UN facilities, schools, hospitals, clinics, mosques, and churches \u2014 all of which had been serving as overcrowded shelters for the 85 percent of Gazans forced from their homes.<\/p>\n

Like the U.S. response to 9\/11, Israel\u2019s military assault is rooted in vengeance (\u201cdestroy Hamas\u201d), not justice (\u201cfind and bring to account the perpetrators of October 7\u201d). And that assault is violating numerous parts of international humanitarian law.<\/b><\/p>\n

All perpetrators of war crimes should be brought to justice. The fact that the October 7 attacks on civilians violated international law does not give Israel the right under international law to launch a full-scale military assault on the entire population of Gaza. Israel\u2019s response has violated provisions of international law including:<\/p>\n

Distinction<\/b>: the requirement to distinguish between civilians and combatants.<\/p>\n

Collective punishment<\/b>: a complete prohibition on attacking anyone not specifically responsible for an act of war or violence.<\/p>\n

Proportionality: <\/b>the requirement that any attack on a civilian person or civilian target deemed necessary because of urgent and specific military necessity must be limited as much as possible, and any civilian casualties must be proportional to that specific military necessity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Israel\u2019s violations include targeting hospitals and medical personnel and firing on people attempting to surrender, including the three shirtless Israeli hostages holding a white flag and shouting for help in Hebrew.<\/p>\n

There are also specific and absolute obligations of an occupying power (such as Israel in regards to Gaza) to provide the basics for survival including water, food, medical care, fuel, and shelter. So the expanded siege imposed after October 7,, on top of the Israeli-imposed siege underway since 2007, represents another set of violations.<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s acquiescence to Israel\u2019s continuing violations of international humanitarian law makes the U.S. complicit in those crimes.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The U.S. failure even to acknowledge Israel\u2019s violations sends a message to governments and people around the world that the much-vaunted U.S. commitment to international law is conditional on whether the government violating international law is deemed a close ally or a potential opponent.<\/p>\n

According to many influential scholars of genocide studies<\/a>, Israeli violations may be approaching specific violations of the Genocide Convention. As a signatory to the Convention, the U.S. is obligated<\/a> to do whatever is in its power to prevent a potential genocide. But instead of using its influence to stop these dangerous Israeli actions, the U.S. is enabling them by sending money and arms without conditions, which would certainly violate the Convention\u2019s specific crime of complicity in genocide.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, U.S. support for an immediate ceasefire would go a long way toward meeting Washington\u2019s obligation to prevent genocide.<\/p>\n

The post Why We Need a Ceasefire Now<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no military solution \u2014 this was true in Afghanistan and Iraq and it is true in Gaza. It is not possible to destroy Hamas militarily. Going to war against a small group of militants doesn\u2019t work \u2014 with nearly 20,000 Palestinians killed, it still appears as of this writing that Israeli forces haven\u2019t More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Why We Need a Ceasefire Now<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2874,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407008"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1407008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1407009,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407008\/revisions\/1407009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1407008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1407008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1407008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}