Senior US, Egyptian and Qatari officials, along with others from the region and other parts of the world, have been exerting massive mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire between the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian resistance.
As the brutal Israeli onslaught against the Palestinians in Gaza has entered its eleventh month and the Israeli occupation forces have killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, including 17,000 children and 11,000 women, US officials loudly declared that Israel was done with Gaza.
In a joint statement issued following a day of negotiations with the Israeli ceasefire envoys, the US, Egyptians and Qataris said there was no time to waste to reach a ceasefire deal.
The Qataris and the Egyptians have no role in the negotiations. They only host the talks and pass Israeli and US demands and stances to the leaders of the Palestinian resistance who refuse to hold direct talks with the Israeli occupation authorities.
The US is the spearhead of the talks as it is only concerned with Israel’s safety as well as with its own interests in the region. The US is absolutely not concerned with the well-being of the Palestinians and the Arabs – whatsoever.
Inspecting its involvement in the ceasefire efforts, some believe the US is really interested in the ceasefire and reaching an end to the bloodshed and Israel’s genocide in Gaza. However, the reality of the situation is the opposite: hypocrisy. The US had only been buying the time needed for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to complete the mission: getting rid of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
Since the start of the genocide, the US has prepared itself for a “prolonged” and “devastating” war in the occupied and strictly besieged Gaza Strip, as it is the only spot in the region that represents a thorn in the side of colonial Israeli-US plans.
So, in an early stage, the US decided to exploit the action of the Palestinian resistance on 7 October to get rid of Hamas, regardless of the human and material costs of such an endeavor.
“US officials are increasingly bracing for a prolonged, devastating war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with Biden administration officials preparing US lawmakers for the variety of diplomatic, political and military needs that may arise in the coming days and weeks,” Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
The leading Israeli newspaper added: “US officials have said they anticipate a ground invasion within the next 48 hours,” noting that was first reported by The Washington Post. It also revealed that Israel had asked for massive arms support, stating that this included: “Heightened intelligence sharing, emergency replenishment for the Iron Dome missile defense system, ammunition rounds, precision-guided missiles and small-diameter bombs.”
In another report, Haaretz reported US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan assuring his Israeli counterpart about Biden’s “unwavering support for Israel”.
Fearing that US allies in the region could be pressed to do anything in response to the projected genocide and war crimes, Sullivan stressed: “We are working with regional partners to warn anyone who might seek to take advantage in this situation.”
In order to persuade the US and the West, he stirred their emotions: “We are also doing all we can to determine the whereabouts of missing US citizens,” in order to justify the US backing of the Israeli genocide, war crimes and the continuous flow of lethal weapons used to kill Palestinians.
Following the horrible Israeli attacks and the unconditional, relentless US support for Israeli war crimes, which sparked international outcry, officials in Israel, the region and across the globe recognized the US and Israeli goals. Therefore, they have clearly criticized their policy and reiterated that the Palestinian resistance, mainly Hamas, could not be eliminated because it is not a kind of material power but an ideology.
Examples of affording enough time for the Israeli occupation forces to complete its planned destruction of the Gaza Strip and continuing to kill as many civilians as possible are beyond being counted. One of the clearest examples is the political support for the Israeli aggression on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people gathered from different parts of the Gaza Strip.
In the beginning, the US claimed that they had suspended arms support for Israel, and they would not cancel this suspension before obtaining a detailed plan for a “limited operation” in Rafah that would guarantee the safety of civilians and displaced people. US officials continued repeating these remarks in response to regional and international rejection of the aggression on Rafah, giving a cover-up for the destructive Israeli attacks on the southern Gaza city.
Another example is Biden’s ceasefire proposal, used to synthesize the world for months, claiming that Hamas rejected it. The US used to justify the Israeli genocide and blame Hamas for it; however, the Israeli occupation was the perpetrator. When Hamas accepted it, they continued to claim that there were gaps between Israel and Hamas that would be closed through negotiations where Netanyahu did not give meaningful power to the Israeli negotiators in order to delay reaching a deal.
Today, we are closer to a ceasefire than ever for several reasons. The first is that the Israeli occupation forces have almost completed the entire destruction of the Gaza Strip and have killed as many civilians as possible, claiming more than half of them were militants.
The second reason is that the Israeli military leadership, along with many US military officials, have started to raise their voices that they are done with Gaza. The third reason is that the Israeli occupation forces have excavated the whole border between Gaza and Egypt and found only deserted tunnels and no signs that the Israeli prisoners had been smuggled outside the besieged enclave.
The fourth reason is the increasing Israeli social, military recruitment, economic, political and other crises, which usher in unprecedented division among Israelis. Some Israeli politicians are expecting that the Israelis will never be able to have a stable government after this one.
There are many other reasons, but the most prominent is that the US itself has reached a point where it recognizes what had been said about Hamas – that it could not be eliminated.
The US also recognized that there are no more civilian or military targets in Gaza after its total destruction, including the communication, sewage, water and electricity networks, the healthcare and education systems, mosques, schools and universities, and so forth.
Israel’s Kan broadcaster reported Israeli military officials stressing: “Military operations have almost completed in Gaza.”
A Zionist Israeli asked me: “The Israeli public has done what is needed from it — demonstrations and protests — what have the Gaza residents done against Hamas?” Regardless of how much destruction, killing and pressure is inflicted on the people of Gaza, they will never take to the streets against the Palestinian resistance.
-Motasem A Dalloul is MEMO’s correspondent in the Gaza Strip.
