(Photo by Susan Melkisethian via Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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In the past two weeks, Israel bombed eight UNRWA schools in Gaza. Bombing schools and hospitals, burning civilians alive in their tents, subjecting hundreds of thousands of people to famine, unleashing a trained dog on a sleeping elderly woman, and killing a six-year old child in a car with her family with 335 bullets are just a glimpse of the many and daily atrocities that Israel has been committing in Gaza. Despite widespread documentation and coverage, this genocide seems to have become normalized.
The international community has largely stood by as the genocide, now approaching 300 days, continues unabated. Israel, in return, persists in its campaign of dehumanization and destruction, with reports suggesting that some soldiers kill civilians out of sheer boredom.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has recently stated that it would take about 15 years to clear the 40 million tonnes of rubble that Israeli destruction has so far left. All of this leaves the people of Gaza grappling daily with the agonizing question: when will this genocide end?
On May 31, 2024, President Joe Biden, complicit himself and his government, unveiled a ceasefire proposal aimed at ending the genocide in Gaza. “It’s a roadmap to an enduring ceasefire,” Biden asserted. However, the Israeli government has been obstructing any efforts to end the war, seeking only a deal for the release of captives in Gaza before resuming its genocidal campaign. The situation in Gaza has not improved since Biden announced this proposal. On the contrary, the death toll in Gaza continues to rise, and humanitarian crises emerge everyday. This casts doubt on whether Biden’s proposal represents a genuine effort to end the genocide.
To explore the viability of this proposal and whether it can lead to a ceasefire, I interviewed Jovian Radheshwar, Professor of International Relations and American Politics at Douglas College.
President Biden has asserted that the new proposal would lead to a lasting ceasefire in Gaza. Why hasn’t this proposal been implemented?
Radheshwar: The U.S. government’s foreign policy is not focused on solving international crises alone. A significant portion of it is influenced by domestic politics. When either party ignores Palestinian, Arab, North African, African, Persian, South Asian, and other groups of people residing in the US as non-significant voting blocs (or appears to be ignorant of this, as in the case of Michigan), policies will reflect that ignorance.
Eurocentrism, Sinophobia/jealousy, and other historic elements of U.S. culture and empire relegate much of the Southwest Asian and North African worlds (SWANA) to being objectified domains populated by dehumanized objects without agency. This idea is called “orientalism,” as theorized by the great Edward Said, and in practice, it means SWANA lives do not matter on an ideological level to U.S. leaders. This means “peace proposals” are done in calculated bad faith and negotiations are simply not a priority.
Biden mentioned that this is an Israeli proposal to which Netanyahu has agreed, yet Netanyahu’s rhetoric remains unchanged in his reluctance to end the war. How should we interpret this contradiction?
Radheshwar: I think the same framework above applies here. These wars will not be forced to end until they become totally untenable, as in Afghanistan in 2021. Iraq continues to host 2,500 U.S. troops, and American troops have access to a variety of bases throughout the region. The idea that Netanyahu has agreed to end the war is absurd, and Biden is simply engaged in a public relations exercise. This is the sad truth, I believe. The “peace process” has been ongoing for what seems to be about 30 years now, going back to Oslo, which is definitely an agreement that was highly favorable to the Israelis. This means that Israel has more power and is using that power to extract more and more from Palestinian people.
The Biden administration continues to blame Hamas for the lack of progress in negotiations, but is it exerting any pressure on Israel to end the war?
Radheshwar: The victim-blaming mentality of imperialism is on full display. There is no discussion of what has happened to Palestine and Palestinians all this time —the blockade, the house stealing in Gaza and the West Bank, the theft of water, the theft of gas in the Mediterranean Sea off the Gaza coast, the mass murder and genocide that has been the ongoing Nakba, and so many more atrocities. The use of the word “terrorism” has been a pathway to dehumanize Palestinians and to delegitimize Palestinian political aspirations by associating Palestinians with being essentially people (or subhumans) whose essence is to produce “terror.” This word has been used frequently in U.S. operations in Arab and Muslim countries in recent years and has been casually associated with Muslim people as a result. Because of this and the previous points about orientalism, Biden is part of a cultural mentality that makes him and those around him unlikely to be capable of thinking of Palestinians as full humans. This means there is a cultural hegemony that prevents serious attempts to end the war.
Beyond this, it is also clear that the U.S. has geopolitical interests in the region that the presence of Israel as an outpost of empire serves to “protect” in a short-sighted manner. This becomes especially the case because of the recent machinations of the Saudis with respect to working closer with BRICS nations, which threaten U.S. hegemony over the region.
Biden announced the proposal amidst widespread criticism of his Gaza policy. If the proposal fails, what would be Biden’s last resort?
Radheshwar: Biden has no last resort strategy. These people are making it up as they go along. As far as the Western world goes, peace will have to be demanded by other countries, not the U.S. This, of course, is bad news for the people of Gaza, as no other nation or combination of nations committed on paper to human rights (supposedly “the liberal West”) has enough power or influence over Israel to bring about a settlement. I honestly am not sure Biden is even aware anymore. He has been played from Golda Meir to Netanyahu.
To what extent can the U.S. maintain its unconditional support for Israel, especially if it risks a war with Hezbollah?
Radheshwar: An important question. I think that this could result in U.S. policy quickly becoming unsustainable in the region, short of threatening nuclear war to support Israel. Iran, Hezbollah, and the Yemeni Houthis are all in a position to outlast any U.S. military effort in the region, even if the U.S. and Israel use the most catastrophic weapons. Russia and Iran are both interested in expanding their influence in the region, and the Saudis are also becoming more independent of their U.S. “masters” (who is the master and who is the slave is debatable).
This also depends on domestic politics. A Trump presidency might signal a Russian, American, Israeli, and Saudi authoritarian axis to dominate the region’s resources.
One possibility that the U.S. (liberals) is trying to sustain is their continued indirect imperialism (as opposed to settler colonialism) in the region. However, as I mentioned, this is becoming impossible to balance as regional powers become more assertive. If Hezbollah is independent and is a force for anti-colonialism, this strategy of indirect imperialism might result in contending not only with rising regional powers but also with revolutionary movements, including Hamas. A lot of this also depends on the U.S. and Israel’s ability to either co-opt Hamas or the people of Gaza through a Palestinian Authority-style government there.
Whether through this proposal or other means, is it likely for the genocide in Gaza to end in the near future?
Radheshwar: I do not have a pleasing answer to this question. The only way to end this is through popular mobilization across the world and armed struggle in Gaza and Palestine more broadly. The extent to which people are not engaged and involved has left an opening for the beginning of an era of genocide. Just before the new phase of the Gaza genocide began, Artsakh was wiped off the face of the earth by Azerbaijan. Ukraine is being destroyed. Right-wing forces promising ethnic cleansing are sweeping the globe.
It will take the most significant political movement in all of human history to save us from this fate, eventually everywhere.
