Photo credit : White House
Global standing of America has received another dent by its continuing immoral support of Israel’s “plausible genocide” in Gaza. Back in January, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “Far too many Palestinians have been killed, especially children”. Since then additional 10000 children have been killed by the use of US supplied armaments. Very recently, British government lawyers have opined that Israel’s action has broken international law. Tory government has decided to bury the advice of its own lawyers regarding Israel’s breach under the carpet showing moral dishonesty. This will also put the UK in breach of international law, as it would be seen as abetting war crime. Even as the US and other Western nations continued its supply of bombs, military aircrafts and other hardware to actively facilitate the killings of Palestinian civilians, some officials in Washington are finding it difficult to support blatant violation of even the basic moral principle of war like, not targeting medical facilities. President Biden meekly has given only an off-the-cuff warning about “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza.
Israel’s brutality has exceeded manifold to what American army did in Iraq and Afghanistan. Based on the lie of “beheading and burning of Jewish babies in oven” by Hamas on October 7, IDF has crossed all limit with impunity in its pursuit of revenge. President Biden, himself a self-declared Zionist, eagerly fell into the trap of Zionist propaganda and parroted the lie in the wake of October 7 attack. As a result, Netanyahu got the US license to kill infants in hospital ICU, specifically target poets, journalists, academics and scientists with their family for annihilation, destroy residences, schools, historical monuments, and places of worships, and butcher nearly 33000 Palestinian men, women, and children so far and displaced not once, but multiple times, another 2 million. The legacy of infamous bear hug of Netanyahu will haunt Biden forever.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres agonizingly stated that, this scale of destruction is without parallel in recent history. Israel’s action is a clear case of ethnic cleansing in the process. The present extremist government of Israel has expressed its desire to depopulate Gaza. Although Blinken rejected Israeli ministers’ call for resettlement of Palestinian people outside Gaza, we cannot rule out the possibility of Washington eventually capitulating under the pressure of AIPAC and other Zionist interest groups in America. Intent of war crime of Netanyahu and his gang of most extremist Zionists is now in the open for anybody who cares to acknowledge.
American hypocrisy has not gone unnoticed. Sarah Yager, Washington Director of Human Rights Watch has written in Foreign Affairs, “But as long as the administration sidesteps the reality of Israeli abuses in Gaza and applies the rules of military assistance selectively, the moral authority claimed by the United States will slip further away”. The young generation in the United States has also started to recognize Zionist propaganda and falsehood. They are moved by the videos of Palestinian children suffering from third degree burns and amputated limbs. It is too much for their conscience to justify or ignore the sight of grieving Palestinian women digging with their hands through rubble to find buried babies. The generation Z are sympathetic to Palestinian cause that pits them against the older US politicians, whose senseless support for Israeli atrocities unabashedly continues. Majority of young people are against Israeli response of October 7 and in favor of immediate ceasefire. They are disappointed with the Washington’s support to a far right and extremist government in Israel. Unfortunately, Biden administration and Capitol Hill refuse to accept the reality and change their blind, pro-Israel narrative.
Depravity and hypocrisy of Biden administration is further reflected by its position on the adoption of UNSC resolution for immediate ceasefire in Gaza. To pacify Netanyahu, they have now come with the most absurd narrative that the said resolution is non-binding. Washington’s immoral support for Gaza genocide has further alienated the Islamic world and internationally isolated the super power. Russia and China have become the greatest beneficiary of old America’s Israel obsession. Now, every country will disdainfully rubbish the US criticism of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and Chinese persecution of Uighur Muslims. Washington has lost all its moral authority to lecture about human rights, democracy, and international law.
America suffers from similar obsession in regards to its relationship with India. After the Partition of India, Washington did not initially give much attention to Indian Subcontinent. American policymakers were under the impression that the region would continue to remain under British influence due to its historic connection. With the advent of Cold War, US was forced to show interest to expand its sphere of influence in South Asia, and Pakistan responded almost immediately to the US overtures, with the expectation that US support would enable it to challenge Indian hegemony and establish balance of power in the region. US-Pakistan bonhomie was rather short-lived. Unfortunately for Pakistan, Kennedy presidency and 1962 Sino-India war brought America and India closer together in a united stand against common enemy, China. In view of the changed US policy, Pakistan also gradually inclined towards the communist state. Pakistan’s off and on “friendship” with the US continued until the fall of Soviet Union.
The collapse of the USSR greatly altered global geopolitics. Pakistan did not have the strategic utility to Washington it had enjoyed during anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan. In the Huntington-influenced strategic thinking in Washington of the 1990s, India was the sought-after ally of the West in South Asia to contain both China and Islam. According to Richard Armitage, the former Deputy Secretary of State, Pakistan was never important to the US in its own right, and considered worthy of consideration in relation to third parties only. 9/11 Islamophobia further consolidated India-US relationship. In the regional competition in South Asia, the US embraced India, a former Soviet client, as its strategic ally by abandoning old friend Pakistan, a former CENTO and SEATO member. At the beginning of the current century, Washington not only accepted India’s hegemonic role in South Asia, but also provided diplomatic and military assistance in its rise as hegemonic power. The small states in the region were left to the mercy of New Delhi. As Pakistan attained nuclear capability earlier in 1998, it could challenge at least, the hegemonic advance in the western theatre of the Subcontinent. But, country like Bangladesh succumbed to Indian aggression and lost sovereignty.
Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has put India-US relation under some shadow. New Delhi has been desperately trying to balance between the historic link with Russia from the days of the USSR and its widening relationship with the US. The diplomatic acumen of India is sorely tested by the bellicose Russia, as former’s obligation to support the US policy will put to a serious challenge and any sign of flagging might result in US concessions to arch rival, Pakistan in a renewed Cold War-like scenario. Recently, Pakistan-US relation is on the mend after alleged US-sponsored removal of Imran Khan from power.
Furthermore, the rise of extreme radical and xenophobic Hindu nationalist ideology and the weakening of secular political forces in India have created some unease among pro-Indian political establishment in Washington. Gradual demise of democracy in the so-called “largest democracy in the world” and blatant persecution of minority Muslims have negatively impacted the international branding of India as a secular and democratic country. India is slowly but surely taking the character of Israel. This transformation of domestic politics in India may dampen the enthusiasm in Washington to sponsor India as the sole strategic ally in the region. Time may come when younger generation in America will also challenge the narrative and justification of present Indo-US bilateral relation as they are challenging the US carte blanche for Israel today. It is time for the US political establishment to acknowledge that the short period of unipolar world order is over. We are witnessing the rise of multiple global and regional powers to challenge the US hegemony. Under a dynamic global geopolitical situation, it may be fruitful for better for Washington to review its Israel-India policy to be able to provide meaningful global leadership for the sake of world peace.