NoW: THE THREE AMIGOS!

 

IT’S AN ANNOUNCEMENT that was a long time coming but one that is nevertheless welcome. On May 19, Britain, France and Canada put on their big boy pants and issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s wanton destruction and killing in Gaza. The communique states, in part:

"The Israeli government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching international humanitarian law. We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank, [and] we will not stand by while the Netanyahu government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete steps in response". We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions. We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza. The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable," the three leaders said in the joint statement, adding that Israel's announcement it will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is "wholly inadequate." (Prime Minister of Canada)

THE LANGUAGE in the statement is the harshest criticism of Israel coming from a Western government that I’ve heard. And, frankly, it was music to my ears! They said the quiet part out loud—that Israel is breaking every norm and international law there is in its maniacal pursuit of the Zionist dream of a Palestine free of Palestinians. The world has watched in horror for over nineteen months as the government of Benjamin Netanyahu has carried out ethnic cleansing, genocide (or mass murder if you prefer), and a multitude of war crimes in Gaza with seeming impunity. It shrugs off the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and its decision to adjudicate South Africa’s claim that Israel is committing genocide. And it  shrugs off the International Criminal Court’s issuance of arrest warrants for PM Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Both men are charged with committing war crimes in their roles overseeing Israeli Defense Force (IDF) operations. [South Africa filed its motion with the ICJ in December of 2023; the ICC arrest warrants were issued in November 2024. Ed.]

  

ISRAEL IS ABLE to carry out its genocidal mission in Gaza, not to mention its military operations in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt (in taking the Philadelphi Corridor) and maybe Iran, if Netanyahu has his way, only because of the backing, militarily and politically,* from the United States. This conflict was a bit of an eye-opener for me in that I came to understand how dependent Israel is on the United States—to supply it with weapons and an annual dole of three-billion-dollars in walking around money. Point being, Israel could not be doing what it’s doing without the U.S. 

👉NOTE: Only the United States can stop Israel in its tracks by withholding military and financial support. But the Israel lobby and rich Zionist backers (both Jewish and Christian) seem to have a strangle hold on the American political establishment and perhaps President Trump as well.

IN THE PAST, I had the impression that Israel was an independent, high tech super-state filled with wunderkinds forever hatching brilliant schemes for making money and growing their industries, along with a kick-ass military. It seems I was wrong. In fact, Israel is an outpost of Western (read: U.S.) hegemony, the sharp point of the spear, tasked with keeping the Middle East unstable so the United States and its allies can swoop in, do regime changes, keep the mess on tumble/dry, and hoover-up the oil.

And while there is still overwhelming congressional support in the United States for Israel, these nineteen months of Israeli sponsored starvation and genocide in Gaza has turned world opinion decidedly against West Jerusalem and the United States, whose credibility and reputation has been shredded by its support of the Netanyahu government. Even inside the U.S., public opinion in shifting around Israel. For example, a recent Pew poll found 53% of adult Americans now have an unfavourable opinion of Israel. That’s up from 42% in March 2022 and the first time public disfavour with Israel has been over fifty-percent. But there are conflicting messages coming from Washington: Trump complains about the number of people being killed in Gaza yet continues to arm and equip the army carrying out the slaughter. Average people everywhere see what’s happening in Gaza on their screens. Day after day. They know what’s going on. When will our political elites get the message?¹

 

 

Cheers, Jake.  ____________________________________

 

* ESPECIALLY AT the United Nations where the U.S. consistently vetoes any votes in the Security Council to censure or constrain Israel. It should be noted that over 75% of the 198 members in the General Assembly (GA) have voted to recognize Palestine as sovereign state. In the Security Council, where full recognition of Palestine would have to be ratified, the United States has consistently voted against any such resolution.

A vote to recognize Palestine as a nation and full member of the United Nations would have far-reaching consequences.

1. The UK has announced it will suspend its free trade relationship with Israel and sanction individual West Bank settlers, whose occupation of Palestinian lands there (for decades) is illegal under international law. It’s a start. We’ll see if France and Canada follow Britain’s lead.   

 

Aid trucks waiting for the go-ahead to enter Gaza

👉Note: Israel’s PM stated last Monday  that he was letting in a “limited” number of aid trucks because he was receiving increasing criticism from "[o]ur best friends in the world, senators that I know as enthusiastic Israel supporters….”, including the U.S., who can no longer tolerate pictures of starving Palestinian children witnessed in recent weeks. He's let aid trucks into Gaza (a trickle compared for what’s really needed) for PR purposes—to keep up support from the international community. Nice.

👉Note: On May 19, a joint-statement was issued from 24 "donor nations" of food aid to Gaza calling on Israel: "to allow a full resumption of aid to Gaza immediately and enable the UN and humanitarian organizations to work independently and impartially to save lives, reduce suffering and maintain dignity.”

👉Note: 7 out of 10 Israelis think Palestinians should be ethnically cleansed from Gaza and relocated to another country. Nice again.

👉Note: While the joint statement by France-Britain-Canada is welcome, it is too little, too late. This abhorrent military campaign by Israel to destroy the Gaza Strip and depopulate it of Palestinians, has been going on for 19 months now. And every government, save a few, has been complicit, by their silence, in Israel’s war crimes. It’s like, collectively, we have fallen into a ‘moral black hole’ and we know not whether we will emerge on the other side and in what condition.

👉Note: Canada should sanction Israel as Britain has done and go further by adopting a Boycott/Divestment/Sanction (BDS) policy. Canada could recall its ambassador to Israel, even break off diplomatic relations. And if our government is feeling frisky enough, it could put forward a motion in the United Nations to expel Israel from the organization.

👉Note: The joint France-Britain-Canada communique, for the most part, is just that—words on a paper. The cynic in me thinks it’s more about Macron-Starmer-Carney ‘butt-covering’ as they sniff the changing political winds and their populations' ire with Israel grows. And with Carney, his decision to co-sign the communique may be more a demonstration to Canadians showing how he's standing up to Washington by taking a different stance on Israel than anything else. 

LET'S SEE what concrete actions are taken by the three amigos should Israel continue its ethnic cleansing and genocidal campaign in Gaza. [Though, anything that raises the blood pressure of the Israeli PM is okay by me! Ed. 😂]

But, again, we’ll see.