We're Moving Mountains for One Man – Maybe We Should Admit That's the Point
Benjamin Netanyahu has much of the political-media establishment doing everything it can to make him happy, at the expense of everyone else involved.
The column is part of Zeteo’s special content marking one year since the attacks on Oct. 7 and the genocidal war in Gaza that has followed.
It is perhaps befitting that in the days leading up to Oct. 7 – the one-year mark of the Hamas attacks and the beginning of Israel's genocidal war in Gaza – every flagrant contradiction on full display over the past year is crammed and concentrated into a string of mere days.
Last Thursday, the Biden administration released an additional $8.7 billion in military aid to Israel. The following morning, the US announced it would not evacuate its citizens from Lebanon, and Americans could instead book commercial flights themselves. The announcement came shortly before internationally-accused war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly in New York City.
“Israel seeks peace. Israel yearns for peace. Israel has made peace and will make peace again,” Netanyahu told the world.
Not long after, Netanyahu – from the UN – gave the green light to flatten six residential buildings in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut, killing several and injuring more than a hundred people to take out one man.
US officials have claimed they weren’t made aware of the strike in advance, while other reports indicate they were told just minutes before. Any possibility holds startling implications: Did the US tell Americans in Lebanon they'd have to fend for themselves knowing such a dangerous escalation by Israel was imminent? Or did the US indeed not know, and their ‘partners in Israel’ chose to act on their own accord, trusting (rightly) that the US would support them afterward anyhow? (The US has since started facilitating flights out of the country for Americans, but the efforts have been slow and chaotic, an American veteran who just left Beirut told me.)
Israel celebrated last Friday’s attack on Beirut as a successful assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The US joined in, with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris releasing statements reiterating support for Israel. Neither addressed the more than 1,000 people in Lebanon killed at that point.
On Monday, unabated, Netanyahu, in a video, addressed “the people of Iran,” pledging their country will be “finally free” and that it would “come a lot sooner than people think.” It eerily echoed Netanyahu’s messaging to Palestinians in Gaza over the past year, as Israeli forces killed more than 41,800 people and displaced 2 million, and his message to the Lebanese people two weeks ago, ahead of an Israeli escalation that has so far killed more than 1,000 people.
A day later, in the face of Netanyahu’s message to Iranians, Tehran launched a massive attack aimed at Israeli military targets in retaliation for the assassination of Nasrallah as well as Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil.
It’s worth considering that when Israel could have moved to de-escalate over the last year, it did the opposite. Other parties, at times, appeared to try to avoid major escalations (for instance, in April, Iran countered Israel’s strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria by telegraphing its attack, giving ample time for Israel and allied nations to prepare). In backchannels and at stages like the UN, parties worldwide urged the US to step up, draw a line, and lead. It never did.
Not a place for honesty, both sides of Congress spoke out expeditiously after Iran’s latest attack, reaffirming unconditional support for Israel, calling the attack “unjustified,” “brazen,” and “a terrorist attack,” and licking their chops at the prospect of escalation. (Defense companies welcomed the news, perhaps relating to members of Congress’ zeal).
Such clamoring was all the more notable given the scale of American politicians quickly reiterating support for Israel, versus how many hadn't remarked on the millions of Americans devastated by the climate disaster in Appalachia and the US South. (The comparison was accentuated when officials announced that FEMA did not have the funds to make it through the rest of the hurricane season as Israel welcomed the $8.7 billion gift from the US).
The media is also guilty.
A days-long media smear campaign against Rep. Rashida Tlaib accused her of antisemitism for something she never said. The media suggested that author Ta-Nehisi Coates was an “extremist” for arriving at the same conclusion the International Court of Justice, President Jimmy Carter, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and millions worldwide have come to: Israel’s occupation of Palestine is apartheid.
And at the vice presidential debate, Israel’s US-backed war on Gaza — that’s now extended into Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Yemen — was actually addressed first. But the CBS News moderators did not ask the men vying to be a heartbeat away from the presidency how they’d stop the violence. They instead inquired: “Would you support or oppose a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran?” Nowhere in the discussion were the merits of sending billions of US tax dollars unconditionally to help kill more than 40,000 Palestinians debated.
If peace is the objective, unconditionally fueling more violence (“de-escalation through escalation”) wouldn’t intuitively be the answer. And as polls have repeatedly shown, conditioning aid to Israel (following US and international law, in fact), is politically beneficial. Biden administration officials and political staffers have themselves expressed distress at decisions being made. Biden has admitted he believes Netanyahu is trying to extend the war to save himself and help Donald Trump.
So we’re left with the possibility that the highest rungs are behaving this way not because it’s good politics, or in accordance with international law or aims for peace, but in spite of those aims.
Just this week, the State Department said out loud: “We've never wanted to see a diplomatic resolution with Hamas.” A Lebanese official said Nasrallah agreed to a ceasefire before he was killed — which some US officials don’t dispute; senior White House officials quietly encouraged Israel to escalate in Lebanon while publicly claiming to be against it.
Some 22 years ago, Benjamin Netanyahu testified to Congress that he guaranteed a US invasion of Iraq would have “enormous positive reverberations on the region." The world is still reeling from the US decision to invade. Will the US heed Netanyahu’s desires again?
Indeed, no one other than Benjamin Netanyahu – and apparently his senior American warmongering counterparts – benefits from this. Palestinians, Americans, Israelis, the nearly 100 remaining hostages – none have benefited from the past year, and none will from what’s to come.
While it insists other parties have agency, the US is undeniably the player with the largest influence. And the US’ year has consisted of undermining UN ceasefire resolutions, not conditioning aid to Israel (even after it killed Americans), and refusing to push its ally to investigate itself for alleged human rights violations. Given the results, one may ask how such policies could continue, unless the aim this entire time was something else other than peace.
You can look for my column “Subtext with Prem” every Thursday, where I will take a deeper, more mindful look at the world around us. Please share your thoughts in the comments, and feel free to send any tips here.
Read more of Zeteo’s special content marking Oct. 7:
Now Israel believes that parts of Lebanon are also the promised land. Their greed knows no bounds. I'm sure the U.S. will help make that a reality. Netanyahu is making sure Israel sucks the life out of the U.S. and everyone else. What happened to the U.N. didn't they have a peacekeeping force? Why is everybody scared of a tiny state of only 9 million people, 2 million are Arabs? They have the gall to attack all surrounding countries and the west seems to be OK with that. This is the world upside down.
Thank you for continuing to tell the truth Prem even if so few of us are willing to listen and demand that we force Israel to stop the slaughter.