Genocide Against the Palestinians With US, NATO and EU Support
Manolis Rodriguez
The ongoing bombings and attacks by Israel have devastated the Gaza Strip, turning it into a place of ruin. Strikes on schools, hospitals, and camps sheltering exhausted civilians continue daily, despite protests from people in many countries worldwide. Beyond targeting civilian homes, the Israeli military has also struck essential infrastructure, including electricity, water, sewage, and telecommunications systems. These relentless attacks have persisted for over 11 months. The destruction is being carried out with full military, diplomatic, and political support from the United States, NATO, and the European Union. This bloodshed represents a continuation of the 70-year genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by Israel and its allies.
Nearly the entire population of the Palestinian enclave, approximately 2.3 million people, has been displaced. Over 40,000 have lost their lives, and around 95,000 have been injured. After more than 300 days of relentless violence, those who have managed to survive are left in dire conditions, with over 90% of the population lacking access to clean running water and a functional sewage system. The enclave is surrounded by dozens of landfills, with mountains of garbage and rivers of sewage flowing through the streets and ditches. The appalling sanitary conditions make survival a daily struggle.
Severe shortages of water, food, adequate shelter, and proper sanitation have led to hundreds of thousands of cases of respiratory infections, outbreaks of diarrhea, hepatitis A, dysentery, gastroenteritis, and numerous contagious skin diseases, with scabies and eczema being particularly common.
Amid escalating attacks by the Israeli army, often targeting UN hospitals, schools, and humanitarian organizations, 413 humanitarian groups issued a joint statement to the UN General Assembly. They called for an “end to the attacks against civilians,” demanded the “protection of all humanitarian workers,” and urged accountability for those responsible for the deaths.
According to reports, the number of aid workers killed doubled in 2023 compared to 2022 and has already risen significantly in early 2024, primarily due to the conflict in Gaza. Earlier, UN officials condemned the alarming increase in attacks on aid workers, noting a record 280 deaths worldwide in 2023. “With 280 aid workers killed in 43 countries, 2023 was the deadliest year on record for the international humanitarian community,” they stated, marking a 137% increase from 2022, when 118 deaths were recorded. More than half of the 163 deaths in 2023 occurred in the Gaza Strip within the first three months of the conflict, most resulting from Israeli airstrikes.
Intensified Risk of a Generalized Conflict
Recent developments threaten to spark a broader conflict as Israel escalates its attacks on Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen. The escalation of the war on Gaza is related and interacts with the imperialist conflict in Ukraine. This interaction has to do with the opening of new trade and energy routes or the closing of others and the cementing or breaking off of economic, political and military relations between bourgeois states. The situation in Palestine and the wider Middle East, including the Red Sea and Persian Gulf regions, is shaped by the broader struggle for dominance within the global imperialist system, particularly between the United States and China. This rivalry is further compounded by the clash between the Euro-Atlantic axis, led by the US and the EU, and the emerging Eurasian axis, led by China and Russia. Both sides frame their actions under different justifications, such as the “fight against terrorism” and the “right to self-defense,” which are used by Israel and its allies, or the call for an “anti-imperialist axis” striving for a “just, multipolar world,” as claimed by the BRICS countries.
These events suggest that the Abraham Accords, brokered under former President Donald Trump with Gulf states like Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, acted as a catalyst, emboldening Israel, the US, and European powers while undermining the prospects for an independent Palestinian state. The Israeli bourgeoisie believes that the full annexation of Palestine will help make Israel a major power in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region, enhancing its geopolitical position as a major hub between Asia and Europe. Since the entire area is a trade corridor (i.e., the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor) and cheaper than the Suez Canal, the monopolies of the major imperialist powers favor the construction of an Israeli canal while seeking to undermine China’s “Silk Road.”
The construction of a new canal and control over the trade route are elements in the US’s plan to bring India, one of the strongest and fastest growing capitalist economies, into its alliance while simultaneously reducing the role of China in Europe. Israel has also expanded its political, military, and economic relations with India, a process which began only as recently as 1992.
Securing the valuable coast of the Gaza Strip as well as the hydrocarbons located in the exclusive economic zone in the Mediterranean is the aim of the Israeli ruling class. At the same time, the demand of European markets for gas since its decoupling from Russia has increased the EU’s need to import Middle Eastern and US gas, placing the energy wealth of Palestine in its crosshairs and underlining the global energy conflict between the imperialist blocs.
Capital Needs New Outlets
A major issue facing the global capitalist system is that of overaccumulation. Capital can no longer ensure profits, so the bourgeoisie are trying to mitigate this through imperialist interventions and wars. War generates more spending where capital is invested, bringing huge profits, while the reconstruction of cities and infrastructure destroyed by war is another outlet for profits.
The war industry is a historically advantageous mechanism of capitalism to defuse the crisis of overaccumulation, since it opens the coffers of the state to its needs. State spending on arms increases the need to use them, which brings about the destruction of capital and its subsequent replacement. This is why Israel is constantly rolling out plans for new settlement projects, the US-EU and their allies have plans for pipelines and canal projects, etc. The reconstruction of Gaza, or better yet, the total annihilation of Gaza, has the capitalists, particularly those of the construction companies, rubbing their blood-soaked hands together.
Negotiations Are Being Wrecked With the Help of the Biden Administration
The daily escalation of murderous operations have been carried out with the support of the US, which has deployed the aircraft carriers “Roosevelt” and “Abraham Lincoln,” along with the nuclear submarine “USS Georgia” and other warships, in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. The United Kingdom is also involved in these imperial maneuvers, using its military base at Akrotiri in Cyprus to support US and Israeli actions in the Middle East. Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the US has provided Israel with substantial military support, including 10,000 one-ton bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles, alongside close military intelligence cooperation and a strong diplomatic shield in the UN and other international forums.
As a result of Israel’s attacks, Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr, who had a $5 million US bounty on his head for his involvement in a 1983 attack on an American barracks in Beirut, was killed in Lebanon. Additionally, Ismail Haniya, the political leader of Hamas, was killed on Wednesday, July 31, in Tehran, where he was attending the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s new president. Yahya Sinwar, previously the commander of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and considered by Israel to be the architect of the October 7 attacks, was promoted to the leadership of Hamas.
Israel could not have carried out these two political assassinations without the backing of the US and its other allies, despite claims by officials in President Joe Biden’s administration, such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, that they were not informed in advance and were not involved. Their hypocrisy is highlighted by Biden’s calls to the leaders of France, Germany, the UK, and Italy, urging them to be prepared to defend Israel, “just as they did on April 13 against Iranian reprisals” following Israel’s deadly attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. While they claim no direct involvement, the US continues to approve the sale of dozens of fighter jets, armored vehicles, and ammunition to Israel, amounting to approximately $20 billion.
The deal includes 50 F-15 fighter jets, the modernization of 24 older fighters with new engines and radars from Boeing, as well as missiles, ammunition, one-ton bombs valued at $774 million, explosives worth $60 million, and military vehicles amounting to $883 million. The first munitions from this package are expected to arrive in Israel in 2026, with the delivery of the fighter jets beginning in 2029, highlighting long-term ambitions for both ongoing and future conflicts in the Middle East.
On August 5th, Hezbollah launched a drone strike against a military target in northern Israel in retaliation for recent killings and to express support for Gaza. Since then, clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon have escalated, resulting in ongoing drone and rocket attacks by Hezbollah primarily targeting northern and central Israel. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has warned of possible retaliation by Hezbollah or “all the Axis powers” (Iran, Hamas, the Houthis, and Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria).
The US argues that Israel’s offensive in Lebanon reduces the likelihood of a regional war. According to the US Army Chief of Staff, General Charles Brown, the situation depends largely on Iran’s response, which “will determine whether there will be a wider war or not.” He also noted an “increased risk” from organizations aligned with Iran, specifically mentioning the Houthis in Yemen. General Brown confirmed that the US has secured “support for Israel’s defense,” positioning US forces in the Middle East more strategically than on April 13.
Under the cover of Israeli military raids, settlers have also participated in the violence against Palestinians, such as the hundreds who invaded the West Bank village of Tawani under the guise of a religious festival to terrorize residents and seize Palestinian land. These settlers, whose numbers have increased sevenfold to over 750,000 since the signing of the Oslo Accords, have continued to loot, steal, and vandalize Palestinian property with the encouragement of the Netanyahu government. With explicit support and the active involvement of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, groups of settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Jit, near Nablus in the West Bank, on the night of August 15. These brutal assaults are just some of over 1,000 settler attacks that have been carried out against Palestinians.
Itamar Ben Gvir (himself a settler), along with 2,000 other far-right extremists, was also involved in the storming of the courtyard of the al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, on the occasion of the religious anniversary of the destruction of the first and second temples of Solomon that were built where the mosque is today.
Gvir demanded a change in the status quo that officially grants Jordan the status of “protector” of the city’s Christian and Muslim holy places and emphasized that with the Talmudic chants and prayers they have been doing for months they have effectively paved the way for the Jews to acquire “ sovereign rights’ in space. The provocative invasion provoked strong reactions in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The escalation of provocative violence on the part of Israel is encouraged by the continued military, political and diplomatic support of the US and powerful countries of the EU and NATO, which constantly adds new fuel to the fire of the Middle East conflicts, threatening it with a general ignition. In preparation for a retaliation by Iran the US and its allies have been deploying powerful naval, air and anti-missile shields around Israel in the Levant, in the Mediterranean, in the Red Sea, in the Gulf of Aden, and in “neutral” positions in the Persian Gulf. The US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered the increase of cruisers and destroyers in the Middle East, especially in areas of the Levant and the Mediterranean under the “European Command” of the US military.
Within this context, the geopolitical conflicts between Russia and the US takes new heights, with Russia developing more anti-aircraft and radar systems on Iranian soil at the request of the Iranian leadership, and in the context of Tehran-Moscow’s decision to further increase their military cooperation against the West. Iran has warned that they maintain the right to retaliate and that an attack is imminent if talks for a ceasefire break down. The US has requested the help of Turkey to mediate and convince Iran to reduce tensions.
Chances of a ceasefire in Gaza are low after these dramatic developments, despite negotiations that began on August 15 in Qatar in which it was highlighted by Turkish President Erdogan that Israel “is trying to increase tension in the region with attacks on Palestinian territories and in Lebanon” and “has no intention of a truce.” This is exemplified by the unveiling of the Israeli government plans for the further development of a new settlement in the occupied West Bank. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich presented the plan as a “response” to moves by countries and the leadership of the Palestinian Authority to recognize a Palestinian state.
The US presented a modified “compromise proposal” for a cease-fire in Gaza and exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Hamas reiterated its rejection of the new proposal, complaining that it “meets the conditions set by Netanyahu, in particular his refusal of a permanent cease-fire and a complete withdrawal [of the Israeli army] from Gaza.”
Hamas insists on the implementation, as it was, of the proposal that was presented on May 31 and calls on the mediators to “oblige the occupation [including Israel] to implement what was agreed upon.” That proposal called for a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchanges in three phases. In the first phase, a 6-week ceasefire, the withdrawal of the Israeli Armed Forces from densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip, and the release of Hamas hostages, in exchange for the release of Palestinians held in Israeli detention centers.
The blackmailing of the Palestinian forces, combined with the escalation of occupation violence in the West Bank and the daily, merciless bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, continued during the negotiation, with the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, ruling at the end of the day that reaching an agreement is “feasible.” Escalating the blackmail, the US Foreign Minister announced that Israel accepts the (as amended) US proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza and the hostages and that it is Hamas’s “duty” to accept it. To date, 80 decisions on the situation of Palestine have been made internationally, but not a single one of them has been implemented due to the role of the US.
At this stage, most regional and “Western” imperialist powers have their finger on the trigger, which was demonstrated diplomatically when the US, France, and the UK blocked Russia’s attempt at the UN Security Council to issue a statement condemning the assassination by Ismail Hania.
Joe Biden confirmed the involvement of the US in the new escalation of conflicts in the region in a phone call he had with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. He told him that he is “committed to Israel’s security” against all threats from Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, stressing that the US is “developing” defensive military forces in the region against enemy missiles and drones.
Biden was preceded by the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, who had assured his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallad, of US support against possible retaliation, always in the context of supporting the “defense” of the aggressor, Israel.
The next developments are seen as unpredictable as the risks of the new, even more dangerous escalation of conflicts in the Middle East are magnified: a region key to many competing monopolies, with abundant mineral wealth, important markets, and critical trade routes, in a period when competition between the US and China, both in this region and elsewhere, for primacy in the international imperialist system, is heating up.