Anthony Blinken, acting like a co-opted member of the Israeli war cabinet, strongly advised it to make a ‘clear plan’ for protecting civilians before resuming the business of annihilating Hamas. This meant, he added, as if talking to a roomful of warlords, “acting in compliance with international humanitarian law.” Wagging his dominant finger, Blinken said that a repeat of, “the massive levels of civilian life and displacement scale we saw in the north” would not be tolerated.
This was a reproof, and it was a warning. The veiled threat signalled that Joe Biden may well ditch Israel if things at home get too hot for him, as indeed they already have. The tremulous terms Blinken used, “levels of civilian life” and “international humanitarian law” make a meaty discourse on their own. The ditching issue however gets the emergency call. Exactly what game must Netanyahu and his ‘warlords’ play to keep Biden’s skittish backing? And does the game come with a book of rules?
Imagine playing a board game against two opponents. The counters of one are on the board. The second opponent neither plays with counters nor keeps to the rules. You on the other hand are watched for any infringement like a prisoner on Death Row. The opponents work in tandem. The off-board, unchecked, no-rules player makes whatever moves he likes. His trusted partner sticks to the rules until they are about to lose. Upon which he blabs on you for a technical infringement. Game over. A cynical game too far-fetched to be true? Yet it describes the game the White House expects Israel to play in the post-truce phase of the war on Hamas.
The play book is rigged to virtually guarantee that the enemy will live to fight another day.
Down to the nuts and bolts of the Blinken-Biden game. The object is for Israel to defeat Hamas without hurting a player named “Civilian Life”. Given that Hamas is exempted from playing by the rules, Israel alone is saddled with them. Hamas meanwhile is entitled to hurt “Civilian Life”, both inside Gaza (including primarily its own people from whom it steals fuel and food allowed into the Strip) and inside Israel, to its heart’s content. As to the hostages, Hamas may keep them, alive or dead, for bargaining chips, and not be penalised.
The game is refereed by Blinken resorting to Biden who may resort to Obama. They watch Israel with a hawk eye. When it infringes the rule book by hurting “Civilian Life”, so loud will be Biden’s blast on the whistle that it will wake up the Mullahs in Tehran.
About the book of rules to keep the Jewish Juggernaut on a leash, Blinken was forthright. International humanitarian law” will bind Israel’s every move while Hamas is not expected to so much as open the rule book.
What kind of a challenge is this to give the Israelis? Too easy by half; Netanyahu will feel insulted. Biden therefore set the trickiest of trick parameters. As if purposely to irk a ‘right wing’ cabinet, he set rules of battle that were written with World War II in mind. The clauses relate no more to fighting barbarians in tenements and tunnels and hospitals than divorce law relates to a pigmy tribe. Yet that is what Israel is lumbered with – codes written for a conventional war rather than the urban war that Israel fights.
-Hamas does not dress in soldiers’ kit.
-There aren’t defined battlefields distant from “Civilian Life.
-The Gaza war is not remotely like the artillery battles between the armies of Ukraine and Russia.
-The rules handed to Netanyahu’s war cabinet draw a blank on the do’s and don’ts when flushing the enemy out of a metro system.
-Or on house to house fire fights.
-They nowhere cover hospitals and medics and ambulances commandeered for the use of arsenals, soldiers and hostage-holding.
-Oh – and a war like that between Ukraine and Russia is not refereed by a poll-conscious American President aching to beat Trump next year.
The referee could be the bitterest (and ridiculous) pill for Israel to swallow:
I mean, consider Blinken’s war-stopping threat: don’t repeat “the massive levels of civilian life and displacement scale we saw in the north.” Who exactly will do the casualty count of “civilian life”? Pretty clear, no? Pretty fuzzy muzzy is more like it.
For one thing, which casualties go into the casualty count? Is a doctor who accepts Israeli hostages for safe-keeping a member of “civilian life”?
Is a member of Hamas who removes headband and mask and dons tatty garments a member of “civilian life”?
For another thing, just who will be doing the casualty count? Here we come to the crux of the matter. In whose crafty hands will rest the wherewithal to get Biden to blow the whistle on Israel, to hang Israel out to dry? A news item in Sky News hints at the unedifying answer to the above question.
“Israel has been criticised over civilian death – which Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry estimates at more than 13,000. However there are fears it could be higher due to people buried under rubble.” (My emphasis)
Oh. This isn’t the health ministry which let hospitals function as Hamas command centres? It’s not the health ministry admitting hostages not for treatment but for imprisonment? It’s not the health ministry facilitating indoor gun battles at hospital facilities?
Let’s be clear. Referees Biden and Blinken look ready to rely on Hamas to blab on Israel infringing the rule book. To give the game a wicked twist, what’s to stop Hamas casualties being counted in the casualty count?
And the end point of the game? It ends when the referees throw up their hands: enough is enough. Game over! The impact on “Civilian Life” is too great for our liking. How much would ‘too great’ be? The rule book forgot to cover such a minor matter.
Let’s again be clear. The rule book set by President Biden empowers Hamas to induce Biden to call it quits at a moment’s notice. It’s all too easy. The Hamas health people need only inflate the casualties suffered by “Civilian Life”
And here comes the wickedest twist of all. The inclusion of Hamas casualties in the count puts Israel on the rack. The more terrorists it eliminates the sooner the cry will reverberate from the Oval Office: “Time up! Game over! Cease Fire!”
Heaven forfend.
Steve Apfelis a veteran authority on anti-Zionist minds and methods, and a prolific author in general. After “Hadrian’s Echo: The why’s and wherefores of Israel’s critics,” his latest book, “Hitlers at Heart: anti-Zionism and its Believers” is due out in 2024 . Selections of his work can be accessed at https://steveapfel.substack.com/ and at https://enemiesofzion.wordpress.com/