PNN – The position of Western leaders in ignoring the Zionist brutality against Palestine in the last one month is in line with their grand approach in supporting this Western colonial project in the heart of the Middle East, and this issue is one of the main factors behind the violation of human rights and crimes against humanity by Zionist regime has been in recent years.
According to Pakistan News Network, on January 5th, 2023, Israeli soldiers entered the Balata camp located in the east of occupied Nablus and martyred 16-year-old Palestinian teenager Amer Abu Zeitoun. On January 3rd, the occupying forces attacked Al-Aqsa Mosque by the order of Itamar Ben Guer, the Minister of Internal Security of the Zionist regime. That same morning, an Israeli sniper killed a 15-year-old boy. On January 1st, in the early hours of the new year, 17-year-old Fawad Abed and 21-year-old Mohammad Hoshieh died under the fire of the occupying army in the occupied lands of Jenin.
These four Palestinian boys were the first victims of the brutal attacks of the Zionist regime in 2023, but they were not the last victims, and the number of Palestinian martyrs has exceeded 10,000 in the last 30 days and only in the Gaza Strip. For the first time, the world is witnessing an extremely unbalanced war in which the most victims are children and women, so that there are about four thousand children in the total list of martyrs.
The surprising operation of Hamas fighters from Gaza on the 7th of October against the positions of the Zionist regime and the non-stop and criminal response of Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime against civilians in an effort to destroy the alleged Hamas, once again raises the role of the West in the current situation of Palestine.
The attack by Hamas and the subsequent large-scale military attacks by Israel in the Gaza Strip is the latest manifestation of the conflict between Palestine and the Zionist regime, which goes back to the beginning of the 20th century and highlights the role of the West, led by the United States, as one of the largest unresolved conflicts at the international level.
The Zionist regime has been massacring the Palestinian people and the residents of the Gaza Strip for more than 30 days; On the other hand, the Western capitalist system, with its complicit silence, approves this predatory regime, and the United Nations once again seems ineffective in stopping the genocide. In line with their unconditional support for the Zionist regime, European leaders have acted in an almost military manner, and the American government has adopted an apparently “balancing” approach; So that, on the one hand, he praises the collective punishment of Palestinians, and on the other hand, he warns Israel against excesses.
The reaction of Europe and America to the developments in Palestine in the last month
Immediately after the attack by Hamas fighters on October 7th, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi unilaterally announced that the European Union would cut off its aid to the Palestinian Authority. An issue that sparked disagreements with other Union commissioners and criticism from member states. The announcement of the unconditional support of Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, for Israel and her untimely visit to the occupied territories also brought many criticisms from the heads of the European Union. His initial reluctance to ask Israel to respect international humanitarian law in its fight against Hamas contrasted with the approach of other EU leaders, such as EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, and angered many both in Brussels and in EU capitals.
On October 15, EU leaders reaffirmed a common position on “Israel’s right to self-defense in accordance with international law and humanitarian law” and on “the importance of ensuring the protection of all civilians at all times” in accordance with international humanitarian law.
In the first days of the escalation of conflicts between Palestine and the Zionist regime, US President Joe Biden traveled to the occupied territories as a sign of support for his closest ally in the Middle East and announced Washington’s full support for Tel Aviv’s violent response due to the Hamas attack. According to the Financial Times, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken returned to the Middle East last Friday on a public mission to persuade Israel to exercise restraint in the war against Gaza and push for a humanitarian pause. But Blinken went to the Middle East with another goal, and that was to revive the diplomatic process of establishing two governments.
Meanwhile, the Responsible Statecraft website wrote in a report: The United States is on the brink of another war in the Middle East. Biden and his team have repeatedly warned Israel against making the same “mistakes” that the United States made after September 11, 2001, but it seems that Washington has yet to learn from the mistakes of the past two decades.
The role of Europe and America in today’s situation in Palestine
From the first comments of Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, in the first days of the conflict, in full support of Israel and even her trip to the occupied territories, to the comments of Josep Burrell, the head of the European Union’s foreign policy, warning the foreign minister of the Zionist regime about the need to respect international humanitarian laws. And protecting the lives of civilians in Gaza, more than 10,000 people have lost their lives in Gaza. British Prime Minister Rishi Sonak, Joe Biden and French Presidents Emmanuel Macron also went to the occupied territories with the escalation of conflicts to legitimize any action against international law by turning a blind eye to Israel’s crimes.
What is the role of Europe and America in today’s situation of Palestine? Why is it so difficult for Europe to condemn Israel’s inhumane actions? Why is it so difficult and even impossible for Europe to confront Israel for violating human rights despite the instant coverage of Israel’s crimes against the residents of Gaza? If Europe had not hesitated to recognize Palestine, what would be the situation of Palestine today? What does the West’s insistence on “Israel’s right to defend itself” mean for Western democracies with the claim of human rights?
The Spanish La Vanguardia newspaper recently quoted a former Spanish foreign minister in a report and wrote: If 10 years ago, European countries would have recognized the Palestinian state. Perhaps, today’s situation in Palestine would not have reached the point where it is now.
In a critical report, this Spanish media wrote: The problem is that even if on paper, Palestine is close to becoming an independent country, the expansion of the settlements of the Zionist regime in the occupied territories will make Palestine further away from this reality.
In October 2014, Stockholm took the decision to recognize Palestine, but the expected domino effect did not occur. The only action is that some European parliaments (Britain, France and Ireland) have approved non-binding plans and asked the respective governments to follow Sweden’s practice. The Spanish Congress also passed a resolution in November 2014 and asked the government to recognize Palestine.
Israel, the Western colonial project
An important point in understanding the Western policy towards the Zionist regime and understanding the reason for avoiding even the smallest criticisms against Tel Aviv should be found in how the Zionist regime was formed. In this sense, Israel is essentially a Western colonial project.
Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, the lands under this empire came under the guardianship of the victorious governments, including France and England. The historical land of Palestine came under the guardianship of England, and following successive waves of Jewish immigration to this region, England, as the administrator of this territory after the First World War, promised the land of Palestine to Arabs and Jews. In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly, by Resolution 181, divided Palestine into two Arab and Jewish parts and created a special international zone in the Jerusalem region.
The website of the Spanish-language TV channel Telesur recently emphasized in a report: This regime appeared as a product of British and French negotiations that sought to manage the region’s oil reserves. Following the Sinai War in 1956, the United States, in a Cold War confrontation with its main rival, the (former) Soviet Union, began playing the Middle East and tried to dominate the region’s black gold resources.
The entire process of transferring Jews from different parts of the world to the historical land of Palestine until the announcement of the fake Israeli regime in 1948 took place under the command and support of the British government. In 1948, Israel launched an 8-month war with the Arab countries and managed to seize 23% of the land allotted to the Arab state.
After Britain gave its position definitively to America as a great imperialist power in the world, Washington began to dominate the Middle East. Since 1963, with the presidency of John F. Kennedy, the relationship between the White House and Tel Aviv became organic. This means that the Zionist regime responded to the imperialism’s need to control the Islamic world and the Arabs, and for this reason, it had and has an organic relationship with the American imperialist system. In this way, the Israeli regime became an American outpost in an area that Washington considers vital to its interests: Middle East oil reserves; The Middle East as a region to block the presence of the former Soviet Union, and today, to prevent the strengthening of China’s presence to manage hydrocarbon resources.
The Six-Day War, in 1967, allowed Israel to occupy new territory to occupy other lands allocated to the Palestinian Authority, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and even the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. In the same year, the United Nations Security Council, based on Resolution 242, demanded the withdrawal of the Zionist forces from the areas it occupied during the 6-day war of the same year, but this resolution has not been implemented so far.
After the occupation of the West Bank of the Jordan River and the city of Quds by the Israeli regime in 1967, more than 450 Zionist settlements were built in these areas, where about 650,000 Zionists live.
At the end of 2016, the UN Security Council issued Resolution 2334 once again declaring any construction by the Zionist regime in the occupied Palestinian territories illegal and emphasized the need for the immediate evacuation of all Zionist settlements built in the West Bank. The Zionist regime has repeatedly violated this resolution and not only did not stop settlement building, but intensified it.
In a report entitled “Israel’s Zionist project is a colonial project”, the Spanish news website El Diario stated: Israeli historian Ilan Pape emphasizes in his book “The Biggest Prison on Earth” that using the word “occupation” is not correct; We should use the word colonization. I know this is a 19th century concept, but it is the best definition to describe Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza. This project does not include a temporary military occupation, but includes the Judaization and de-Arabization of these areas.
He adds: Israel has used the state of war to maintain and expand its colonialism, and according to Pope, this issue has destroyed any possibility of achieving a two-state solution as the most accepted international solution. Since 2000, Israel has established an apartheid regime throughout historic Palestine.
Therefore, the process of establishing and gaining power of the Zionist regime was not only an accidental and accidental issue, but a completely deliberate and planned project for the presence and influence of the West in the Middle East region, in the heart of the Islamic world and in the heart of the Arab world, from the formation of the Zionist regime.
The Zionist regime was considered as a military base for American imperialism and its European partners to confront the East, dominate the Middle East resources and prevent the presence of the former Soviet Union.
Why was the West never able to be a suitable mediator to resolve the conflict between Palestine and the Zionist regime?
Therefore, we should look for the main root of Western countries’ support for the Zionist regime since the formation of this regime and its manner. It is also based on this background that Western countries have never been able to be a good and suitable mediator to resolve the conflict between Palestine and the Zionist regime.
The basic principle of the mediator is the principle of neutrality and having a just and fair approach; A key situation that the Western countries have not benefited from due to their unbalanced and unequal role in the Palestine issue. At the same time as there are no fair peace plans, Israel has also distanced itself from some partial agreements and there has never been any pressure tool from the West to force Israel to respect the rights of the Palestinians.
In the current situation and in the last month, the situation has been the same; The political interests of Western countries in the direction of supporting Israel and its survival and maintaining its power in the region make them turn a blind eye to many of Israel’s crimes. A look at the positions of Western countries in recent days, as well as the presence of the Presidents of the United States and France, and the Chancellor of Germany in the region is proof of this.
The common denominator of the positions of Western leaders has been emphasizing Israel’s right to defend itself, and the question is whether the right to defend itself should mean killing four thousand children? Is the right of self-defense to attack the hospital? Does the right to self-defense mean attacking journalists? The right to defend oneself against a military or paramilitary force does not mean blind attacks on civilian targets; It is interesting to note that Western leaders either do not acknowledge this issue at all, or pass it by very briefly.