Yoselina Guevara López
A child looks on as Palestinians inspect a destroyed area following an Israeli airstrike on the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, 12 February 2024. (EPA)
The world cannot continue to ignore the mass murder of thousands of innocent people, at the whim of a Zionist elite ruled by a murderer, whose sole objective is to usurp by force a land that historically belongs to the Palestinians, that is theirs, and that is fundamental to their national identity and to the future of the new generations of Palestinians.
Palestine does not stop sufferring horror, as Thursday, February 15, the Israeli army bombed with drones two houses in the city of Rafah, killing 10 Palestinians, an abominable action against the civilian population. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, since the beginning of the operations of the occupation forces in Gaza, the victims amount to 28,663, in addition to 68,395 wounded and a number of missing persons for which there is no accurate data.
In Rafah, people live under terror, knowing that if the Israeli army invades the city, there will be nowhere left to flee to, nor where to protect themselves. It is estimated that there are approximately 1.5 million Palestinians in this city bordering Egypt, crammed into 63 square kilometers. There is a shortage of basic necessities, medicines, doctors are forced to perform amputations without anesthesia, a real catastrophe, which if it had been carried out by a government of the global south, would already be condemned and deplored.
Weak international pressure
There is no doubt that the weakness of the international community in the face of the atrocities of the State of Israel in Palestine has become evident. A greater pressure has been perceived from social movements and organizations worldwide that have not ceased their protests. Including the artistic world that from an international stage such as the Italian Song Festival in San Remo, many singers declared their opposition to the war in Palestine, and asked to stop the genocide.
From the United States come rumors of growing tensions between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu, but so far the US president has limited himself to criticisms without a strong decision leading to a cease-fire in Palestine. It is possible that this indecision is due to the presidential campaign that has already begun and that points to a possible second candidacy of Biden for the White House, despite his senile state. However, it should be noted that since the end of the Cold War it is not foreign policy that carries the greatest weight in the election of an American president. Today it is the economy, immigration pressure, abortion, race relations, arms proliferation and so many other issues that concern Americans.
Likewise, the perception of the State of Israel has changed drastically, because the facts point to it not as a victim but as the perpetrator of a merciless massacre. In an interconnected world it is difficult to hide the images of the bombings, the slaughter of civilians, of children, of defenseless people. One cannot sustain the devastation of the Palestinian people with the narrative of righteous revenge, for the events of October 7, 2023.
Netanyahu’s strategy
Popular support for Netanyah is currently at its lowest in the 15 years he has been in office. But polls also say that only a minority of Israelis support the creation of a Palestinian state and a large majority of public opinion wants to continue the war. Benny Ganz and Gadi Eisenkot, the two former generals who are possible alternatives to Netanyahu, argue with him daily but remain in the war cabinet, know that voters would not understand their resignation as long as fighting continues.
A ground invasion of Rafah by Israeli occupation forces, according to military experts, is unlikely because of the current structure and deployment of Zionist troops. Nevertheless, Netanyahu continues to threaten an operation in Rafah. The latter is part of a political strategy of the prime minister, with which he is desperately trying to convince Israelis that he alone is determined enough to “go all the way”; while his rivals in the war cabinet, Gantz and Eisenkot, and the IDF General Staff, are mostly focused on reaching an agreement on the hostages held by Hamas.
Netanyahu’s hatred of Palestine translates into his obsession to totally destroy the Gaza Strip, now uselessly justified as a defense against Hamas. This Prime Minister, who will go down in human history as a vile butcher, has also tried to change Israeli society, shifting its balance more and more to the right. The result has been strong instability (five political elections in three and a half years), radicalization of the political debate, internal division, culminating in large street protests against the “reform” of the judiciary, finally rejected by the Supreme Court. It cannot be ruled out that the October 7 operation was designed to expel from the Israeli public debate the issue of achieving peace and coexistence with the Palestinians.
The world cannot continue to ignore the mass murder of thousands of innocent people, at the whim of a Zionist elite ruled by a murderer, whose sole objective is to usurp by force a land that historically belongs to the Palestinians, that is theirs, and that is fundamental to their national identity and to the future of the new generations of Palestinians.
Yoselina Guevara López: social communicator, political analyst, columnist in different international media, whose work has been translated into English, Italian, Greek and Swedish. Winner of the Simón Bolívar 2022 National Journalism Award (Venezuela), special mention Opinion; Aníbal Nazoa 2021 National Journalism Award (Venezuela); I Historical Memory Contest Comandante Feliciano 2022 (El Salvador) Third place.
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