| Welcome back to The World Weekly where we deconstruct some of the biggest international news stories from the week and place the seemingly local events in global context. Today, we will discuss how the West’s refusal to call for a ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas is casting a shadow over its self-assigned moral authority.  Orheen Al-Dayah, who was injured during Israeli airstrikes, had her wounds stitched without anaesthesia on Wednesday, at the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza, where medicines, among other essentials have mostly run out. As this newsletter was being produced, dozens were killed and wounded from an Israeli strike on outpatient clinics of Al-Shifa, where up to 50,000 people were sheltering. (Reuters/Doaa Rouqa) Is this the end of the West's moral authority? “They’re destroying critical infrastructure which supplies millions of people with drinking water, with electricity, with gas to keep from freezing to death. Buses, cars, ambulances being shelled… These aren’t military targets; they are places where civilians work and families live… Hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians have been killed and wounded. Millions are sheltering wherever they can – including children receiving cancer treatment who are now living in the basements of children’s hospitals, with doctors and nurses doing their best to care for them as explosions boom overhead. This is shameful. The numbers of civilians killed and wounded, the humanitarian consequences, will only grow in the days ahead.” If you have been following the news, it may sound like these comments are talking about Israel, but, instead, this is an excerpt of US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s comments seven days after Russia invaded Ukraine from which explicit references of the location have been removed. Since February 24, 2022, when Russia began its military operation in Ukraine, the West has spent significant time and effort convincing the rest of the world on the importance of supporting Ukraine. They have condemned Russia for the killing of civilians, attacking rule-based order, and for its growing “appetite for power” (as they should). At the same time, Israeli leaders have called Palestinians “human animals”; fired at ambulances, refugee camps, residences, and escape routes; cut off essential electricity and water; and halted the entry of aid, and yet the West has offered it unconditional support. It has defended Israel's right to self-defence. US President Joe Biden on Thursday rejected the possibility of a ceasefire in Gaza despite the fact that Israel’s retaliation for Hamas’ October 7 attack has killed more than 11,000 people including ordinary men, women, and children; journalists; doctors; and UN workers. This, even though Israel is making efforts to “minimise collateral damage”. A ceasefire is “a suspension of fighting agreed upon by the parties to a conflict”. When asked if there was any possibility of one, Biden on Thursday said, “None. No possibility.” Instead, Israel only agreed to “tactical, localised” pauses in its combat operations in northern Gaza to allow civilians to flee to the south. As per the announcement, Israel will only halt its military operations in areas of northern Gaza for four hours every day to allow the evacuation of civilians and to ease the delivery of desperately-needed aid. “We’ve been told by the Israelis that there will be no military operations in these areas over the duration of the pause, and that this process is starting today,” US national security council spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday. This is presumably the extent of what Israel will allow as a “humanitarian pause”, something Western leaders have been offering amid growing calls for a ceasefire. Such a pause offers “a temporary cessation of hostilities purely for humanitarian purposes.” Lt Col Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesperson, said, “There’s no ceasefire, I repeat there’s no ceasefire. What we are doing, that four-hour window, these are tactical, local pauses for humanitarian aid.” In a speech marking one month since the start of the fighting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said, “There will not be a ceasefire without the return of our kidnapped.” He was referring to the 239 Israelis that were taken hostage by the Hamas when they launched their attack on Israel. But a Guardian report has said, citing people familiar with the matter, Netanyahu “rejected a deal for a five-day ceasefire with Palestinian militant groups in Gaza in return for the release of some of the hostages held in the territory early in the war”.  A man carries a child on his shoulders, as Palestinians flee north Gaza and head towards the south on foot on Thursday. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem) Anarchy of today’s rules-based order For the rest of the world, especially in the Global South, the West's reaction has confirmed the long-held belief that the so-called "rule-based order" is simply a tool the West wields to maintain its own position as global arbitrator. Arab leaders have been increasingly pushing for an end to Israel's military campaign citing humanitarian reasons, and also larger fears for regional stability. King Abdullah II of Jordan, where Blinken stopped in his West Asia tour last week, said, “International law loses all value if it is implemented selectively." “We cannot accept the justification as considered as the right of self-defense, collective punishment” of Palestinians in Gaza, Egypt’s minister for foreign affairs Sameh Shoukry said. “This cannot be a legitimate self-defence at all.” But even at home, Western governments are increasingly at odds with public opinion on the unfolding crisis in Gaza. An estimated 100,000 people were present at a rally calling for ceasefire in London. Some 10,000 people, from all over the country, attended a rally in Washington just last weekend. Thousands were present at protests in Germany, France, Canada, and Switzerland over the last few weeks. Thousands, if not millions of people, including other world leaders, recognise that the safety of Jews and the citizens of Israel cannot come from the destruction of Palestinian people and their land. As a result, Western governments, the self-proclaimed bastions of democracy, are resorting to undemocratic means to suppress the support for an end to the humanitarian catastrophe. British home secretary Suella Braverman has called the protests “hate marches” and suggested the government could, if need be, change laws to put an end to them, and equated waving the Palestinian flag to terrorism. France has used teargas protesters and tried to introduce a blanket ban on pro-Palestine rallies. Some French lawmakers have also submitted a bill that, among other things, includes a fine of €75,000 for insulting Israel. Germany has seen clashes between protesters and police, the denial of permission or outright bans on pro-Palestine rallies. Though there have been instances of unruly protesters, these protests across the West, where thousands have gathered, have remained peaceful, and seen the support of Jewish people as well as Israeli citizens who oppose the actions of Israel in Gaza. US college campuses have become battlegrounds and police have attempted to shut down roads to stop demonstrators.  Relatives and friends of those kidnapped during the October 7 Hamas bloody cross-border attack in Israel, hold photos of their loved ones during a protest calling for their return outside the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem on Monday. (AP) Israel, often described as the only functional democracy in West Asia, has criminalised the consumption of vaguely-defined “terrorist materials”. Rights groups say the law is “intrusive and draconian” and encroaches on an “individual’s personal thoughts and beliefs and significantly amplifies state surveillance of social media use”. The government is also looking to advance new measures that will allow police to use live fire against Israeli citizens “who are blocking roads or entrances to towns during a multi-front war,” the Times of Israel reported. Rights groups and experts have called Israel’s retaliation disproportionate and condemned its reprehensible actions against Palestinians, not in only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. By continuing to support its actions uncritically, the West is not only destroying its own credibility, it is doing a great disservice to the 1,400 Israelis whose gruesome deaths are being used to justify war crimes against similarly innocent Palestinians. If the West does not push for a ceasefire immediately, it will find that when the bombs fall silent, its moral high ground is buried under the ruins of Gaza and ideological chasm with the rest of the world has only grown wider. That's all for this week, folx. If you have any suggestions, feedback, or questions, please write to me at sanya.mathur@hindustantimes.com  Trending news this week | | Wild pig-like animals are tearing up an Arizona golf course. The internet is delighted
“She’s an eco-vengeance iconoclast who loves coyote pee and running at manic speeds. She’s an unstoppable chaos queen with a stink-nipple on her butt, who turns luxury Arizona golf courses into free range charcuterie boards for her grub-worm girl dinner. She’s a guerilla class-warfare legend whose mating call sounds like the hissing warb-garble of a cappuccino machine milk-steamer. She’s the internet’s most beloved trash-eating ungulate — the uncompromising, the indefatigable, the lovely javelina,” Salon reports. | | | | | US, European officials broach topic of peace negotiations with Ukraine, sources say
“US and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior US official and one former senior US official,” NBC News reports. | |
