US siding with wrong side of history in Gaza: China Daily editorial

Even after two weeks of Israeli missiles and airstrikes constantly pounding the Gaza Strip and the deaths and displacement of thousands of Palestinians, and counterstrikes by Hamas, there is no sign of any de-escalation in the conflict. Israel continued to bombard Gaza even on Monday.

At least 4,600 people have been killed in the Israeli bombardments which began after the Hamas militants attacked southern and central Israel on Oct 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and about 200 taken hostage. As civilian casualties mount, homes, schools and hospitals turn into rubble, and shortages of water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel make life a nightmare in Gaza, the innocent Palestinian people call on the world to end the conflict.

It is incumbent upon the international community, therefore, to make concerted efforts to immediately end the fighting. Yet the United States has been adding fuel to the fire by blindly backing Israel in the ongoing conflict, promising to provide it with material and military aid. Worse, last week, the US vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution seeking a “humanitarian pause” to deliver lifesaving aid to millions of civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Washington’s long-standing support for Israel makes it turn a blind eye to the interests of the Palestinians, including their need for an independent Palestinian state. The US’ “unlimited”, unconditional support for Israel’s bombarding of Gaza has not only upset the Arab world but also sparked discontent in the US State Department. “There’s basically a mutiny brewing” within the department “at all levels”, news website HuffPost reported last week, quoting an unnamed official.

Josh Paul, director of congressional and public affairs for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, quit last week over what he described as the Joe Biden administration’s “intellectual bankruptcy” in sending more weapons to Israel. He called the move “shortsighted, destructive, unjust, and contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse”.

Violence perpetuates a cycle of unresolved conflicts, leading to more violence. The only way to resolve the Palestine-Israel conflict therefore is to implement the UN’s two-state solution that would enable the Palestinians to establish their own independent state based on the pre-1967 borders, an approach that has been supported by the majority of the international community.

Although the US may not be in favor of this solution — as evidenced by its voting against related UN resolutions against Israel — it should fulfill its global responsibility as the world’s sole superpower by helping avoid a bigger humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. But will the self-proclaimed “champion” of democracy, freedom and human rights do so?