The ongoing genocide in Gaza can be audited. It has two parts: the quantifiable part and unquantifiable part. For the first part we are indebted to Brown University’s Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs’ Costs Of War.
The United States has spent $22.76 billion in military aid to Israel. The “human cost” funded by American taxpayer’s money is enormous. The table given below, which computes “Direct Deaths from Violence Reported in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank,” offers disturbing insights.
The Human Cost
The figures above do not tell in full measure the genocide that Israel has planned and implemented.
After Hamas’s attacks, Israel wanted to kill as many Palestinians as possible. On 9 October 2024, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant referred to Palestinians as human animals and decreed that there would be “no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.”
The table gives the number of direct deaths Gallant’s project has delivered. But what about the “indirect deaths” in Gaza and the West Bank? The estimates provided by Brown University tell us of the horrific consequences.
Brown University’s estimate of indirect deaths
Note: An Article in The Lancet in July 2024 estimated that there were 186,000 direct and indirect deaths attributable to the war in Gaza as of June 19, 2024.
Israel has targeted not only human beings but also their living environment, such as infrastructure, housing, roads, access to food, hospitals, schools and so on. The intention is to make Gaza unlivable so that the wretched survivors might be compelled to drown themselves in the Jordan River or the Mediterranean Sea or flee to Egypt, Jordan or elsewhere. As the Brown University report puts it:
Destruction of transport infrastructure is a major factor in producing economic collapse and food insecurity. By January, Israel’s government has destroyed or damaged two-thirds of all roads and 92 per cent of primary roads along with numerous vehicles impeding mobility for civilians as well as humanitarian aid convoys, access to food, relief aid, and other services, and family reunification that would allow people, and especially children, to draw on familial support to survive. Israeli attacks have also killed, injured, starved and displaced animals (especially donkeys) that have for years been essential for moving people and goods throughout Gaza in light of Israeli restrictions on fuel and high poverty levels resulting from Israeli policies, including heavy restrictions on the movement of goods and people and recurring military attacks. Aerial bombardments and other Israeli military operations have targeted vast swaths of Gaza’s underground tunnel system, a system that had previously been a critical supplement mode for conveying food into the besieged territory.
Netanyahu In Guinness Book
Netanyahu has earned the dubious distinction of a place in the Guinness Book of Records. As Prime Minister, he has specialised in signing off targeted assassinations and targeted bombing of civilians after asking them to move from area A to area B and then bombing them in area B after the IDF has “suddenly discovered” a “command and control centre” of Hamas or Hezbollah there. The IDF has “discovered” one too many such centres.
For context, in the Second World War, Hitler did not ask civilians to move from one place to another before bombing them. Is Netanyahu out-Hitlering Hitler?
World War II & Israel
We do not know the total tonnage of the bombs dropped by Israel in Gaza till now. According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, till 24 April 2024, the total is estimated to be approximately 70,000 tons.
Let us look at some figures from World War 2. Nazi Germany dropped 18,300 tons in London. The Allies dropped 8500 tons on Hamburg and 3900 tons on Dresden.
Biden’s Responsibility
It is an ethical principle that if A has committed an offence and B has the ability to stop A from committing that offence but does not stop A, then both A and B are ethically responsible for the offence. In short, Netanyahu and Biden are responsible for the ongoing genocide. They are both morally bankrupt.
The only difference between the two is that Biden has been making, in vain, pathetically futile gestures to stop Netanyahu. In this context, it is pertinent to recall that, in 1982, President Raegan, in a brief phone call, compelled Prime Minister Menachem Begin to stop bombing Beirut when the grim toll was 300, mainly civilians.
It would be wrong to hold Biden alone responsible. Germany, the United Kingdom, France and others in the “Global North” have followed Biden blindly though some of them have recently started having second thoughts. The Global South, with a few honourable exceptions, including South Africa, has shared Biden’s moral bankruptcy. India, the so-called “Vishwamitra,” has failed to speak up, and the global citizen will sadly conclude that the often-repeated mantra—Vasudeva kutumbakam—is not seriously meant.
What Next?
Netanyahu ordered his Defence Minister Gallant not to go to Washington for a meeting with his US counterpart on 9 October. Netanyahu put two conditions on this. First, he should speak to Biden, with whom he has not spoken for seven weeks. Second, the cabinet should approve a plan to retaliate against Iran’s attack on 1 October.
Netanyahu and Biden had a thirty-minute conversation, which was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris. The White House has not revealed much about the conversation. It said cryptically, “It was direct, it was productive.” One doubts whether it was “productive.”
Did Biden tell Netanyahu that he would stop the shipment of arms? Even if Biden had said it, the White House would not let it out now. Nor has Netanyahu’s office let out much. However, it did say that Trump had called Netanyahu recently and “congratulated him on the intense and determined operations that Israel carried out against Hezbollah.” Trump has publicly called for bombing Iran’s nuclear sites. Israel’s Defence Minister is reportedly due in Washington on 15th October for talks.
We may conclude that Netanyahu has two interrelated objectives in starting a direct war with Iran. First, if there is a big war in West Asia with the involvement of the United States, it will ensure Trump’s success in November. Imagine the visuals of a few body bags coming in before the voting on 5 November.
The second objective is that if Trump wins the election, the Palestinians and Hezbollah will be so demoralised that Netanyahu can practically dictate their surrender terms. He can call for an election in early 2025, get a landslide victory, and the corruption charges against him—charges serious enough to send him to jail if he ceases to be Prime Minister—will disappear into thin air.
As regards Iran, Netanyahu lacks the wherewithal to hit the nuclear sites. Natanz and Fordow are underground, and the IDF lacks the earth-penetrating bombs. Israel can bomb Iran’s hydrocarbon assets. But the consequences can be terrible.
Iran has warned Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain that it cannot “guarantee” the safety of their oil facilities as Iran’s allies—the Houthis and others—might damage them. Iran might also stop the peaceful passage of ships and tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, which now passes approximately seventeen million barrels a day—20 to 30 per cent of oil sold.
Saudi Arabia and others have made it clear that Israel cannot use their air space to attack Iran. They have conveyed their concerns to Washington, hoping it will make Israel see reason.
Israel’s Defence Minister Gallant has said that the Israeli response will be “deadly and surprising,” adding that Iran “won’t understand what happened and how.” Anonymous Israeli officials have told Axios that the Israeli response will be “significant and will likely include a combination of airstrikes on military targets in Iran and clandestine attacks like the one that killed Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.” There are reports that Israel has conducted a cyber attack on Iran’s nuclear projects. We do not know the extent of damage, if any.
Will Netanyahu succeed with his deadly plans? He might attempt to assassinate the President or even the Supreme Leader of Iran. We cannot help recalling the words of Scottish poet James Burns:
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
Whether his plans work out or not, Netanyahu is determined to cause the deaths of thousands of human beings unless Biden stops him.
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