Upfront, let me say that people who say that Israel’s actions, namely, murdering over 25,000 helpless human beings (mainly women and children), injuring another 100,000 plus and displacing nearly 2,000,000 to boot are all entirely justified because of the barbaric attack of October 7 have a myopic view of events or are inhuman.

They must have lived in a cocoon and are not aware, or chose to ignore, the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been killed, imprisoned, and driven from their homes since 1948 and they fail to see the ongoing human suffering in Gaza. October 7 does not give Israel a permanent get out of jail card.

If there is an iota of humanity in us, we should weep for what is happening today in Gaza and in the West Bank before our very eyes. 

At a minimum, Benjamin Netanyahu is a criminal engaged in war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, if not a perpetrator of an ongoing genocide. For him there is no hope. He says he is a devout Jew and he had better pray that there is no God because if there is he will undoubtedly fry in hell. He is not alone. There are Zionists in Israel and around the world who support him politically and/or with money and are complicit in all that he does. They are not innocent.

Then there are Israel’s and Netanyahu’s international enablers. At the top of the pile is the United States of America. Since the creation of Israel, but especially since 1967, financial and military aid, intelligence sharing and especially political support—dozens of vetoes at the UNSC that make a mockery of the most important organ of the United Nations, continued arm twisting of other countries to go along with Israel’s trashing of international law and most importantly risking a nuclear war by protecting Israel’s right to hide over 200 nuclear warheads when Arabs and Iran have called for a nuclear free zone in the region—have enabled Netanyahu and Zionists to feel emboldened to do anything and everything to brutalize Palestinians and take over all their land.  

Why has the U.S. acted so? The primary reason—Jewish financial and political support for U.S. politicians who do Israel’s bidding. Financial support for a country that has a higher per capita income than the UK or France while average Americans are needy! This support has come from American Jews and also from dual American and Israeli Jews. While the U.S. prohibits foreign money in U.S. political campaigns, dual citizens can get around this impediment by collecting money in Israel and then donating it to the politicians of their choice, an easy loophole that by itself should ban any and all dual citizenships. If this loophole is not outlawed our political system and foreign policy are up for sale to any dual citizen! Are our politicians looking after U.S. or Israeli interests? 

Israel is in fact the “perfect” apartheid state—it has three sets of laws—one for Israeli Jews, another for Israeli Palestinians and a third for non-Israeli Palestinians.

A secondary, but false, reason for Washington’s senseless and unconditional support of Israel is the untrue attribute of Israel, the only “democracy” in the region. This claim is an insult to human intelligence. Israel is in fact the “perfect” apartheid state—it has three sets of laws—one for Israeli Jews, another for Israeli Palestinians and a third for non-Israeli Palestinians. While Israeli Jews enjoy the good life, not so for Palestinians with those in the West Bank traumatized by daily abuse from illegal settlers and their Israeli Defense Force protectors. The only positive thing that can be said of this unholy American-Israeli alliance is that Israel sometimes does America’s bidding in the region.

In the course of the ongoing war, U.S. hypocrisy is in plain sight for the world to see. President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken and the rest of the cabal correctly claim that Israel has the right to defend itself—but is murdering over 25,000 Palestinians, largely children and women, self-defense? And U.S. leaders demand with sorrow in their eyes that Israel use targeted strikes and keep to the laws of war, then turn around and supply Israel with outlawed white phosphorous and one hundred additional 2,000 pound bombs, bombs that are designed to kill anything and everything indiscriminately! Who does Biden think he is fooling??

Sadly for the United States, the conduct of U.S. foreign policy has further polarized our own country. Backers of Israel have endeavored to shut down any and all criticism of Israel and its Zionist forays in the region. Comments attacking Zionism are labelled anti-Semitic and prohibited on many U.S. campuses with extreme pressure to fire administrators who tolerate such debate and outrage at what Israel is doing. When I was an active professor, I used to marvel that on campus you could criticize the President of the United States but not the Prime Minister of Israel. Efforts to shut down discussion even permeate the classroom. On one occasion when two students disrupted the talk of a future Prime Minister of a Muslim country, I was told by another student that Israel has a program to instruct Jewish students on how to intimidate professors.      

When I was an active professor, I used to marvel that on campus you could criticize the President of the United States but not the Prime Minister of Israel.

The pro-Israeli bias of the U.S. media is also on full display—always referring to October 7 to justify Israeli crimes, always reminding the audience of Iran’s backing for Hezbollah and the Houthis and giving more attention to the plight of the victims of October 7 than to the carnage in Gaza and the ongoing dire predicament of Palestinians living in the West Bank (death, imprisonment, torture and eviction). Journalistic complicity in underreporting and covering up Israeli crimes is outrageous for the legacy of those who purport to stand up and report the truth.

While the U.S. is the enabler in chief, most of Western Europe, especially the United Kingdom—follow the U.S. line or are at best silent in the face of the slaughter of Palestinians.

Most disappointing are all Arab and most Muslim countries. Most rulers in these countries appear to be scared of America’s shadow. These rulers have continued to afford the United States military bases and do nothing that might upset their American backers to protect themselves and their lavish lives. They are scared to recall their ambassadors to Washington and Tel Aviv (for those who have relations with Israel), sever relations with the United States and to impose primary and secondary economic sanctions on the United States. 

There will be a price to pay for Israel and its enablers. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC), world opinion and anti-Israeli and anti-American demonstrations that could lead to the overthrow of some Arab governments. South Africa, joined by a number of other countries, has presented a strong case for genocide at the ICJ. Although Israel and the United States have dismissed the case even at this stage—debating whether to order “provisional measures,” a temporary order that would tell Israel to take steps to guarantee that genocide doesn’t occur in the future, as the case is pending. This case is a serious development. While the court has no enforcement ability, it has a big reputational impact. Now it seems that a case will be brought against the United States as complicit in Israel’s alleged crimes. If the United States tries to persuade ICJ justices to rule in Israel’s favor, it would be a death nail for the international rule of law.

Contemporaneously, a number of countries have brought a case at the ICC, a venue where convicted criminals will be arrested in countries that are a party to the treaty (the United States and Israel are not). 

America is in danger of being dragged into the gutter by Israel. Americans have to ask themselves if such blind and possibly criminal support for Israel is justified? Does it reflect the America that we cherish? If not, how can it be stopped? As for Netanyahu and Biden, they should pray that God does not exist. If their religious professions are heard, they will for sure burn in the fires of hell for their crimes against humanity and for foolishly thinking that they could deceive the Almighty through lies and duplicity.

In our quest for a better world, we all have a role to play—to stand up against oppression wherever it happens and to expose the perpetrators. This we can and all must do if humanity is to survive.  

By Professor Hossein Askari the emeritus professor of business and international affairs, George Washington University