Israel Crosses Another Red Line

The report in The Wall Street Journal is terrifying, as well as outrageous, unfair and offensive. Senior officials in the United States — the principal accomplice in the genocide being perpetrated against Palestine — conclude that the parties will not reach a cease-fire agreement in Gaza until President Joe Biden’s term ends next Jan. 20. Thus, we will continue to watch the attempted extermination of a people, essentially helpless and down to the last detail, for 122 days as 2,928 hours, 175,689 minutes pass.

We know, as has been reported even by the hegemonic media that also support and even respond to Israeli interests, that Benjamin Netanyahu is obstructing negotiations for the exchange of hostages. The most insulting and bitter thing about what these officials are predicting as they remain complicit in the violation is that they blame the Hamas resistance movement, asserting that the principal point of disagreement is over the number of prisoners each side will release.

This is a totally manipulated account, since it is clear that Netanyahu and the extremists who are joining in this genocide have little concern for Israeli hostages; each time there is a chance of an agreement, they raise the bar of their demands. Now they insist on maintaining control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the border between Gaza and Egypt.

The Zionist regime’s true intentions are clear: territorial expansion, which it hopes to achieve through expanding war with neighboring countries by crossing provocative red lines — plus, essentially razing the Gaza Strip and deploying the force of extremist settlers in occupied territory through daily raids and bombings in the West Bank.

Note that a regional war could also involve Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Yemen, and intensify American presence.

The deaths of at least 37 people during the past week (including two children) and 3,400 injured are attributed to the indiscriminate employment of booby traps, constituting the most recent and atrocious act of war and its regional extension. The rigged electronic devices used by Hezbollah were simultaneously detonated and included pagers and walkie-talkies. But Lebanese citizens also carried them. According to Intercept, doctors at a Beirut hospital reported that many of the wounded lost eyes and limbs.

At an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, speakers noted that during its war in Gaza, the Israeli military has used algorithms and artificial intelligence systems on a large scale to direct its airstrikes at residential areas that they claim are home to alleged Hamas militants.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk participated in that meeting and expressed horror at the scale and impact of the aggression. He warned, “These attacks represent a new development in warfare, where communication tools become weapons, simultaneously exploding across marketplaces, on street corners, and in homes as daily life unfolds. Authorities have reportedly dismantled unexploded devices in universities, banks, and hospitals.

“This has unleashed widespread fear, panic, and horror among people in Lebanon, already suffering in an increasingly volatile situation since October 2023 and crumbling under a severe and long-standing economic crisis.

“This cannot be the new normal.

“Mr. President,

“War has rules. For each and every party to this and any other armed conflict.”

High Commissioner Türk said that attacking thousands of civilians or members of armed groups without knowing who is carrying the devices meant to explode and ignoring where they are located when they are detonated violates international human rights law and international humanitarian law. “It is a war crime to commit acts of violence intended to spread terror among civilians,” Turk said, adding that the perpetrators must be held accountable before justice.

The questions are essential: How and when were the devices altered to cause them to explode? Is there a link between U.S. military-technical capabilities and this attack? If Israel has violated another law of war, when will the weight of the International Court of Justice’s condemnation be applied to Netanyahu and his minister of war, Yoav Gallant?

And there is another question that cannot be overlooked: When it is becoming increasingly urgent and necessary to end the genocide that Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinian people, is there still room for diplomacy, if the Western world shamelessly supports Israel?