Will the US and UK's support for Israel backfire?
Two recent events in the US and the UK underscore the magnitude of public anger towards the complicity of the respective governments in the massacre being unleashed by Israel in Gaza in reaction to Hamas' October 7 attack last year. Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden will compete in elections this year in their nations, both of which have been engulfed in mass protests for Gaza.
Aaron Bushnell, a US airman, died of self-immolation in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. "Free Palestine," he cried after he set himself on fire. Across the Atlantic, George Galloway, a long-time thorn on the side of the British Labour Party, trounced mainstream British parties in a by-election in Rochdale, a Manchester suburb. "This is for Gaza," an ebullient Galloway declared after his victory, where he won more votes than Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Democrats put together.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. These are growing signs of substantial public disaffection in these two nations which have been conspicuous in refusing to take Israel to task for its slaughter. In a recent UN Security Council vote for an immediate ceasefire, all members voted for the motion with the exception of the usual suspects. The UK abstained, and the US vetoed the motion.
One of the bitter ironies of global politics is there is only one country in the world which has the power to bring Israel to its senses—the US, which is particularly loath to do so. Biden is currently locked in a close fight with former President Donald Trump, who has all but won the Republican nomination for US presidential election in November. There are enough signs of discontent in the US to send shivers down the spine of the Democratic establishment.
In a recent Democratic primary in Michigan—the over 100,000 "uncommitted" votes driven by dissatisfaction with US policy on Gaza is a wake-up call. Michigan is a crucial battleground state, and if the past razor-thin margins are anything to go by, this could be enough to tip the state to Trump come November. To win, Biden needs the support of two demographics key to victory—African Americans and young voters.
The slaughter in Gaza is exacting a toll. Over 1,000 African American pastors pressured Biden to push for a stop of the killing in Gaza. Rev. Timothy McDonald, the senior pastor of First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta, told The New York Times, "It's going to be very hard to persuade our people to go back to the polls and vote for Biden." Gaza resonates particularly with African Americans, who know from their lived experience and painful history about the yawning gap between lofty pronouncements and the ugly reality of racial violence.
Many young people in the US are also seething. In a late December NYT/Sienna poll, three quarters of voters between 18 and 29 years old disapproved of Biden's handling of the conflict in Gaza. "And among registered voters, they say they would vote for Mr. Trump by 49 percent to 43 percent — in July, those young voters backed Mr. Biden by 10 percentage points," adds The New York Times. "Few of them believe Israelis are serious about peace with the Palestinians. Nearly half say Israel is intentionally killing civilians. Nearly three-fourths say Israel is not taking enough precautions to avoid civilian casualties."
On the night of the Hamas attack in October last year, a coalition of more than 30 student groups at Harvard University posted an open letter, saying that Israel was "entirely responsible" for the violence that ended up killing more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians. The reaction was vicious. Critics made students' names public, donors threatened to withdraw funding and Wall Street executives vowed not to hire the students.
In the US, Biden is in damage-control mode. His recent policy of air-dropping food and supplies to Gaza is in stark contrast to his continued refusal to restrain Israel in any way. This was preceded by a strange media Kabuki of "leaks" where we were informed that Biden is getting increasingly frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden was "closer to a breach with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than at any time since the Gaza War began," The Washington Post breathlessly informed us. Politico reported Biden called Netanyahu a "bad [expletive] guy." The White House subsequently denied it.
The Nation magazine noted in a headline: "Biden is Mad at Netanyahu? Spare me." Be that as it may, there are few signs that Netanyahu is exactly quaking in his boots.
Meanwhile in the UK, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak greeted the election of George Galloway—whose pitch was focused on Gaza and heavy criticism of Israel—in the Rochdale by-election with all the enthusiasm of a man headed for the hangman's noose, calling the win "beyond alarming." For context, Galloway won the election—for a seat in Rochdale, north of Manchester—after a chaotic campaign that is emblematic of the anger that has swept through the British political scene over the war in Gaza. Sunak's response to an election that was by all accounts free, fair, and peaceful is rather odd, especially coming from an unelected prime minister—who faces tough competition from Keir Starmer in the upcoming UK elections. Following Sunak's speech where he claimed extremist groups are "tearing us apart," London's mayor Sadiq Khan has publicly condemned the prime minister for failing to call out "racist, anti-Muslim and Islamophobic" remarks by the former Tory vice-chair Anderson.
There has been aggressive pushback in the UK against massive pro-Palestinian protests. Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman said to The Telegraph, "The truth is that the Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites are in charge now." Former Conservative Party Vice Chairman Lee Anderson believes that "Islamists had control over London and its Mayor Sadiq Khan." Following public outcry, the Conservatives withdrew Anderson's MP privileges.
Few institutions have come out looking worse in this situation than the mainstream media in the US and UK, whose slavish adherence to the official narrative is enough to give the Soviet-era Pravda a run for its money. A growing culture of intolerant name-calling has turned the moniker "liberal" on its head. Question the West's position on Ukraine and you become a pariah, "Putin's useful idiot." The slur "anti-Semite" is tossed around liberally to silence any sympathy for Palestine. Only those with unimpeachable credentials can survive the wrath of the media—people like University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer or Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs. The media can't smear them, but do avoid them like the plague. Both agree that Israel is committing genocide. Since it would be foolish to expect either of them to pop up on CNN, BBC, or The New York Times any time soon, let's end with an extended recent remark of Sachs: "Israel is deliberately starving the people of Gaza...Israel is in war-crime status now, I believe in genocidal status. This will stop when the United States stops providing the munitions to Israel. It will not stop by any self-control in Israel. There is none in this government. This is a murderous gang in government now... And it's our mumbling, bumbling president and the others that are not stopping this slaughter."
Ashfaque Swapan is a writer and editor based in Atlanta, US.
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