Gaza: The West’s warning of concrete action against Israel rings hollow

A Palestinian boy cries as he sits next to food containers at a food distribution point in a refugee camp. Gazans waited yesterday also desperately for vital supplies. Israel said it allowed a few UN trucks to enter the Gaza strip amid mounting international pressure. AFP

After 17 months of appalling complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Western nations are finally condemning the horrors inflicted upon Palestinian civilians. Their sudden transformation from sociopathic bystanders to paragons of virtue seems too good to be true—though it is shocking, to say the least. Was this unexpected turn of events a spiritual reawakening, or does it signal the softening of their once stone-like hearts?

For the past two weeks or so, there has been a significant and gradual shift in the stance of Western nations regarding Israel’s actions. Pro-Israeli British newspapers, such as the Financial Times, have published editorials critical of Israel. In its news bulletins, the seemingly independent but policy-wise pro-Israeli BBC has now placed the humanitarian disaster in Gaza at the top of its coverage, after relegating the issue to the backburner for months.
When Israel launched its war on October 7, 2023, in response to an attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, most Western nations with imperialistic agendas wholeheartedly supported it. Even as Palestinian children perished by the thousands and innocent civilians were obliterated by 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, the West defended the massacres, insisting that Israel had the right to defend itself.
But, in a joint statement this week, Britain, Canada, and France warned Israel of what they called ‘concrete action’ if it failed to lift the blockade of Gaza—now into its third month--and allow food aid into the besieged Palestinian territory. Too little, too late, it may seem. Their sudden compassion for the Palestinians—whether politically motivated or stemming from a genuine change of heart—may appear as penance for their complicity in Israel’s massacre of innocents: 20,000 children have died; thousands are unaccounted for and believed to be buried under the rubble; thousands of children have been orphaned; thousands of children have lost limbs, some both legs. 
In an alarming warning, the United Nations’ Humanitarian Affairs chief, Tom Fletcher, on Sunday warned that if aid did not reach the Gaza Strip immediately, at least 14,000 babies would die within the next 48 hours. As of yesterday evening, there was little evidence to indicate that an adequate amount of food relief and medicine had reached the Gaza Strip. 
The three Western nations’ statement appears to be empty words and rings hollow. What they describe as concrete action lacks force. If they are genuinely concerned about the Palestinians, could they consider recognising Palestine? Why won’t they warn Israel of military action? 
And what concrete action have the three nations taken so far? Watching the debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday was, on the one hand, hopeful, but on the other, disappointing. Hopeful, because MP after MP pressured Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, to take tougher measures. Disappointing, because the so-called ‘concrete action’ Lammy spelt out was far from adequate. He said Britain had suspended free trade talks with Israel, imposed sanctions on settlers, and summoned the Israeli ambassador to the Foreign Office for a formal reprimand. Concrete action? What an understatement!
Sure, expecting Britain to take military action against Israel is wishful thinking. But it should have taken measures such as halting arms sales to Israel or sending a flotilla of ships carrying food and medicine to Gaza. In the absence of such meaningful measures, the so-called concrete action that the three Western nations are threatening to take against Israel amounts to punishing a mass murderer with a few lashes on his fleshy butt with a fluffy pillow.
The so-called ‘concrete action’ is neither meaningful nor compelling enough to force Israel to halt its offensive or allow the thousands of trucks carrying food, medicine, and other essentials into the Gaza Strip. Besides, Israel has already scoffed at this so-called action. Israel’s hardline Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu—an International Criminal Court war crimes suspect—declared on Wednesday that he would not bow to external pressure or stop the war. He indicated that he would continue using starvation as a weapon of war, regardless of what any world power said.
However, acknowledging pressure from the US and Israel’s other staunchest allies, he reluctantly agreed to let five trucks into Gaza—a drop in the ocean, according to the EU and the UN. Gaza needs at least 500 trucks of food aid to feed its 2.2 million starving population. 
The change of heart—or the sudden outrage—of Western nations, who knows, could even be a scripted drama with Israel’s approval, for international relations often smack of smokescreens and shenanigans. However, this does not mean that these Western do-gooders and bleeding hearts have abandoned Israel or taken up the cross to champion the Palestinian cause. In Brussels, the EU’s effort to condemn Israel ran into snags, with Germany and Hungary objecting to any move that would put Israel in a difficult position. Italy also resisted attempts to halt arms sales to Israel, although Pope Leo expressed serious concern over the situation in Gaza, calling it increasingly worrying and painful. Such was the Western nations’ camaraderie with a state that commits genocide and starves innocent children to death. 
The bottom line is the imperialistic West’s relations with Israel are ironclad. It is reported that the Donald Trump administration in the United States has, of late, been vexed with Israel after the Netanyahu government refused to heed its advice to lift the blockade on Gaza. But all the Trump administration is doing is grinning and bearing Israel’s snub rather than confronting it with real, concrete action. In a nutshell, the imperial West’s attitude is: Netanyahu may be a son of a bit**, but still he is our son of a bit**.
Without any credible proof, Trump assumed that a genocide of white Afrikaners was occurring in South Africa and confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday at the White House. Yet, he refuses to acknowledge the real, live-streamed genocide in Gaza. Perhaps the episode with Ramaphosa was Trump’s way of pacifying Israel and taking revenge on South Africa for filing the genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Hypocrisy is seeping deeper into Western politics. Values, principles and moral obligations invoked and overemphasised to justify the West’s support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion are conveniently absent when it comes to Palestine.
Whither Western humanity and the responsibility to protect the vulnerable when Gaza’s children cry for food and water, become skin and bones, hospitals are bombed, and medical officers, aid workers, and journalists are assassinated in a territory where people are displaced day in and day out?
Whither Arab unity and diplomatic clout when the 22 Arab nations cannot send a loaf of bread for the acutely malnourished and starving children?
Gaza is not a war zone—it is a graveyard for humanity’s conscience. The task at hand is not to defeat or disarm Hamas but to feed the people, protect them from Israel’s obnoxiously disproportionate military response to the October 7 attacks, pursue a ceasefire, release the hostages, and restart the peace process, which every stakeholder—including the Palestinian Authority—has long forgotten.