{"id":285656,"date":"2024-04-17T08:24:55","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T08:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=285656"},"modified":"2024-04-19T12:48:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T12:48:42","slug":"the-west-now-wants-restraint-after-months-of-fuelling-a-genocide-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=285656","title":{"rendered":"The West now wants ‘restraint’- after months of fuelling a genocide in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Cook \u2013 Middle East Eye Apr 16, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Suddenly, western politicians from US <\/a>President Joe Biden to British<\/a>\u00a0Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have become ardent champions of “restraint<\/a>”\u00a0\u2013 in a very last-minute scramble to avoid regional conflagration.<\/p>\n

Iran<\/a> launched a salvo of drones and missiles at Israel<\/a> at the weekend in what amounted a largely symbolic show of strength. Many appear to have been shot down, either by Israel\u2019s layers of US-funded interception systems or by US, British and Jordanian<\/a> fighter jets. No one was killed.<\/p>\n

It was the first direct attack by a state on Israel since Iraq<\/a> fired Scud missiles during the Gulf war of 1991.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Security Council was hurriedly pressed into session on Sunday, with Washington and its allies calling for a de-escalation of tensions that could all too easily lead to the outbreak of war across the Middle East and beyond.<\/p>\n

“Neither the region nor the world can afford more war,” the UN\u2019s secretary general, Antonio Guterres, told<\/a> the meeting. “Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.”<\/p>\n

Israel, meanwhile, vowed<\/a> to “exact the price” against Iran at a time of its choosing.\u00a0But the West\u2019s abrupt conversion to \u201crestraint\u201d needs some explaining.<\/p>\n

After all, western leaders showed no restraint when Israel bombed Iran\u2019s consulate in Damascus two weeks ago, killing a senior general and more than a dozen other Iranians \u2013 the proximate cause of Tehran\u2019s retaliation on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Under the Vienna Convention, the consulate is not only a protected diplomatic mission but is viewed<\/a> as sovereign Iranian territory. Israel\u2019s attack on it was an unbridled act of aggression \u2013 the \u201csupreme international crime\u201d, as the Nuremberg tribunal ruled at the end of the Second World War.<\/p>\n

For that reason, Tehran invoked<\/a> article 51 of the United Nations charter, which allows it to act in self-defence.<\/p>\n

Shielding Israel<\/strong><\/h3>\n

And yet, rather than condemning Israel\u2019s dangerous belligerence \u2013 a flagrant attack on the so-called “rules-based order”\u00a0so revered by the US \u2013 western leaders lined up behind Washington\u2019s favourite client state.<\/p>\n

At a Security Council meeting on 4 April, the US, Britain and France<\/a> intentionally spurned restraint by blocking <\/a>a resolution that would have condemned Israel\u2019s attack on the Iranian consulate \u2013 a vote that, had it not been stymied, might have sufficed to placate Tehran.<\/p>\n

At the weekend, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron still gave<\/a> the thumbs-up to Israel\u2019s flattening of Iran\u2019s diplomatic premises, saying he could “completely understand the frustration Israel feels”\u00a0\u2013 though he added, without any hint of awareness of his own hypocrisy, that the UK “would take very strong action” if a country bombed a British consulate.<\/p>\n

By shielding Israel from any diplomatic consequences for its act of war against Iran, the western powers ensured Tehran would have to pursue a military response instead.<\/p>\n

But it did not end there. Having stoked Iran\u2019s sense of grievance at the UN, Biden vowed<\/a>\u00a0“iron-clad” support for Israel \u2013 and grave consequences for Tehran \u2013 should it dare to respond to the attack on its consulate.<\/p>\n

Iran ignored those threats. On Saturday night, it launched some 300 drones and missiles, at the same time protesting<\/a> vociferously about the Security Council\u2019s \u201cinaction and silence, coupled with its failure to condemn the Israeli regime\u2019s aggressions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Western leaders failed to take note. They again sided with Israel and denounced Tehran. At Sunday\u2019s Security Council meeting, the same three states \u2013 the US, UK and France \u2013 that had earlier blocked a statement condemning Israel’s attack on Iran\u2019s diplomatic mission, sought a formal condemnation of Tehran for its response.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019<\/a>s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, ridiculed<\/a> what he called “a parade of Western hypocrisy and double standards”. He added: “You know very well that an attack on a diplomatic mission is a casus belli under international law. And if Western missions were attacked, you would not hesitate to retaliate and prove your case in this room.”<\/p>\n

There was no restraint visible either as the West publicly celebrated its collusion with Israel in foiling Iran\u2019s attack -and thereby effectively making itself a direct party to this dangerous confrontation.<\/p>\n

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak praised<\/a> RAF pilots for their “bravery and professionalism”\u00a0in helping to “protect civilians” in Israel.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Keir Starmer, leader of the supposedly opposition Labour party, condemned<\/a> Iran for generating “fear and instability”, rather than “peace and security”, that risked stoking a “wider regional war”. His party, he said, would \u201cstand up for Israel\u2019s security\u201d.<\/p>\n

The “restraint” the West demands relates only, it seems, to Iran\u2019s efforts to defend itself.<\/p>\n

Starving to death<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Given the West\u2019s new-found recognition of the need for caution, and the obvious dangers of military excess, now may be the time for its leaders to consider demanding restraint more generally \u2013 and not just to avoid a further escalation between Iran and Israel.<\/p>\n

Over the past six months Israel has bombed Gaza into rubble<\/a>, destroyed its medical facilities and government offices, and killed and maimed many, many tens of thousands of Palestinians. In truth, such is the devastation that Gaza some time ago lost the ability to count its dead and wounded.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Israel has intensified<\/a> its 17-year blockade of the tiny enclave to the point where, so little food and water are getting through, the population are in the grip of famine. People, especially children, are literally starving to death.<\/p>\n

The International Court of Justice, the world\u2019s highest court, chaired by an American judge, ruled<\/a> back in January \u2013 when the situation was far less dire than it is now \u2013 that a \u201cplausible\u201d case had been made Israel was committing genocide, a crime against humanity strictly defined in international law.<\/p>\n

And yet there were no calls by western leaders for “restraint” as Israel bombed Gaza into ruins week after week, striking its hospitals, levelling its government offices, blowing up its universities, mosques and churches, and destroying its bakeries.<\/p>\n

Rather, President Biden has repeatedly rushed<\/a> through emergency arms sales, bypassing Congress, to make sure Israel has enough bombs to keep destroying Gaza and killing its children.<\/p>\n

When Israeli leaders vowed <\/a>to treat Gaza\u2019s population like “human animals”, denying them all food, water and power, western politicians gave their assent.<\/p>\n

Sunak was not interested in recruiting his brave RAF pilots to “protect civilians” in Gaza from Israel, and Starmer showed no concern about the \u201cfear and instability\u201d felt by Palestinians from Israel\u2019s reign of terror.<\/p>\n

Quite the reverse. Starmer, famed as a human rights lawyer, even gave his approval<\/a> to Israel\u2019s collective punishment of the people of Gaza, its “complete siege”, as integral to a supposed Israeli “right of self-defence”.<\/p>\n

In doing so, he overturned one of the most fundamental principles of international law that civilians should not be targeted for the actions of their leaders. As is now all too apparent, he conferred a death sentence on the people of Gaza.<\/p>\n

Where was “restraint”\u00a0then?<\/p>\n

Missing in action<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Similarly, restraint went out of the window when Israel fabricated a pretext for eradicating the UN aid agency Unrwa<\/a>, the last lifeline for Gaza\u2019s starving population.<\/p>\n

Even though Israel was unable<\/a> to offer any evidence for its claim that a handful of Unrwa staff were implicated in an attack on Israel on 7 October, western leaders hurriedly cut off funding to the agency. In doing so, they became actively complicit in what the World Court already feared was a genocide.<\/p>\n

Where was the restraint when Israeli officials \u2013 with a long history of lying<\/a> to advance their state\u2019s military agenda\u00a0\u2013 made up stories about Hamas beheading babies, or carrying out systematic rapes on 7 October? All of this was debunked<\/a> by an Al Jazeera investigation drawing largely on Israeli sources.<\/p>\n

Those genocide-justifying deceptions were all too readily amplified by western politicians and media.<\/p>\n