[Jpost] How much damage can words do? Israel’s internal rhetoric is intensifying global condemnation and playing into the hands of those fueling anti-Israel sentiment.
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
— H.L.Mencken |
The barrage this week came fast, hard, and from all directions.
But it wasn’t missiles from Lebanon or drones from Iran that pounded Israel this time. Instead, it was a diplomatic onslaught: waves of condemnation, sanctions, and outrage from capitals across the globe, most notably in Europe.
The trigger: images of hungry children in Gaza flooding the airwaves, a wildly exaggerated claim by a senior UN official that 14,000 babies would die in Gaza if aid did not reach them in 48 hours, and Israel’s vow to intensify the fighting to free hostages and destroy Hamas.
A harsh statement signed by the leaders of Britain, France, and Canada, punitive threats – some already acted upon – and the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington all underscored a dangerous reality: Israel is not only fighting the war in Gaza but also a battle for legitimacy on the world stage.
The UK froze trade negotiations, the EU initiated a review of its association agreement with Israel, and foreign ministers queued up to censure. Yet, ironically, some of the sharpest blows came not from Israel’s enemies but from Israelis themselves.
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu tried to project calm at his first press conference since December.
“European countries will not influence us or cause us to abandon our core objectives: securing Israel’s future and safety,” he said. Israel, he asserted, would continue to aggressively pursue its war aims until Hamas is dismantled, the hostages are returned, and Gaza no longer poses a threat.
“We will do what is necessary to complete the war,” he said, adding that, in the end, Israel will have complete security control over the enclave.
Even as he dismissed European pressure, Netanyahu acknowledged the power of another force: images. Specifically, the images of hungry Gazan children and food lines that are dominating global headlines and eroding US political support.
Despite Hamas still holding 58 hostages, 20 of whom Netanyahu said were alive, and even with ongoing concerns about aid being intercepted by terrorists, Netanyahu reversed a policy in effect since March 2 and authorized renewed humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Why the shift? Because the White House requested it –
| I would vote for Donald Trump again, but this particular triangulation is shameful. Cowardly. He knows the situation and the ramifications, but chose to put his thumb on the scale for the side that created Elias Rodriguez, refusing to stand up against the lies. |
and because, as Netanyahu conveyed, even Israel’s closest allies could not bear the optics.
“Our best friends in the world,” Netanyahu said in a short video Monday explaining the new policy, “senators I have known as unstinting, enthusiastic supporters, who I have known for dozens of years, are coming to me and saying this: We give you all the assistance to complete the victory – arms, support to destroy Hamas, defense in the UN Security Council. There is one thing we cannot stand: We cannot take pictures of starvation, mass starvation. We won’t be able to support you.”
To retain international backing, Israel had to confront the humanitarian crisis; Netanyahu said: “To achieve victory, we have to solve the problem.”
IT’S A SOBERING message. Even in a war started by Hamas with its barbaric October 7 attack, optics and false narratives (such as 14,000 babies dying within 48 hours) are shaping the battlefield.
If the original logic in withholding the aid was to pressure Hamas into freeing hostages, the new approach suggests the opposite: resuming aid is essential to preserving international support needed to sustain military pressure on Hamas.
However, as the statements from some European capitals and Canada made clear – statements issued, ironically, the very day aid resumed – the intensified military campaign does not enjoy international legitimacy. But the move may help temper US criticism.
Critics on Netanyahu’s Right called the reversal capitulation. Critics on his Left said it was yet another example of incoherent policy. Both may have a point. But there’s another way to interpret it: tactical recalibration in a shifting geopolitical landscape.
At the core lies a truth too often ignored abroad: Hamas could end the humanitarian crisis immediately by releasing the hostages. It chooses not to because, for Hamas, the suffering of its own civilians is a weapon, not a liability.
“People have forgotten October 7,” said President Donald Trump during his Mideast tour, which ended last Friday in the UAE. “It was one of the most violent days in world history.” He’s right. And many have also forgotten that Gaza’s agony continues because Hamas refuses to yield, free the hostages, and surrender.
This war isn’t fought only in Rafah’s tunnels and in the alleys of Khan Yunis. It is also being waged in Washington’s corridors, at the UN, and on the world’s television screens.
Israel may have the upper hand militarily, but in Europe’s halls of power and in the court of global opinion, it is faltering. Some are arguing – with no small degree of justification – that Israel’s minimal public diplomacy suggests it has all but abandoned that front.
Adding to the public diplomacy challenge is that some of the damage is self-inflicted.
On the Left, Yair Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff and head of the Democrats Party, accused his own country this week of “killing babies as a hobby.”
On the Right, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke at a conference earlier this month of postwar Gaza where its “desperate” civilians will all be in the south, “understanding there is no future, no purpose, and nothing left for them in Gaza” but to seek relocation and start new lives elsewhere.
These voices may lie on the ideological fringes, but their words shape how the world sees the conflict. |
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