Dumbfounded by the Israeli barbaric brutality, and yet, unable to react equitably or impartially, the world watches as Israel continues to wipe out Palestinians and now Lebanese too, from existence. In a war that is the most documented, it is the most denied, so the question arises: why is Israel getting away with pretty much anything asks Azza Radwan Sedky?
A defiant Netanyahu had said that no one can halt Israel's war to crush Hamas, “not the Hague, not the axis of evil and not anyone else”; he also warned that “no force in the world” will stop the IDF’s war on Gaza, which seems to be the case. In his latest speech at the UN, he brazenly said, “"There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel can't reach, and that's true of the entire Middle East.”
With bizarre arrogance, Netanyahu orders the world about, bombs whichever country he pleases, and kills all civilians standing in his way. When President Biden suggested to Netanyahu not to prolong the war for political gains, Netanyahu rebuffed the advice of the US, his most vital ally. You see, Israel doesn’t fear reproachment, so it normalizes the unthinkable with no fear, no shame, and no humanity.
Netanyahu also believes that there will no consequences, and if the Israeli leader believes Israel has a free hand to do whatever it wishes, no wonder Israelis think they’re omnipotent. In fact, Israeli soldiers have taken to senselessly parading their bloodbaths on social media.
At the grassroot level, people of the world have watched with trepidation and indeed voiced their disbelief and indignation, but at the governmental level, the world, in particular, the western one has remained tight lipped and numb, so, despite the ongoing hardships and suffering, the war continues unabated.
Two factors have caused the Israeli irreproachable mindset: one, its relationship with the US and, two, its technological development. The US has played a huge role in allowing Israel to get away with murder, literally speaking, and emboldened it to inflict harm in a pattern of excesses and abuses. Once a disaster occurs such as the levelling of a school with its shelter-seeking occupants in Gaza, or the blasting of pagers and walkie-talkies in the hands of civilians such as doctors or nurses in Lebanon, or the bombing of an Iranian consulate with its fifteen staff members in Syria, the White House Press secretary has no comment but comes up with empty excuses, “The US was not aware of the attack,’ “I’m not going to get into speculation here,” “We need to wait for the report,” or “Let’s wait for the Israeli investigation.” That until the incident is forgotten because dozen other incidents take place.
The pro-Israeli lobby is one of the most organized and powerful entities in the US and elsewhere. No other religious or political lobby is as well-resourced or as coordinated. While it flaunts a unique and powerful strategy, the Israeli lobby plays the victim and, in the process, smears those in support of Palestinian rights. Pro-Israeli lobbies also buy the media that simply parrot Israel’s antisemitism propaganda and self-defence narrative.
According to Open Secrets, a non-profit US organization, the Pro-Israeli political action committees including AIPAC donated over 3 billion dollars to the 2023-2024 presidential election with almost equal shares between Democrats and Republicans. This maintains lawmakers’ dedication to Israel and blinds them to its atrocities. Politico, an American political digital newspaper, confirms this, “The American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC] has become a fundraising juggernaut in recent years, raising more money for candidates this cycle than any similar organization as part of its mission to back candidates who support Israel.”
In essence, the pro-Israeli lobby groups buy the loyalty and acceptance of US politicians who turn a blind eye to Israel’s actions. Consequently, the US Congress is brimming with Zionist supporters whose members stood 58 times to applaud Netanyahu as he spoke in Congress and welcomed him despite his slaughtering of civilians at will. And this makes the Israeli regime totally indifferent to US superficial and empty concerns and demands since it doesn’t expect any retribution.
In the meantime, any US government proposal that the Israeli lobby deems unfavourable to Israel stands little chance of passing. Simultaneously, the US continues to fund the war crimes by providing military aid and vetoing every pro-Palestinian proposal in the UN Security Council thus maintaining the injustice and protecting Israel from the condemnation of the global community.
We must also admit that Israel’s most important power lies in technology. According to Bloomberg Innovation Index, Israel ranks second in research and development worldwide; it has become a global technological powerhouse providing world governments, their military, and corporations with high world technology, data bases, cyber security and cyberwarfare, and cryptic communication. Today, Israeli companies are solution providers for hundreds of giant telecom operators around the world. These technologies produced by Israeli companies are so deeply embedded in the products and services of other companies especially in the realms of IT, software and internet that it would be impossible to do without them. And once you are so reliant on Israel’s indispensable technology, you pay the price: you are monopolized, and you must conform.
Netanyahu knows this and often tells the world how it needs Israel. “The rapid change of the world’s economy to a technologically driven one plays to Israel’s strengths; Israel is right in the nexus of big data, connectivity and artificial intelligence. That affects everything. Nothing remains without technology. Nothing.”
And now Israel is turning its high-tech into global political power. Fathom, an Israeli site talks of Israel’s “ability to conduct sophisticated cyberwarfare … is enhancing Israel’s value as an ally to the West…To boycott companies that do substantial business with Israel would mean shunning products and services made by Apple, Google, Microsoft, Intel and Amazon, to name a few of the most high-profile examples.”
With many countries relying on Israel services, Israel can deliberately, if it so wishes, infiltrate company systems worldwide, attach defects or crypto messages to these systems, add malware so as to be called upon to fix it, and switch off infrastructures if it deems fit, all aspects that can bring any economy to its knees. One example is seen in the telecommunication networks in Gaza, which were disrupted and sometimes shutdown completely.
Along these lines, we can see precisely how the Israelis pulled off the pager and walkie talkie operation. According to John Brennan, Former CIA Director, who spoke to US Today, “The Israeli intelligence and security services have tremendous technical capabilities as well as creativity. They fabricated the pagers via a shell company and included the explosive material inside them that could be detonated with some digital signal that was set from afar.”
He also says that Israel has been resorting to such tactics over the years, “usually it is for surveillance or collection capabilities so you could listen on a conversation but the scale of this is unprecedent. But it demonstrates Israel’s ability to reach into the supply chain of its arch enemy.”
Unfortunately, many countries are wary of what Israel can do so they succumb to its callings. Hence, the world watches and does nothing.
