THIS week, outgoing US President Joe Biden took to the stage to tell the world about a breakthrough in the elusive truce between Israel and the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas.
Biden has been desperately searching for a deal – any deal, it seems, as he stands at the exit door of the White House – just so that history might look kindly on some of his contentious foreign policy decisions.
The Biden administration has been effectively dormant since their Democratic Party was decisively defeated by Donald Trump’s Republican Party in the November polls.
As US President-elect Trump prepares for his much-anticipated inauguration on January 20, lame duck Biden and his administration are trembling at the certain dismantling of their foreign policy initiatives.
Halting astronomical funding to Ukraine is certain to top the agenda in Trump’s foreign policy objectives, premised on the mantra “Make America Great Again.” His expressed desire to hold talks with his much-maligned Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, is another hot item on the menu of the incoming Trump administration.
This week’s widely embraced announcement of the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas would have been a feather in President Biden’s cap had he exhibited an iota of honesty, objectivity, and empathy for the more than 46,000 Palestinians – including 18,000 children – killed in Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
South Africa and most of the international community, particularly across the Global South, have written their names in the annals of history with great honour in service to humanity by standing on the side of the weak against the powerful, drawing the world’s attention to Israel’s actions against Palestinians.
Numerous times before, the world has paused with great anticipation at news of a truce between Israel and Hamas. But every time negotiations led by Qatar and Egypt appeared promising, the US-backed Israeli Defense Force would use Washington-issued weapons to assassinate Hamas leaders they ought to have been negotiating with. The slain Hamas leaders eliminated despite being the public faces leading negotiations with Israel included top figures such as Ismail Haniyeh, Marwan Issa, Fatah Sharif, and Yahya Sinwar.
This strategy of the Jewish state has triggered more confusion than rationality in international relations. Israel has proven it could talk peace to lull Hamas into slumber while continuing to inflict casualties on Palestinian men, women, and children with apparent impunity.
In fact, when it comes to Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems willing to target anything that moves, including animals and insects, with the same venom meted out to suspected Hamas operatives.
If lame-duck Biden still commanded any semblance of credibility in the Israel-Hamas conflict, his news conference about the announcement of a ceasefire would have triggered unrestrained jubilation. Instead, it triggered cautious optimism.
According to Biden, the latest round of the peace deal will be rolled out in three stages. In the first phase, it will last up to six weeks, during which Israel would negotiate a long-term cessation of hostilities.
If no desired long-term deal is achieved at the end of six weeks, “the ceasefire will still continue,” we are told.
Of course, news of a pause, no matter how long, is music to the ears of every Palestinian and peace-loving people the world over. Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, all Palestinians, especially those who live in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, have had their lives turned into a living hell.
Biden’s remarks caught my attention when he elaborated on the ceasefire terms: “The Palestinians can also return to their neighbourhoods in all areas of Gaza. And the surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza will begin. And the innocent people can have greater access to vital supplies.” As politics ejects him from the White House, Biden wants to build a false legacy as the man who stopped the war on Gaza and saved lives. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Thanks to modern technology, the revolution – nay, conflict – is being televised. The advent of social media has brought about the global compression of time and space. Geographical distance and Westphalian borders matter no more. The mainstream media has lost its traditional monopoly on news coverage and analysis. The sight of helpless Palestinians of all ages being pulled from the rubble of bombed-out buildings has become a regular feature on our mobile phones. We hear and see the truth in its rawest form, uncensored by powerful news outlets that might manipulate the weak and vulnerable. What does Biden mean when he says Palestinians “can return to their neighbourhoods” when the ceasefire takes effect on Sunday, January 19?
Does the old man know that the bombs he has signed off on for use against the Palestinians have razed the majority of buildings to the ground? Neighbourhoods, where children were once raised in close-knit families now, resemble dumping sites, with heaps of rubble and hundreds of trapped corpses languishing underneath.
The Israeli military campaign against Gazans is a singularly persuasive indictment of Biden’s controversial foreign policy over the last four years, which has yearned to dominate the world through NATO. Leave Ukraine aside for now. That’s a story for another day.
Phase two of the ceasefire reads as follows: “An exchange will be made for the release of the remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and all the remaining Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza, with a temporary ceasefire becoming permanent.”
Well, from the outset, Washington’s sole interest has been the plight of Israeli hostages and their welfare. In stark contrast, the welfare of innocent Palestinians has been of secondary concern.
No wonder this week, a group of Palestinian journalists – visibly emotionally drained and with teary eyes – made an impassioned plea to the self-appointed gods of journalism in the Global North, appealing for empathy and support.
Since October 7, more than 200 Palestinian journalists have been killed, an unprecedented mortality rate in any conflict in contemporary history.
In a dramatic illustration of how painful it is to be treated as a second-class human being, the Palestinian journalists said “Maybe if our eyes were blue,” our situation would be different. When lives are regarded and treated as devoid of equality, words fail even the most consummate professional wordsmiths such as these Palestinian media practitioners who know too well that their sin, like Africans during slavery and apartheid in South Africa, was the colour of their skin.
The third phase of the ceasefire would be marked by returning the remains of the “murdered hostages” to their families. And finally, “a large-scale post-war reconstruction” would only then commence in Gaza.
The UN says “billions, not millions, of dollars” will be required to rebuild the once-vibrant Gaza Strip, home to over 2 million people who reject Israel’s occupation of their land. The discrimination and oppression of the Palestinians, the denial of their basic human rights, and constant detention without trial, among other reported atrocities, are some of the worst forms of colonial excesses in modern history.
As the world waits with bated breath to see if the ceasefire holds, the Israeli Knesset is embroiled in a fierce debate over whether to accept the terms of the ceasefire. The predominant right-wing Jewish parliamentarians believe that the deal in its current form does not favour Israel. They want to carry on one more time with the bombardment of whatever little is left of Gaza, knowing too well that President Trump will arm the IDF to the teeth and make Biden look like a saint. It’s time to buckle up, my dear people. The road ahead looks rather too bumpy. Like South Africans, spare a thought for Palestinians. Above all, do something that could alleviate their plight. Let them know that like South Africa, the majority of the world will never forsake them. Finally, like African Americans at the height of slavery, let the Palestinians sing: “We shall overcome.”
*Abbey Makoe is Founder and Editor-in-Chief: Global South Media Network.
