The Killing Continues

Blog#202- 5/23/24

THE KILLING CONTINUES
By Richard Davis

Despite the fact the world opinion is increasingly hostile to the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, the killing continues.

Despite the fact that Spain, Norway and Ireland have recognized a Palestinian state, the killing continues. Despite the fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is requesting arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, the killing continues.

There are many international organizations making statements about the continuing atrocities being committed by Israel and Hamas and worldwide college protests only reinforced the polarization that has been created over the war in Gaza.

What good are all of these efforts if they only produce talk and more talk while the leaders of countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Israel and a host of other smaller countries waging wars, as well as terrorists groups such as Hamas, do not stop fighting?

According to a recent New York Times report, “The court’s (ICC) prosecutor, Karim Khan, said in a statement that he was applying for arrest warrants for Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas because he had “reasonable grounds to believe” that they were responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, which included “the killing of hundreds of Israeli civilians” in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, and the taking of at least 245 hostages.”

They went on to note that, “Mr. Khan also said that he had requested arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, because there were reasonable grounds to believe that they bore responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the starvation of civilians as a weapon of war and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population. Mr. Khan said that these crimes were committed “as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population.”

He also said that in his office’s view, some of the crimes “continue to this day.”

The ICC is a good example of an international organization that makes statements about bad things that happen around the world and then takes months or years to begin to do anything about it. The ICC has issued 46 arrest warrants since its founding in 2002 and less than half of those people were brought into custody.

Then there is the United Nations. That organization has been making efforts to negotiate an end to the war in Gaza but they have had the same level of success as other parties. The U.N. is working to bring more humanitarian aid to Gazans and that may be the best they can do even though they are an organization that, theoretically, should have a lot of power to end conflicts around the world. That potential has rarely been realized.

Diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, continue to try to negotiate terms of a cease fire but all of those efforts have failed. A few weeks ago it looked like a deal might be brokered but Israel nixed the effort that Hamas had agreed to.

As far as I am concerned the only hope for a cease fire and an end to the fighting in Gaza is for Israelis to elect a new government that does not include Netanyahu and his cabal of vengeful death and destruction proponents.