How slaughter and starvation of Gaza’s children are creating a sinister new world order
As the conflict in Gaza passes its 600th day, Israel’s actions and the lack of international response are accelerating the disintegration of any semblance of global governance
The war of words between European and Canadian political leaders and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provides a timely reminder of how any semblance of a positive vision for global governance continues to die in a world of division, anger, fear, and hate.
October 7, 2023 is a date that will live in infamy. Israel has the right to defend itself and deal with Hamas following its attacks on that day. But Israel as a country is unfortunately hurtling towards pariah status in a world tiring of Netanyahu’s apparent hatred of Palestinians and his desire to obliterate Gaza, annex the West Bank and destroy any prospects of a two-state solution.
Two other factors are placing Netanyahu on the wrong side of history. His political survival now depends on extending court proceedings about corruption charges for as long as possible and the support of far-right, anti-Arab, ultranationalists in his government.
The real pariah
To suggest that Keir Starmer, Canada’s Mark Carney and France’s Emmanuel Macron, who called for Israel to halt its latest offensive, are in any way responsible for the tragic and brutal murders of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC and accuse them of emboldening Hamas speaks volumes about this desperate Prime Minister. Netanyahu is the real pariah in this story.
Israel is a democracy, a friend and an ally. But Netanyahu is using claims of antisemitism – a real and unacceptable problem – as a shield to defend his government’s indefensible actions.
People are angry and sickened by the images of destruction and death being shown nightly on TV screens worldwide, but downplayed in Israel. This is a moral issue.
Netanyahu should feel emotionally challenged by emaciated children and babies being starved to death in Gaza, a young girl smashed to smithereens in her wheelchair, hospitals and medical staff bombed and denied vital medicines, humanitarian aid halted, innocents slaughtered, whole families wiped out and homes turned to rubble, while the West Bank is terrorised by Israeli settlers.
And yet on Netanyahu’s watch, it goes on and on. Deaths are dismissed by the Israel Defence Force as “targeted strikes”. Within the dark recesses of Netanyahu’s mind, moral bankruptcy is imperilling his impressive country – and it is spreading.
Starvation of children deemed ‘desirable’
In a remarkable and distressing meeting in the Israeli parliament, its Foreign Affairs and Defence Sub-committee discussed Gaza. Israeli’s left-leaning Haaretz newspaper reported the proceedings in an article headlined, “Knesset debate reveals not everyone thinks starving Gazan children is a bad thing”.
Giving evidence, Dr Sharon Shaul, of Israeli humanitarian organisation Natan, said she thought that “even everyone sitting around this table doesn't want a suffering child to be unable to receive painkillers or minimal medical treatment”.
This sparked a barrage of protest from MPs. “I'm not sure you're speaking for us when you say we want to treat every child and every woman,” said one. “You are the sickest doctor I've ever seen,” said another. Haaretz journalist Nir Hasson wrote that “many around the table indeed thought that the starvation and torment of Gazan children is not only legitimate but even desirable”.
Even more alarming was the comment of Moshe Saada, a Likud party MP and ally of Netanyahu, who told Israel’s Channel 14 he was "interested" in starving an entire nation. "Yes, I'll starve Gazans, yes, this is our obligation,” he said.
The failure of the League of Nations
How should the world respond? History provides little in the way of hope. The League of Nations was established in 1920, following the First World War, to promote international cooperation, encourage disarmament, improve global living conditions and prevent wars.
But it faced significant challenges. Europe remained unstable and, in Germany, resentment grew over the imposition of severe reparations by the war’s victors. The weak League, which infamously failed to achieve its aims and stop another world war, was dissolved in 1946.
We are now a few weeks away from the 80th anniversary of the signing of the “Charter of the United Nations”, the League’s successor organisation, in San Francisco in June 1945. Comprising nearly 200 nations, the UN has, for decades, played an important role in peacekeeping, human rights, international law, refugee crises, health, education and climate change.
United Nations’ weakness
But the return of a world of sovereign nations, powerful political alliances, an emphasis on national self-interest, growing military strength and populist leaders has made pursuing and enforcing international stability difficult and, at times, impossible. The world needs Abraham Lincoln’s “better angels of our nature” to show themselves if the UN is to find success.
The UN Security Council has 15 members but the five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US – can veto any resolution. The International Criminal Court was designed to have global authority but has been hampered by the US, India, China, Türkiye, Russia and others not being signatories. Israel signed up but never ratified its membership, putting it outwith the court’s jurisdiction.
The crumbling of the international order into further chaos is likely to continue but let’s hope the UN does not face the same fate as the League. And hopefully it will not take the threat or reality of a Third World War for countries to recognise again the need for order, and the benefits of peace, tolerance and respect.
The prospects remain grim. Until a new way forward for international cooperation is found, we will have to depend on ‘coalitions of the willing’ forming in response to pressing issues in world affairs, like the statement issued by the UK, the EU and Canada on the situation in Gaza.
This week US President Donald Trump has described Russia’s Vladimir Putin as “crazy” following a major attack on Ukraine, so what about Netanyahu? Does the systematic slaughter and the starvation of children in Gaza not meet the criteria for similar condemnation – or is it much worse?
Welcome to the new international order.
Henry McLeish is a former First Minister of Scotland
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