As the death toll in Gaza continues to rise, Israel finds itself increasingly isolated on the global stage. Countries that once pledged their support to Israel following a Hamas-led terrorist attack in October are now turning their backs on the nation. The consequences of this desertion are far-reaching, from Security to economics, and risk turning Israel into a pariah state. The world’s top court is considering whether Israeli leaders have committed genocide, and protests have overtaken cities and campuses worldwide.
Ireland and Spain have announced their intention to recognize Palestine as a state by the end of the month. Even the United States, long Israel’s closest ally and benefactor, is threatening to withhold certain arms shipments for the first time since the war began. Seven months after much of the world pledged its support to Israel, the country finds itself increasingly isolated. With a war that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians and left Gaza on the verge of famine, any international goodwill that Israel amassed on October 7 has been all but lost. Of greatest concern to Israel is the splintering of relations with the United States.
Different reasons given for Israel’s isolation.
President Biden, once quiet about his expectations that Israel limit civilian deaths and increase access to humanitarian aid, has become more vocal amid partisan political pressure in an election year. His warning that the pause in arms shipments could extend to more weapons was his greatest break yet with Israel’s government, suggesting that the outrage coursing through capitals and campuses would continue to spread. The backlash has stunned and confused Israelis, who are still reeling from Hamas’s October attacks and mostly see the war as justified.
Many blame unchecked antisemitism and American party Politics for Israel’s isolation. Others struggle to parse reasonable critique from selective virtue signalling. They ask why more attention is not paid to Israeli victims and why there are no protests against China’s persecution of Uyghurs or Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. “If we need to stand alone,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said, “we will stand alone.” The statement acknowledges and seeks to defy Israel’s growing isolation, but the consequences of those desertions cannot be ignored. Turkey has suspended Trade with Israel, and the world’s top court is considering whether Israeli leaders have committed genocide.
Updates on the situation on campuses and other places.
Protests have overtaken cities and campuses worldwide, and Ireland and Spain have announced their intention to recognize Palestine as a state by the end of the month. Even the United States is threatening to withhold certain arms shipments for the first time since the war began. Israel has endured the world’s glare before, shrugging off frequent criticism at the U.N. and an Arab boycott that lasted decades. But this is not 1948, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006, or 2014 – years with previous conflicts. Before October 7, most of Israel’s allies in the West were focused on Ukraine’s fight with Russia and the challenge of a more assertive China. The Middle East had largely fallen off the radar.
Climate change was driving a retreat from oil. Israel and Saudi Arabia were openly discussing normalized relations even as Israel’s democracy had become more polarized and parochial. At exactly that moment, Hamas struck, and Israel retaliated. President Biden’s first response was complete solidarity: “My administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering,” he said on the day of the attacks. Other world leaders followed suit. The Israeli flag and its colours were projected on the Brandenburg Gate, 10 Downing Street, and the Sydney Opera House. Yet even as horrific details of Hamas’s murders and mutilation sowed nightmares, there were signs of concern about the government of Mr. Netanyahu and its absolutist approach.
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Mr. Netanyahu’s promise to “demolish Hamas” struck many military strategists as too broad to be effective. And when Israeli forces began to pummel Gaza’s crowded cities with huge bombs, toppling buildings on families along with militants, support for Israel weakened. Washington had been warning Israel to better protect civilians. Israel continued bombing. The United States and other countries pushed Israel to create corridors for aid. They demanded a plan for governing Gaza after the fighting. Israel intensified its assault on a territory roughly the size of Philadelphia, densely packed with two million people, many of them children, while keeping out most independent journalists, leaving image sharing to those under attack. The results were dire: By late November, people were being killed in Gaza more quickly, according to experts, than in even the deadliest moments of the American-led attacks in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.