Fish don’t buy umbrellas to survive in the sea

LONDON: When Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the world was appalled by the savagery of an assault that left more than 1,200 Israelis and people of other nationalities dead, and saw some 250 taken hostage.

At that moment, Israel had the unbridled sympathy of the Western world. But within days that sympathy had all but evaporated, swept away by rising disgust at the slaughter unleashed in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces.

By Oct. 24, 2023, just 17 days after the Hamas-led attack, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was urging the UN Security Council to rein in Israel. He had “condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented acts of terror by Hamas in Israel.”

But now, he said, “those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people” being meted out by Israel in Gaza. “Even war has rules,” he added.

By then, more than a million Palestinians had already been displaced and 5,000 had been killed, according to Gaza’s health authorities, including more than 1,100 women and 2,000 children, along with journalists, medics, and first responders.

Even before Guterres spoke out, thousands appalled by Israel’s behavior had already begun to take to the streets in Western capitals to express their horror and offer their moral support to the Palestinian people.

Some of the first protests took place in the UK, on Oct. 15, just a week after the Hamas-led attack. In London, thousands rallied in response to a plea by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and marched on Downing Street, home of the British prime minister.

Many carried Palestinian flags and banners with messages including “Free Palestine — end Israeli occupation” and “Stop bombing Gaza.”

The BBC’s headquarters in Portland Place, central London, was daubed in red paint, symbolising what activists called the broadcaster’s “complicity in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people through biased reporting.”

In Parliament and in some sections of the media, the protestors were immediately accused of antisemitism and of supporting Hamas. One protestor, interviewed in London by Reuters, made the purpose of the protests crystal clear.

“This is not about Hamas,” she said. “This is about protecting Palestinian lives.”

The protests spread like wildfire to other cities and campuses throughout the UK and then to Europe, the Middle East and Asia. By the end of October, demonstrations had erupted in Copenhagen, Rome, Stockholm, and Wellington.

In France, despite a ban on pro-Palestinian rallies, protests still braved arrest to make their voices heard in Paris and Marseille.

The protests were no flash in the pan, either. Into the new year and up until today, they have kept on coming.

As the death toll in Gaza mounted, reaching 30,000 by March 2024, it was not long before the outrage spread to the US, where on March 20 NBC reported that “in cities across the country, highways have been blocked, trains have been delayed and sections of college campuses have been shut down by hundreds of thousands of people who have taken to the streets … protesting Israel’s invasion of Gaza.”

A week later, on March 27, a Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans opposed Israel’s military action in Gaza.

During a speech on the election campaign trail in North Carolina, President Joe Biden was interrupted by protesters demanding a US intervention to end the suffering of the Palestinians. Their shouts turned to cheers when the president heard them out and then said: “They have a point. We need to get a lot more care into Gaza.”

Dismay at the administration’s failure to rein in Israel, especially among the influential Arab American community in some key swing states, may well have cost Biden’s VP Kamala Harris the presidency.

Everywhere, alarmed by the strength of global feeling provoked by the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, the pro-Israel lobby rallied. Unable to defend Israel’s actions in Gaza, instead it went on the attack.

The protests, they said, were not pro-Palestinian or even anti-Israel, but antisemitic — an allegation that is frequently leveled at anyone who has criticised Israel’s behavior in Gaza and the West Bank.

In the UK, the lengths to which the pro-Israel lobby was prepared to go to distract attention away from the cause of the protests became evident after an extraordinary episode in April.

The media rushed to report the claims of Gideon Falter, the chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, that he had accidentally stumbled into the path of a pro-Palestinian protest and had then been threatened with arrest because his “openly Jewish” appearance was antagonising the marchers.

The incident was filmed, and selectively edited, by the CAA. But when the full footage later emerged it became clear that Falter had deliberately tried to provoke demonstrators by pushing past police officers and walking in the path of the demonstration.

In the US, wealthy Jewish donors banded together to attack universities for allowing pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses. According to a report by CNBC, even as protests were taking off in the US in late October 2023, billionaire supporters of Ivy League schools including Harvard, Yale, and Penn threatened to withdraw funding.

By January 2024, the wealthy donors had successfully hounded out of office two high-profile leaders, Harvard president Claudine Gay and Penn president Liz Magill, both of whom resigned.

In an op-ed published in the Guardian in January 2024, Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, wrote that “as a Jew, I also cannot help but worry that the actions of these donors — many of them Jewish, many from Wall Street — could fuel the very antisemitism they claim to oppose, based on the age-old stereotype of wealthy Jewish bankers controlling the world.”

The determined assault on the defenders of Palestine by the Jewish lobby has continued unabated. In the UK last week, the head of the British Medical Association was accused by campaign group Labour Against Antisemitism of creating “a hostile environment” for Jewish doctors, and is now under investigation by her own organization.

Dr. Mary McCarthy’s “offense” was to have reposted a message on her X account that described the conflict in Gaza as “a holocaust.”

Over in Ireland, it was reported last week that Israel is to close its embassy in Dublin, accusing the Irish government of “extreme anti-Israel policies” and “crossing every red line.” In May, Ireland, followed quickly by Spain, Norway, and Slovenia, had recognized Palestine as an independent, sovereign state.

In July, the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe wrote of his alarm that “nine months into the Israeli genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip,” Israel’s “parallel attack on freedom of speech on Palestine is continuing with intensity, making it difficult for the general public to appreciate the reality in Palestine beyond the manipulated and distorted coverage offered by mainstream media.”

All over the Global North, universities had “ousted students simply for being members of outfits such as Students for Justice in Palestine. They even disinvited academics or authors who dared to criticize Israel.

“Similar actions were taken against journalists and people in public services, even those who accompanied their criticism with a condemnation of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.”

It was, he added in an article published in the Palestine Chronicle, “clear that we are facing a coordinated campaign led by the pro-Israeli lobby and aimed at continuing the historical denial of the ongoing Nakba.”

That denial, however, appears to be falling on deaf ears.

In recent weeks, thousands have continued to protest on the streets of London and other Western capitals. The UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign has even announced plans for its first national demonstration of 2025.

On Jan. 18, it said, “we will march through London once again to demand an end to Israel’s genocide in Palestine.”

It added: “It is vital we continue to take to the streets in huge numbers to demand an end to British complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid, including through an end to all arms trade with Israel.”

As 2024 has seen an extraordinary outpouring of global outrage at the death and destruction being wrought by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, so 2025 will see no let-up in the calls for Israel to be held to account.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday called on the US and France to help speed up the withdrawal of Israeli forces from his country nearly a month into a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Mikati emphasized his commitment to “resolving all disputes related to the Blue Line — the UN-demarcated boundary between Lebanon and Israel — to eliminate any justification for the Israeli occupation of Lebanese land.”

Mikati was on his first visit to the southern frontlines, where Lebanese soldiers under the US-brokered ceasefire deal are expected to gradually deploy, with Hezbollah and Israeli troops expected to withdraw by the end of next month.

Speaking from the border town of Khiam, Mikati said he was working with “the World Bank, the European Union, Arab countries, and our international partners to create a trust fund” for reconstruction efforts.

The World Bank estimated in October that the fighting had caused physical damage amounting to “at least $3.4 billion” in Lebanon.

Mikati is the first Lebanese official to enter Khiam after the withdrawal of the Israeli army and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the area.

He assessed the extensive and systematic destruction in the town after the Israeli forces’ demolition of homes and facilities.

Mikati expressed “profound pain over the destruction.”

He underlined the need for “an immediate Israeli withdrawal from the Lebanese territories that the Israeli army has penetrated.”

He said: “These are essential issues for the Lebanese army to be ready to carry out its duties in full. The measures related to UN Resolution 1701 will take their natural course and be fully implemented by the army, with American and French guarantees.”

He said no obstacles must prevent the army from fulfilling its duties.

Mikati said that “the delay and procrastination in implementing the international resolution did not originate from the military, but rather the issue lies with the Israeli side, which is exhibiting a reluctance to proceed.”

He continued: “We must consult the parties to the ceasefire agreement, namely the French and the Americans, to put an end to this Israeli procrastination and to expedite the process as much as possible before the end of the 60 days stipulated in the ceasefire agreement for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Lebanese territories.”

Mikati said the Lebanese government “is responsible for implementing measures in line with international law. It is also fully committed to enforcing UN Security Council resolutions.

“This is the current scope of our work. I say to all skeptics: ‘Hope for the best, and you shall find it.’”

Regarding reconstruction, Mikati said: “We will develop a plan and conduct studies within the necessary timeframe and with complete transparency.”

The truce in southern Lebanon went into force on Nov. 27 after more than a year of cross-border hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that began with the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

During his first visit to the border region since the implementation of the ceasefire, under the auspices of the US and France, Mikati traveled from Beirut to the Marjayoun barracks in the eastern sector to inspect the army units stationed at the front lines.

Awaiting his arrival was the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, Gen. Joseph Aoun.

Mikati saluted “the souls of the army martyrs who fell defending the land,” praising “the high morale of the soldiers and their insistence on defending the land despite all the difficulties.”

The prime minister said: “The army has never faltered in its duties, and we are facing a challenging test.

“It has consistently proven to be a symbol of national unity and carries out its responsibilities, with all Lebanese standing by its side in support.”

Mikati expressed the hope that the meeting he has requested on Tuesday with the US, French, and Lebanese military representatives in the oversight committee for monitoring the ceasefire “will address issues related to the deployment of the Lebanese army in light of Israel’s withdrawal from all territories it penetrated during its recent aggression so that the army can carry out its duties in full.”

Gen. Aoun said that “despite all the limited resources, the army remained steadfast in its positions and protected civilians. We will continue our mission because we believe in our actions.”

The second stop for Mikati and Gen. Aoun on the tour was the UNIFIL Eastern Sector Command in the town of Ebel El-Saqi.

UNIFIL Force Commander Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lazaro and the commander of the eastern sector, Gen. Fernando Ruiz, received them.

The audience listened to an explanation of the field situation in the operations room.

Gen. Lazaro highlighted the tasks carried out by UNIFIL in coordination with the army.

He confirmed “the continuation of the meetings of the Ceasefire Monitoring Committee to carry out the required tasks.”

Mikati praised UNIFIL’s “role and close cooperation with the army.”

He emphasized that “our priority is the full implementation of Resolution 1701, Israel’s withdrawal from the territories it has penetrated, and stopping the systematic destruction of villages and halting violations. We look forward to long-term stability in the south through the army carrying out its duties in full cooperation with UNIFIL.”

On his way back, Mikati was warmly welcomed by residents of Qlayaa and Marjayoun in the towns’ squares, where he praised “the steadfastness of the people and their attachment to their land.”

Also on Monday, in a provocative move, the Israeli army raised the Israeli flag at the entrance of the southern Lebanese border town of Naqoura. UNIFIL’s headquarters are in Naqoura.

The Israeli forces also blocked the Bint Jbeil–Maroun El-Ras road with earth mounds and concrete blocks, preventing vehicle access to Maroun El-Ras.

Israel reconnaissance planes continued to violate Lebanese airspace in the south.

Israeli forces shelled Kafr Kila and Bani Hayyan and destroyed houses in Naqoura, as well as in Al-Bustan and Al-Zalloutiyeh in Tyre, south Lebanon.

The Israeli army again warned residents of southern Lebanon not to move south to a line of villages stretching from Mansouri on the coast to Shebaa in the east until further notice.