As the world held its collective breath, Israel and Iran appear to have averted a deadly all-out-war. that could have spread across the Middle East and would have likely drawn in world powers including the U.S. After Israel bombed Iran’s Syrian embassy compound on April 1, killing 7 Iranian military officers, Iran retaliated by launching more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel that did little damage due to effective air defense systems. Israel then hit back with an airstrike that damaged Iran’s air defense system in Isfahan province, which guards the nation’s underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans to retaliate further.
Meanwhile, the death toll from Israel’s war in Gaza continued to climb to more than 34,000, with the majority of victims women and children. On April 22, Palestinian officials say they found mass graves with more than 200 bodies of men, women and children at the sites of the Al-Shifa and Nasser Hospitals in Gaza following Israeli military operations there. The U.N. human rights office is investigating.
Here in the U.S., the House of Representatives approved $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza, but one day later it was reported that the Biden administration is considering imposing sanctions on one or more Israeli military units accused of human rights violations during operations in the occupied West Bank. If carried out, this would be the first time Washington has ever imposed sanctions on the Israeli Defense Force. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Richard Silverstein, publisher of Tikun Olam, a blog focusing on Israeli national security issues. Here he discusses the reported US sanctions on Israel, and growing concern about the loss of life that will occur if Israel moves forward with its planned attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge.
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: The State Department is about to issue sanctions against an entire IDF brigade called Netzah Yehuda. It’s made up of hilltop youth who are the most extreme and violent of the settlers in the West Bank and they basically put terrorists in uniform and gave them guns. And as a result, they murdered an 80-year-old Palestinian American citizen in the West Bank. And they’ve committed other war crimes.
And this is the first time that the U.S. has targeted an official government entity. It’s the first time it’s targeting the Army as well. This is a precedent I think that could be expanded in the future, because there are a number of egregious units in the IDF that are known for their brutality, among them the Israeli border police, who are very active in suppressing the Palestinians in the West Bank.
SCOTT HARRIS: Richard, with the ongoing bloody war in Gaza and little indication that negotiations on achieving a ceasefire, Israel is moving forward with what could be a devastating attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinian refugees have sought safety with nowhere else to go. The Biden administration has urged Israel not to go forward with this attack and human rights staff on the ground predict thousands or more casualties of Palestinian civilians if Israel does indeed move forward with its planned attack on Rafah.
This seems to be an inflection point of how much influence Joe Biden, as president of the U.S., has on Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: I think that we have very limited influence on Netanyahu because of two things. First of all, Netanyahu has an extremist fascist government whose ministers are prepared not only to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from all of Palestine, but also to engage in genocide. Netanyahu has to keep his far right-wing satisfied and Biden is completely out of that realm.
So Netanyahu actually will score points in Israel by defying the United States. And Biden, who could exert a lot of impact and influence on the Israelis, refuses because of him being under the thumb and under the influence of the Israel lobby here in the United States. So he’s engaged in some small, tepid actions after three vetoes of the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
We finally changed our tune. And I think we abstained from the vote, but that allowed it to be passed. So we’ve had lost opportunities all along the way here. And, Biden is desperate for this to be contained because he’s got an election in November and there’s a huge, disgruntled minority in the Democratic party. I would say close to a million Democrats in primaries have voted uncommitted instead of voting for him.
So many of that million or so, those votes are going to return to him in November. But even if a small percentage don’t, we have an election that’s going to be on the razor’s edge in terms of you know, Trump and Biden and even a thousand votes here or there in different states could turn the the outcome of the election.
And Biden, in my opinion, has really squandered a political opportunity and really endangered his chances of being re-elected in November.
And if I can just pivot to a different, but related issue, and that is that next month the International Criminal Court is probably going to issue arrest warrants for a genocide investigation that it has been conducting since 2014.
The chief prosecutor is expected to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and the senior military command. That would limit their ability to leave Israel. And if they did go to countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute which created the ICC, they could be arrested and conveyed to The Hague for trial.
So, this is also an unprecedented development, and it’s directly tied to Gaza. And if they invade Rafah, going back to your question, then the ICC becomes even more potent in terms of expressing global outrage. And the the ICC has never, gone further than announcing an investigation of Israel. This would take it one step farther and could lead to an indictment, could lead to a trial, could lead to a conviction.
And, these are very positive developments.
For more information, visit Richard Silverstein’s Tikun Olam Blog at richardsilverstein.com.
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Richard Silverstein (16:59). More articles and opinion pieces are found in the Related Links section of this page.
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