{"id":48447,"date":"2024-05-11T13:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-05-11T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/11\/isolated-and-defiant-israel-vows-to-stand-alone-in-war-on-hamas\/"},"modified":"2024-05-11T13:00:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T13:00:16","slug":"isolated-and-defiant-israel-vows-to-stand-alone-in-war-on-hamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/11\/isolated-and-defiant-israel-vows-to-stand-alone-in-war-on-hamas\/","title":{"rendered":"Isolated and Defiant, Israel Vows to \u2018Stand Alone\u2019 in War on Hamas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/30\/multimedia\/30israel-isolation-vcbl\/30israel-isolation-vcbl-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Isolated and Defiant, Israel Vows to \u2018Stand Alone\u2019 in War on Hamas\" title=\"Isolated and Defiant, Israel Vows to \u2018Stand Alone\u2019 in War on Hamas\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Turkey has suspended trade with Israel. The world\u2019s top court is considering whether Israeli leaders have committed genocide. Protests have overtaken cities and campuses worldwide. Ireland and Spain say they will recognize Palestine as a state by the end of the month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even the United States \u2014 long Israel\u2019s closest ally and benefactor \u2014 is threatening for the first time since the war began to withhold certain arms shipments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Seven months after much of the world pledged its support to Israel following a Hamas-led terrorist attack, 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 good will that Israel amassed on Oct. 7 has been all but lost.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Of greatest concern to Israel: splintering relations with the United States. 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. This week, Mr. Biden said the United States was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/08\/us\/politics\/biden-israel-weapons-rafah.html\" title=\"\">withholding<\/a> delivery of 3,500 high-payload bombs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His warning on Wednesday that the pause could extend to more weapons was his greatest break yet with Israel\u2019s government. It suggested that the outrage coursing through capitals and campuses would continue to spread, and it has. On Friday, in a largely symbolic gesture, the United Nations General Assembly <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2024\/05\/10\/world\/israel-gaza-war-hamas-rafah#un-resolution-palestinian\" title=\"\">backed<\/a> Palestine\u2019s bid for U.N. membership, and thousands of demonstrators in Sweden protested against Israel\u2019s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIf we need to stand alone,\u201d Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Thursday, both acknowledging and seeking to defy his country\u2019s growing isolation, \u201cwe will stand alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The backlash, which also extends to Israeli athletes and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/israel-news\/2024-04-12\/ty-article-magazine\/.highlight\/amid-gaza-war-israeli-academia-faces-an-unprecedented-boycott\/0000018e-cee6-d5ed-adcf-fff6f1d00000\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">academics facing boycotts<\/a> and protests, has stunned and confused Israelis, who are still reeling from Hamas\u2019s October attacks and mostly see the war as justified. Many blame unchecked antisemitism and American party politics for Israel\u2019s isolation. Others struggle to parse reasonable critique from selective virtue signaling. They ask why more attention is not paid to Israeli victims, and why there are no protests against China\u2019s persecution of Uyghurs or Russia\u2019s brutal invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe demonstrations on American campuses, they don\u2019t call for peace, they don\u2019t call for an independent Palestinian state or a two-state solution,\u201d said Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations. \u201cThey call for the elimination of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s the slow-motion formation of a pariah state,\u201d said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the complex, layered reproof from around the world cannot be ignored as just the whims of anti-Israel activists. Israel is facing real consequences, from security to economics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And while the isolation is partly a byproduct of how Israel has prosecuted the war, analysts and former officials say it also reflects international frustration with the government\u2019s restrictions on food aid, a shift in global politics that has pushed Israel down the priority list and the Israeli public\u2019s narrow focus on its own pain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israel has endured the world\u2019s glare before, shrugging off frequent criticism at the U.N. and an Arab boycott that lasted decades. Though Israel governs a spit of land no bigger than Maryland, it has always had a centripetal pull, placing its wars at the emotional center of global politics. But this is not 1948, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006 or 2014 \u2014 years with previous conflicts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Before Oct. 7, most of Israel\u2019s allies in the West were focused on Ukraine\u2019s 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\u2019s democracy had become more polarized and parochial.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At exactly that moment, Hamas struck and Israel retaliated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Biden\u2019s first response was complete solidarity: \u201cMy administration\u2019s support for Israel\u2019s security is rock solid and unwavering,\u201d he said on the day of the attacks. Other world leaders followed suit. The Israeli flag and its colors were projected on the Brandenburg Gate, 10 Downing Street and the Sydney Opera House.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yet even as horrific details of Hamas\u2019s murders and mutilation sowed nightmares, there were signs of concern about the government of Mr. Netanyahu and its absolutist approach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s promise to \u201cdemolish Hamas\u201d struck many military strategists as too broad to be effective. And when Israeli forces began to pummel Gaza\u2019s crowded cities with huge bombs, toppling buildings on families along with militants, support for Israel weakened.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The results were dire: By late November, people were being killed in Gaza more quickly, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/11\/25\/world\/middleeast\/israel-gaza-death-toll.html\" title=\"\">according to experts<\/a>, than in even the deadliest moments of the American-led attacks in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, which were widely criticized by human rights groups.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Less than two months in, Israel was losing support in Europe and the United States \u2014 before student protests escalated into clashes with the police, before calls for divestment, before polling showed the war\u2019s unpopularity affecting Mr. Biden\u2019s chances for re-election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After seven aid workers, many of them foreigners, from the World Central Kitchen were killed on April 1 and with <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/23\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-famine-starvation-children.html#:~:text=Children%20in%20Gaza%20are%20already,died%20outside%20of%20medical%20centers.\" title=\"\">children in Gaza dying of starvation<\/a>, words like \u201cgenocide\u201d and \u201cevil\u201d became more commonly applied to the campaign that Israel insisted was simply self-defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe poor and impoverished people of Palestine were sentenced to death by Israel\u2019s bombs,\u201d President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said on Thursday, when he announced that his country, once Israel\u2019s closest Muslim partner, would suspend trade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nimrod Novik, a former senior Israeli official and an analyst at the Israel Policy Forum, said there was no denying the government ignored both a moral and political imperative by pursuing a \u201cstingy approach\u201d to aid and a war plan with no vision for peace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOur government policy failed to live up to its claim that our war is with Hamas, not the Palestinian people,\u201d Mr. Novik said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The military says aid is slowed by security measures intended to restrict weapons smuggling. On Sunday, Hamas attacked one of the few border crossings from which aid is permitted to enter, killing four Israeli soldiers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For many, it was a reminder that the context of Israeli life is still colored by the country\u2019s own suffering. What Israelis discuss at dinner are friends called up to fight. What they see are cities and towns covered with the portraits of hostages unreturned, apps sending alerts for regular rocket attacks from Hezbollah along the northern border, and graffiti in Tel Aviv that reads, \u201cHamas = ISIS.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere is a total disconnect between how Israelis view the situation and how the world does,\u201d Mr. Novik said. \u201cMentally, we are not in the seventh month since Oct. 7. Mentally, we are in Oct. 8.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many Israelis believe the international community is willfully ignoring their plight, with soldiers dying and groups widely viewed as terrorists firing on the country. In northern Israel, more than 100,000 people have been displaced from their homes by regular rocket fire. Children are not in school. Deep inside Israel\u2019s borders, air-raid sirens pierce daily routines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Genine Barel, a New Yorker who moved to Israel in the \u201990s and now lives in Safed, the home of Kabbalah, or mystical Judaism, said it hurts to lose international sympathy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt would be bad enough if we were just going through this war, and the losses and the heartbreak,\u201d she said, sitting in the empty restaurant of the hotel she owns with her husband where business has completely dried up. \u201cBut we are being vilified at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s as if you\u2019re being picked on,\u201d she added, \u201cand accused of being a bully at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nathalie Rozens, 37, an actor and writer who grew up in Europe, said the discussion within Israel about the war had evolved to include more criticism. (A <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.maariv.co.il\/news\/politics\/Article-1098002\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">poll published Friday<\/a> showed declining trust in Israel\u2019s military leadership since March.) But outside the country, she said, Israelis are flattened into caricatures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In her view, Israel\u2019s critics fail to understand its nuances, that this is a place where many people loathe Mr. Netanyahu and lament the killing of innocents in Gaza, but have a sibling fighting there and are just two generations from the Holocaust\u2019s attempted destruction of global Jewry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Banning Israeli artists from festivals, protesting singers at Eurovision, refusing to fund Israeli films \u2014 \u201cthe pressure, in a way, hits the wrong people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI don\u2019t feel aligned with this government and I\u2019m Israeli,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is no space for my voice inside the country and also not abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">However dangerous Hamas or Hezbollah might be, many believe dwindling U.S. support for Israel would be far more catastrophic for the country. Israel needs America as a patron, and this government has \u201cno patience, no consideration, no understanding of Israel\u2019s status in the world,\u201d said Nahum Barnea, a veteran columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli daily newspaper. \u201cSo they choose to ignore it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Total isolation still seems a long way off. Israel is not North Korea. Mr. Biden has said he would keep Israel supplied with defensive weapons, and Republicans have sided even more strongly with Israel. However, according to many international analysts, what Israelis want to see as a tremor may become a fault line as agitation with Israel continues to build.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey\u2019ve lost the young people,\u201d said Ian Bremmer, an adjunct professor of international and public affairs at Columbia and the president of Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. \u201cThey weren\u2019t around and don\u2019t know the Holocaust. What they see is an incredibly powerful Israel that is engaging in a war for seven months and is indifferent to the suffering of the Palestinians.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Johnatan Reiss<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/11\/world\/middleeast\/isolated-israel-war-hamas.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Turkey has suspended trade with Israel. The world\u2019s top court is considering whether Israeli leaders have committed genocide. Protests have overtaken cities and campuses worldwide. Ireland and Spain say they will recognize Palestine as a state by the end of the month. Even the United States \u2014 long Israel\u2019s closest ally and benefactor \u2014 is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/30\/multimedia\/30israel-isolation-vcbl\/30israel-isolation-vcbl-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7753,5552,46170,38,1172,3961,3102],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48449,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48447\/revisions\/48449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}