Is Time Running Out for the US?

As the conflict in Palestine passed its 5^th week, the Muslim rulers gathered in Riyadh to issue a statement in the hope they can calm their streets. The Ukraine war that has been raging for nearly two years has been completely relegated to the sidelines as the tensions in Palestine continue to escalate. The Zionist entity is struggling in the information war as many are horrified at the daily images of hospitals, residential buildings and places of worship being bombed. There are a number of emerging trends that will play a key role in the weeks and months ahead.

The US faces a major problem in that Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing allies want to carry their genocidal programme and expel the people of Gaza into the desert. ‘Israeli’ officials have been very open since the events of 7th October of the need to destroy Hamas, but that has been followed up by a flurry of statements of genocidal nature. From the ‘Israeli’ Intelligence Ministry seeing the 7th October as a: “unique and rare opportunity" for the “relocation and final settlement of the entire Gaza population.” Netanyahu in a speech likened Palestinians to "Amalek,” who historically attacked the Israelites and were subsequently annihilated. Then there was the Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu’s statement that dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza was “one of the possibilities.” This has created a major problem for the US who has always seen two states as means to contain ‘Israeli’ ambitions in the region. The Jewish entity’s desire to expel the people of Gaza is against the US plan for the region.

The Biden administration has been sending senior members of the administration to contain ‘Israel’s’ genocidal ambitions. Every weekend Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, CIA Director Williams Burns and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin have been visiting the region and sitting in ‘Israeli’ cabinet meetings. The US has been able to stop a full-scale invasion which Netanyahu was planning in the days after the 7^th October attacks, this has been scaled down to targeted incursions into the North of the Gaza Strip. As the Biden administration began pushing various resolutions after the war ends, Netanyahu has been articulating that ‘Israel’ will maintain the security of the Gaza Strip after Hamas is destroyed. This has been in contradiction to US demands that wants to see the regional nations, or the UN play a role. With Netanyahu and his right-wing allies using the shock of 7^th October to fulfil their long-term seizing of all of historic Palestine, for the moment the US has not directly undermined ‘Israel’ and most likely doesn’t want to as ‘Israeli’ invincibility took a major hit on 7th October. The US will have to find another way to bring Netanyahu and his right-wing allies in line with US long-term objectives.

5 weeks into the war and the Jewish entity’s strategy is even more unclear. ‘Israeli’ officials keep reiterating their aim is to destroy Hamas, but what we see is the indiscriminate bombing of hospitals, schools, refugee camps and residential areas in what many consider collective punishment. Over 14,000 people have perished in the Gaza Strip, but ‘Israeli’ officials are unable to confirm how many Hamas members have perished, how many are alive and how close ‘Israel’ is to destroying Hamas. As the weeks have passed, opposition is growing against the war within the Jewish entity from Netanyahu’s coalition members and the families of the hostages in Gaza. If the ‘Israeli’ strategy is to carry out the destruction of Gaza, then it just has to look at US shock and awe tactics in the Iraq and Afghan invasion, which turned out to be complete failures. ‘Israeli’ massacres are creating the resistance fighters of the future.

The Jewish entity’s biggest failure has been in the information war. Where the Jewish entity had much global sympathy in the first week after 7^th October, public opinion has now shifted to the Palestinian people. ‘Israel’ and its supporters are struggling to push their narrative. Social media, despite the monies spent on adverts by ‘Israel’, anti-Zionist voices are dominating social media platforms. Whilst Pro-Zionist voices had major influence on mainstream media, social media is decentralised and is a different beast and Zionists have struggled to convince the world of their actions. Every week now, across the world millions march for a ceasefire and against the genocide taking place, the tide has firmly turned against ‘Israel’.

The Muslim rulers collectively face major challenges as the Muslim street not only stands with the Muslims of Palestine but they want to see some sort of intervention by their leaders. In Saudi Arabia, MBS has forced the scholars to find textual justification that the mases should listen to their rulers. In Egypt and Jordan, people are being arrested for demonstrating. In Türkiye, Erdogan has been forced to issue aggressive rhetoric to maintain his position in the country that was for long built upon supporting the Palestinian cause. The challenge facing the rulers is they have supported the Palestinian cause as it was necessary due to public opinion, but they never planned to ever deliver on it. They believe they would never need to, but with the genocide taking place the Muslim masses are taking to the streets and demanding action. The rulers are stuck between as Israels massacres that is making them look like sell outs for not delivering on what they always said they would do.

The challenge the US faces is 2024 is election year and the US is now involved in two wars. With Netanyahu playing rogue, for the US an intervention by Hezbollah would force the Jewish entity to fight on two fronts and they will be forced to turn to the US who would place conditions on its support and cooperation. The longer the war goes on the more trouble the Muslim rulers face in front of their own people. At the same time the US needs to reign in Netanyahu before the Muslim street explodes creating a major regional dilemma for the US.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Adnan Khan