Political Solutions to Political Problems
Sending signals via diplomacy
Published: 2024-05-20
Updated 2024-05-21: References from Kudjoe are added, with thanks, to the article.
Gaza
A solution to the genocide in Gaza and the wider oppression of the Palestinian people is being worked upon. There are no prizes for guessing which nations are facilitating the work.
This process, with some historical review, serves to both highlight some commonly stated analysis of US foreign policy behaviour and to distinguish that from the collective motivations and behaviour of the BRICS+ and SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) groups. Diplomatic and military behaviour in both of the current, major armed conflicts provide supporting data.
War
The war in Ukraine was generated not only by the US continuing to advance NATO up to Russia's borders, ignoring clear advice given to the US through the diplomat who now heads their CIA, Mr. Burns (as revealed in the 'NYET MEANS NYET' cable published by Wikileaks), but also by a Nazi lead attack on the Russian ethnic peoples of the Donbas. This attack peaked in mid February 2022 with a 20 fold increase in shelling which was more than likely the preparation for an offensive which would have amounted to an ethnic cleansing operation. This is just one of the many links between these conflicts.
The US, represented by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, undermined the second round of talks between Ukraine and Russia, held in Istanbul following those in Belarus, only a month into the conflict. The US wished to 'weaken Russia', as expressed by Secretary of Defence Austin. Peace would not have served that agenda.
The US has never expressed any desire to negotiate a solution to the conflict. Indeed, it has consistently generated or furthered it. Through NATO allies France and Germany, the UN Security Council unanimously approved Minsk II Accords were undermined to continue the civil war which preceded Russia's Special Military Operation. During this period Ukraine was converted to an un-admitted NATO nation by funding its government (with associated corruption, including Biden requiring the dismissal of Ukraine’s anti-corruption prosecutor) and arming and training its military.
Genocide and Optics
Now compare that behaviour to the US involvement in the conflict in the Occupied Palestinian Territories of Gaza and the West Bank since October 8th, 2023. The US not only banned the phrase 'ceasefire', only permitting 'pause', but used its UN Security Council veto to defeat any resolution which used the term 'ceasefire'.
The US does war. This has been the case since the Global War of/on Terror was announced in 2001; Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, (various African countries including Somalia, Sudan, Niger, ...), Syria, Yemen, and onward to Ukraine and now the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The familiar statement about US foreign policy is that it is driven by domestic concerns, especially in years of its presidential elections. That 'especially' is only partially relevant when one considers that its contracting, armaments manufacturing industries are domestic: they are US corporations which sell to the US government and many NATO member governments. Minor reductions in the rhetoric of war may be introduced during the 'election' years. But, this amounts to nothing, for the US Congress is tied to and by these industries and others like 'Big Pharma', 'Big Oil' and 'Big Finance'. The US empire and its ‘Uniparty’ are corporate.
A potential political solution to the genocide in Palestine was mentioned by Scott Ritter during his wonderful interview with Dimitri Lascaris (see sources). Russia and China have been hosting concurrent delegations of as many Palestinian political organisations as possible. The plan is simple. Israel cannot politically accept that the label 'Hamas' is written on any agreement to a cessation in hostilities. Thus, a re-branding and unification of Palestinian political representation is required, and this is exactly what they have been facilitating. In one sense this is stupid. The same people will be moved about with a few new faces, attempting to achieve the same reasonable outcomes. But, such is politics. The optics matter.
Another development which may assist has been coincidentally progressed by the US. It invited Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz to the US without invitation via current Israeli Prime Minister and alleged Genocider-in-Chief Netanyahu. The US desire was to reduce the level of media exposure of the genocide during their election year. Gantz was seen as a potential replacement for Netanyahu, by which this reduction in media exposure and change in rhetoric was achievable. Israel and the US meddle in each other’s politics.
It has become apparent that Israel cares not one whit about its citizens in captivity in Gaza. It rejected a proposal accepted by Hamas which included the release of the Israeli hostages. As an aside, it is worth remembering that Israel has thousands of Palestinian hostages (what other noun is there for someone imprisoned without charge?) in their jails. Ben Gvir, Israel’s Minister for National Security, has even suggested that they be summarily murdered to make room for more.
Another truth has emerged, that Israel has no chance whatsoever to 'eliminate' Hamas without also continuing the genocide. That 'elimination' will only amount to 'no Hamas in Gaza' when there are no Palestinians in Gaza. Hamas would continue as a political force outside of Gaza. It represents an idea, resistance, and cannot be eliminated, just as 'terrorism', a tactic, could not be destroyed by the US war named on/after it.
Gantz seems to have acknowledged the futility of Israel's military objectives in Gaza and is positioning himself for a political future after whatever settlement can be achieved.
Solutions and Lighthouses
One can read some of China and Russia’s wider motives in their facilitation of the reformation of Palestinian political representation. On the one hand outrage in Gaza and the West Bank needs to be stopped. Its lack of resolution is a blight on the UN itself. The UN institution is important to the politics of the multi-polar world as expressed through BRICS+ and the SCO. BRICS+, and thus China and Russia, may very much like for a resolution to be publicly facilitated by the UN after its broad strokes have been negotiated with their assistance. This behaviour is entirely in line with last year's Russian and Chinese facilitated rapprochement between Syria and Saudi Arabia.
China's motivations could be declared as complex, but at a simple glance they are the BRI mega-project; the creation of a trade network which will benefit participants and cement China as a manufacturing behemoth on its way to shifting its production from secondary to tertiary goods and services. Having achieved the largest eradication of poverty in history, China is on its way to putting its century of humiliation behind it, and taking its rightful place as a world power. Russia, due to persistent rebuff from Europe, has turned to Eurasia instead, to see its future. The recent visit by such a large delegation from Russia to China confirms this transition.
Their, and BRICS+, facilitation of resolutions to international conflicts engineered by the US and its allies are valuable signals for them to send to nations which remain outside of geopolitical power alignments. That the US sees no value in conflict resolution, but rather arms funding, also sends a powerful signal.
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Sources
Gantz Threatens To Quit Israeli Government If Netanyahu Doesn't Approve Long-Term Gaza Plan, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-05-19
NYET MEANS NYET: RUSSIA'S NATO ENLARGEMENT REDLINES, William Burns (US State Department, 2008-02-01), Wikileaks (Plus D), 2013-04-08
CONFIDENTIAL: WikiLeaks Document PROVES U.S. Knew NATO Expansion Would Cause Russia/Ukraine War, Keith Knight, The Libertarian Institute, 2022-03-05
François Hollande confirms Minsk Agreements were a Western ploy, Voltaire Network, 2022-12-31
Former German Chancellor Merkel admits the Minsk agreement was merely to buy time for Ukraine’s arms build-up, Peter Schwarz, World Socialist Website, 2022-12-21
Israeli minister Ben Gvir calls for execution of Palestinian prisoners to ease overcrowding, Middle East Eye, 2024-04-18
Ongoing Report: Escalation of Conflict on the Line of Contact in Eastern Ukraine, YesXorNo, 2022-02-20
Israel’s far-right kingmaker joins memorial for racist rabbi, Eleanor H. Reich, AP News, 2022-11-11
Russia Visits China: Vision in Reflection, YesXorNo, 2024-05-19
Scott Ritter：Palestinians are being forced to pay in blood for a Palestinian State, Lascaris interviews Ritter, Dimitri Lascaris, 2024-04-24
Copyleft: CC0
Good article, and as you mentioned above this is shocking
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-itamar-ben-gvir-calls-execution-palestinans-ease-overcrowding-prisons#:~:text=Itamar%20Ben%20Gvir%2C%20Israel's,places%20for%20%22security%20prisoners%22.
The man is pure evil:
https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-religion-jerusalem-israel-d1500820cd52562638506cc59843b789
And the US has knowingly unleashed him and other extremist- violent ones:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/05/20/2022-10828/in-the-matter-of-the-designation-of-kahane-chai-and-other-aliases-as-a-foreign-terrorist
It's just another example of the two-faced strategy of the US in this region. And then the US want to tell the Palestinians who they can and cannot pick for their own national leadership and national resistance against the illegal occupation by Israel that the US is supporting.
There is another, deeper and more opaque, motive behind China's and Russia's different approach to the Palestinian problem, which can only by understood in greater historical context.
Russia and China, besides being old civilizations (or just because of it), have never pursued a colonization policy far from their home ground. Observant followers of international politics are well aware of both countries' oftentimes repeated proclamations of the need for "peaceful coexistence", which both Russia and China are, significantly more to the point, also doing in practice, as seen with Russia's role in Syria and what's left of Lybia, as well as China's "equal partnership" infrastructure deals in the "third world", mainly in Africa.
On the contrary, the "West's" rise was and still is a result of the murderous looting spree of Western Europeans since the days of Columbus. The progress of the "western world" is a direct consequence of a parasitic blood-sucking policy that still plagues a large portion of the Earth to this very day. The "West" thrives on hegemony, because it simply cannot survive without subduing other nations and extracting all their wealth for itself.