In an article by one of its columnists, The Washington Post criticized the speech delivered by US President Joe Biden Last Thursday from the White House, he linked the two wars taking place in Ukraine AndIsrael.
In that speech, Biden said that the “dictatorial” regime in Russia and the Islamic Resistance Movement (agitation) “They pose a different threat, but there is a common denominator between them, which is that they both want to completely eliminate a neighboring democracy.”
The US President stressed that providing support to Ukraine in its war against Russia, and to Israel’s military campaign, is “necessary”, to confirm to other countries that “America’s leadership is what maintains the cohesion of the world.”
According to an article by columnist Ishaan Tharoor in the newspaper, Biden made these statements before unveiling a new funding proposal worth $106 billion, especially in defense spending to support Ukraine and Israel.
Politicians and diplomats in other countries realize that the current situation in the world is fraught with danger, but they do not all reach the same conclusions that the White House reached, according to Tharoor’s assessment.
Double standards
The writer specializing in foreign affairs says that some of these politicians and diplomats believe that the United States gave Israel a green light to bomb the Gaza Strip, and they raise questions about the clear double standards adopted by the United States, which Biden’s speech cannot hide.
Tharoor claims that a state of “disgust and anger” gripped the world following the attack launched by Hamas on October 7th, on southern Israel, which resulted in the death of about 1,400 Israelis. But he goes back and says that 16 days of Israeli retaliation campaign in… Gaza has killed more than 5,000 Palestinians, according to local authorities, including nearly 2,000 children.
He adds that the humanitarian crisis is getting from bad to worse, adding that the specter of ethnic cleansing looms with Israel’s “demands” for the mass displacement of some Gazans.
The Washington Post article touched on Washington’s use – last Wednesday – of its veto power in the UN Security Council, to drop a draft resolution drafted in a moderate tone that Israel opposed, and which called for a humanitarian truce.
Lynch: It is difficult to reconcile the United States’ promotion of international standards and the laws of war in defense of Ukraine against the brutal Russian invasion with its arrogant disregard for the same standards in Gaza.
The writer points out that the United States was the only country that used that right, while its allies – including France – voted in favor of the draft resolution.
The United States has always worked to protect Israel from condemnation at the United Nations, while American and Western officials denounced the Russian war as “a violation of international law and the principles of the international organization’s charter, and a challenge to the international order.”
Tharoor explained that many governments in the Middle East and other Third World countries condemned Russian aggression, but were more cautious in placing “Ukraine’s plight” in the same moral framework as their Western counterparts.
These governments and states cite the legacy left by the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, comparing it to the West’s indifference to the ugly conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and the hypocrisy of inciting the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, while paying lip service to freedom, as the article puts it.
Tharoor quotes an article in Foreign Affairs written by Mark Lynch, professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, saying, “It is difficult to reconcile the United States’ promotion of international standards and the laws of war in defense of Ukraine against the brutal Russian invasion, with its cavalier disregard for the same standards.” in Gaza”.
