Obama sends Israel a warning

The former US president warned that the severe treatment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza could “backfire.”

Former US President Barack Obama has cautioned Israel against adopting a response to Hamas strikes that “ignores the human cost.”

Obama’s warning, which is cloaked in support of the Jewish state’s right to defend itself against “wanton violence” by the Palestinian militant group, is issued in the midst of enormous infrastructural destruction by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza, mass civilian casualties, and documented atrocities.

Obama supported President Joe Biden’s request that the US “support our long-time ally in going after Hamas, dismantling its military capabilities” and rescue the captives captured in the October 7 incident in a post published on Medium on Monday.

Obama countered that Israel’s approach must “abide by international law” and limit civilian casualties and suffering. It is “vital for building alliances and shaping international opinion — all of which are critical for Israel’s long-term security,” in addition to the fact that it is “morally just and reflects our belief in the inherent value of every human life.”

Obama contended that the crackdown on Gaza could “further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long term efforts” to achieve peace, pointing out that thousands of Palestinians, including children, have already been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

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Obama stated that “articulating a viable pathway” for Palestinian statehood is “the best and perhaps only way to achieve the lasting peace and security that most Israeli and Palestinian families yearn for,” and he advised both the US and Israel to get in touch with “those Palestinian leaders and organisations that recognise Israel’s right to exist.”

In addition, he called on both nations “to do our best to put our best values, rather than our worst fears, on display” and to reject “anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, or anti-Palestinian sentiment” as well as “anti-Semitism in all its forms.”

Obama, the US president from 2009 to 2017, said that this included “guarding against dehumanising language towards the people of Gaza, or downplaying Palestinian suffering — whether in Gaza or the West Bank — as irrelevant or illegitimate.”

Over 1,400 Israelis lost their lives as a result of the Hamas militants’ raid on October 7. In response, Israel declared war on the Palestinian organisation and vowed to “dismantle” it while enforcing a “total blockade” on Gaza. Following the assaults, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said on Tuesday that “Hamas must be wiped out from the world” and that there was “no room for a balanced approach.”

In the meantime, the envoy of West Jerusalem to the UN demanded on Tuesday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres step down for having the audacity to speculate that the Hamas attack “did not happen in a vacuum” and might have something to do with Israel’s “56 years of suffocating occupation.”