Airmen from US Air Force Special Operations Command brief Christopher Maier, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, on March 7, 2023. (DoD Photo)
There would be no war crimes committed in Gaza absent the direct involvement of the U.S.
Originally published in Fighting Words.
An investigative report published by the Intercept, an online journal, recently revealed that the United States was in the process of expanding a “secret military base” in the Negev desert under the control of the State of Israel.
Such a military base provides further proof that Washington regards Tel Aviv as being key to maintaining imperialist dominance in West Asia and North Africa.
The Intercept article written by Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted that:
“The U.S. Army is quietly moving ahead with construction at Site 512, a classified base perched atop Mt. Har Qeren in the Negev, to include what government records describe as a ‘life support facility’: military speak for barracks-like structures for personnel. Though President Joe Biden and the White House insist that there are no plans to send U.S. troops to Israel amid its war on Hamas, a secret U.S. military presence in Israel already exists. And the government contracts and budget documents show it is evidently growing.”
In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 Al-Aqsa Flood where combatants from the resistance forces based in Gaza entered Israeli-controlled territory carrying out a series of military operations. Figures on the number of Israeli and allied deaths in those attacks have been given as 1,400 with many more injured.
The capture of more than 200 Israeli soldiers, settlers and tourists by the military wing of Hamas along with the deaths and casualties of hundreds more has created an internal security crisis for Tel Aviv and Washington. Since October 7, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) backed by the U.S. have killed nearly 9,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank.
Of the number of Palestinians killed in aerial strikes and missile launches, more than half were women and children. The IDF has bombed schools, residential neighborhoods, markets, mosques, churches, hospitals and civilian convoys. Since the genocidal onslaught against Gaza and the West Bank was escalated, the U.S. President Joe Biden has refused to condemn the actions of the Israeli government.
Within the deliberations of the United Nations on the siege of Gaza, the U.S. and its allies blocked all Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire and the opening of a humanitarian corridor. The United Nations General Assembly non-binding resolution passed on October 27 calling for a truce and the restoration of adequate humanitarian assistance was voted against by Washington.
IDF Ground Incursion into Gaza
Hundreds of bombing operations daily by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) have paved the way for a limited ground incursion by the IDF where they have met fierce resistance by the Al-Qassam, Al-Quds and other brigades. On October 31, the military attacks by the IDF intensified with the aerial bombardment of three refugee camps in northern and central Gaza.
The Palestine Chronicle said of the IDF attacks:
“Israel carried out several horrific massacres on Tuesday [October 31] in the refugee camps of Jabalia, Shati and Nuseirat, in the northern and central Gaza Strip. A final death count remains unknown, but Gaza Ministry of Health estimates have placed the number of those killed and wounded in Jabalia alone at over 500…. Israeli airstrikes also reached Al-Shati refugee camp, near Gaza City. News reports speak of the destruction of several residential buildings while many families were still inside…. Al-Mohandiseen residential building in Nuseirat was also struck by Israeli bombs. Al-Mohandiseen is a multi-story building located in Nuseirat, in the central part of the Gaza Strip. Many families were reportedly inside the building when it was struck. Scores are believed to be killed and wounded.”
Obviously, the intent of the IDF and the Pentagon is to kill as many Palestinians as possible while removing the remaining population to neighboring Egypt. Such a strategic plan would involve a military occupation of Gaza once again. This occupation would be reinforced by the U.S. military presence inland and in the eastern Mediterranean.
Consequently, it is not surprising that the Biden administration wants to expand the number of Pentagon troops in the region. These U.S. troops would theoretically be in a position to confront the inevitable escalation of resistance forces within and outside of Palestine who are committed to ending the presence of Washington and its Israeli client state throughout the region.
Press TV claimed in an article which quoted a high-ranking Iranian military official as saying:
“’The Iranian Armed Forces have received information that commanders of the CENTCOM, as well as the U.S. Army and Navy, have teamed up with Israeli commandants at an underground base in Tel Aviv to supervise and direct the Zionist regime’s brutal offensives against Palestinian people,’ Major General Gholam-Ali Rashid, commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said at a gathering of Iranian police commanders and officials in Tehran on Tuesday. This shows that the United States’ measures run counter to its claim of restraining the war in the region as thousands of destructive bombs and missiles have already been sent to occupied Palestine, and directions plus support for ground battles are being provided [to Israel].’”
This claim by the Iranian military has also been echoed by the Al-Mayadeen website which emphasized:
“’Dozens of U.S. commandos are currently present in Israel aiding the IOF [Israeli Occupation Forces] amid the Israeli war on Gaza in a number of roles, according to U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Christopher P. Maier. According to the Pentagon official, the U.S. commandos are currently ‘helping the Israelis to do a number of things,’ although the main task, according to Maier, was to help the occupation identify the Israeli captives held by the Palestinian Resistance and their location.”
Resistance to Zionism and Imperialism Accelerates
Yet this Pentagon-directed genocidal onslaught in Gaza will not go unanswered by the people of the region. Already the resistance forces in Gaza, the West Bank, along with Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Iran are waging a propaganda and military campaign against the State of Israel and the U.S.
The events of October 7 in Occupied Palestine have shifted the geostrategic dynamics in West Asia and North Africa. If the U.S. maintains its current aggressive position of all-out war against the Palestinians and other resistance forces, this will require the deployment of hundreds of thousands of Pentagon troops into the waterways of the eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf as well as the lands of Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq.
This presence by the Pentagon will create more targets for the resistance forces to attack. An indication of the potential for large scale casualties among the IDF and the U.S. have been reported on in the media based in those states targeted by Washington as strategic adversaries.
According to Al Mayadeen:
“The military media of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon – Hezbollah – published on Tuesday [October 31] the losses sustained by the Israeli occupation forces on the Lebanese-Palestinian border area throughout the past 23 days of the Resistance’s operations On the Path to Al-Quds.
The military media made a tally of all the Israeli occupation’s losses between October 8 and October 30, and the losses reflect a grim reality for the Israeli occupation forces. At least 120 IOF soldiers were killed or wounded in action on the northern border of occupied Palestine, the Lebanese Resistance said.”
Both the Pentagon and the IDF are concerned over the loss of their soldiers in any military engagement. Although polls reveal that the majority of people in the U.S. sympathize with the State of Israel, this trend is changing rapidly."
Over the weeks since October 7, hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated throughout the U.S., joining millions throughout the world, not only demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Many are seeking the end of the Israeli occupation, the withdrawal of economic and military support for the State of Israel and the total liberation of Palestine.
On October 31 during a Senate hearing on the request by the Biden administration to send another $106 billion dollars in military spending to Ukraine, the Asia-Pacific, the southern border, along with Tel Aviv, top officials Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin were interrupted by chanting protesters.
The political status of the Biden White House remains precarious in light of the upcoming presidential election in 2024. Despite the propaganda emanating from the Democratic Party of a social resurgence labeled “Bidenomics”, a large section of the U.S. population has a low approval rating of the president citing financial distress, his lack of fitness for office and foreign policy concerns such as the ongoing proxy war in Ukraine and the burgeoning military crisis in Palestine.
This recent deployment of aircraft carriers and troops to Occupied Palestine as well as the placing of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in the area portends much for the stability of the U.S. in the coming months. Opposing these policies from an anti-imperialist perspective is the only guarantor for the acquisition of world peace.
Abayomi Azikiwe is the Editor of Pan-African News Wire.
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