The Lead

Bridging the Gap of Humanity

by Stewart Battle (EIRNS) — Dec. 08, 2023

“It’s pretty savage.” That’s how BBC’s Jeremy Bowen concluded his Dec. 8 coverage of Israel’s war on Palestine, in describing the way Israel is conducting its indiscriminate destruction of the territory of over 2 million people. The eyes of the world are on Gaza, and are seeing the actions, or lack thereof, of what is unfolding there. Global opinion is continuing to turn against this war, it being increasingly difficult to justify the horrific scenes happening on the ground there. Even the Europeans are beginning to wake up, after having been willing bystanders to the crimes of Anglo-American elites for years.

Attention was on the United Nations on Dec. 8, as the Security Council was convened for an extraordinary session on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. UN Secretary General António Guterres had invoked UN Charter Article 99, a procedure only utilized four times in the history of the organization, to bring an urgent decision on what he called the “untenable” situation unfolding in Gaza. Following a longer-than-expected debate in the morning, a vote on the resolution for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire was taken in the afternoon—only to be vetoed by the United States.

In a snub to the other 13 members of the Council that voted for the resolution, with the exception of the U.K. that abstained, the U.S. representative Robert Wood amazingly said the body’s failure to condemn Hamas was a “moral failure,” and “underscores the fundamental disconnect between the discussions that we have been having in this Chamber and the realities on the ground.” In explaining why the U.S. cast its sole opposed vote, the representative said “we do not support this resolution’s call for an unsustainable ceasefire that will only plant the seeds for the next war.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in remarks to the Friday, Dec. 8 meeting of the International Peace Coalition, called the vote a marker of whether humanity is still human—especially for the U.S. and the U.K. Every minute expands the killing, she said, bringing us closer and closer to the abyss in Gaza, and the world as a whole.

Indeed, the situation is savage. Civilians are being forced into smaller and smaller “safe zones” in southern Gaza, despite the fact that these have no running water or infrastructure to handle the enormous levels of displaced Palestinians—who now number 80% out of the total population of 2.2 million. In addition, as UN officials and others have stressed, there is no such thing as a “safe zone” in Gaza, as Israel has often continued to bomb these as well. Talk is also proceeding—with the implicit approval of the U.S.—on flooding the tunnels under the territory with sea water, effectively destroying the land, not for years, but for centuries to come.

The latest news was the footage of hundreds of captured, unarmed men, who had been sheltering in northern Gaza. The IDF had stripped the men down to their underwear, with many blindfolded, and packed them into trucks to be taken away for “interrogation.” Apparently those who are gripped by “moral failure” will also fail to understand the import of these actions.

What the haughty defenders of Israel have yet to discover is that, in actuality, they are not at war with Hamas, nor any other external problem. They are at war with themselves—and every innocent life taken in Palestine chips away further at their own humanity. This is why the screams by Israel’s defenders have only grown louder, and their exhortations only more hyperbolic, as this is their only reprieve—albeit insufficient—from the growing chasm of guilt as the casualty count now nears 20,000.

Who else will lose their humanity? More importantly, who will maintain the nerve to recruit these tortured souls—our fellow citizens—back to the human race as this horror continues, and ultimately, once this is over? Or have you been convinced that no reconciliation or solution is possible—having fallen prey to the exact belief the Anglo-American geopoliticians want you to have: That war between the great powers is inevitable? Don’t be, let us convince you otherwise.

For those followers of Gottfried Leibniz, it is important to remember his insistence that mankind possesses the capacity to respond to a great evil with an even greater good. Today’s evil should not stand, and cannot stand, as Friday’s Dec. 8 UN Security Council and the growing opposition across the world shows. This process and the calls for a ceasefire must be expanded as rapidly as possible—it is having an earthshaking effect.

But at the same time, keep in mind the “greater good” that can and must take the place of today’s unfolding evil. The LaRouche Movement’s Oasis Plan of true economic development for Southwest Asia as a whole, including the large-scale water management and industrial development which is possible in this region, would be the foundation for a lasting peace process to commence. That would create the necessary hope, and beauty, to bridge the river of hate and ugliness that has been so horribly unleashed over the recent period.

Make sure to register and attend Saturday’s conference at 9:30 a.m. EST “If You Want to Stop the Genocide, Build a New International Security and Development Architecture,” a Zoom online conference hosted by the Schiller Institute and “Central American Critical Thought” organization And as we have said before: Organize, organize, organize!