Empire Alliances v. International Law
Part 11`
Kamala’s Choice
Here is the time when civilization is at a crossroads. One individual’s actions could determine what direction civilization takes. The steps Kamala Harris, now the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, could determine the fate of civilization. If elected, Harris’ policy on how she handles the genocide happening in Gaza could decide if America has a leadership destiny or if it stays the course of the Biden Administration funding Israel’s illegal war that the International Court of Justice has declared to be “plausible genocide.”
The eyes of the world are on every step Kamala makes or does not make. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the joint session of Congress about its support for Israel, Vice President Harris’ role was to preside over the joint address. She and 100 other congressional representatives chose not to attend the address. Nevertheless, Kamala’s husband, Doug Emhoff, assured the Jewish Democratic Council of America and the Jewish Women for Kamala during a Zoom call that Harris vowed to support Israel and would “ensure the country can defend itself.”
After her private meeting with Netanyahu the following day, she spoke for herself. She said that America would help to defend Israel from its terrorist enemies such as Iran and Hezbollah. The US also wanted a ceasefire, IDF pulled out of Gaza urban areas, hostages released, and a two-state solution. There was no mention of suspending offensive arms transfers to Israel, which is necessary to stop the genocide.
In Netanyahu’s address, he accused the International Criminal Court of threatening to issue arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity as trying to “shackle Israel’s hands and preventing us from defending ourselves.” He continues, “If Israel’s hands are tied, America is next. I will tell you what is next: the ability of all democracies to defend itself and fight terrorism will be imperiled.” Receiving numerous standing ovations, he continues, “Our enemies are your enemies. Our fight is your fight. Our victory will be your victory.”
During his address, as the media pans the congressional chamber, the viewers see that the only one not applauding was Palestinian American Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Instead, she is sitting down holding a small but effective black and white sign that reads on either side, “War Criminal” and “Guilty of Genocide.” Democracy Now quoted her saying, “Netanyahu is a war criminal committing genocide against the Palestine people. It is utterly disgraceful that leaders from both parties have invited him to address Congress. He should be arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court.” It was apparent that clapping from Netanyahu was a clap for the suffering inflicted on the Palestinian people.
In Kamala’s press conference after her private meeting with Netanyahu, she failed to mention the recent ruling of the ICJ occurring on July 19th, the conclusion of a resolution began by the state of Nicaragua which was passed by the UN General Assembly in December 2022 long before October 7th. The solution requested an advisory option about the “legal consequences arising from policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem.”
The World Court ruling [July 19th], a week before Netanyahu addressed the joint Congress, was that Israel’s occupation and annexation of Palestinian territories of West Bank and East Jerusalem were unlawful and that they violated laws against radical segregation and apartheid. The 83-page advisory opinion from the highest court in the world made it clear that Israel’s actions in the occupied territory violated international law. It demanded that Israel stop the development of Israeli settlements, evacuate settlers, and make reparations for the damage caused to affected people. It also advised other states not to acknowledge occupied territories as part of Israel. Other nations, the ICJ judges insisted, must not provide aid or assistance to Israel to maintain occupation. Earlier in the year, the ICJ determined that there is reason to suggest Israel is engaging in “plausible genocide” in Gaza.
Why didn’t Kamala mention these important rulings in her address? What she did say was: “time for this war to end, and end in a way where Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza end, the Palestinians people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity, and self-determination.” Kamala’s record on Israel seems to be based on family lies, state loyalty, and global alliances rather than international law. In 2021, when Kamala became a senator from California, her first speech was to the pro-Israel lobbying organization AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee]. She promised them that she would present a resolution that condemned a United Nations Security Council’s resolution that condemned Israel.
Here we are at the crossroads. If she stays the course of America being a part of international war crimes or if she steps into having an actual feminist foreign policy of global peacemaking and rebuilding civilization using a new age sustainable approach to development. Being the second woman to be the likely Democratic nominee for a major political party in the United States, it is up to her now to break out of the patriarchal death trance after thousands of years of bloody wars and imperialistic empires that have brought the world of the brink of a total breakdown of civilization caused by climate change, poverty, lawlessness and the possibility of nuclear war starting in the Middle East.
Will she back Israel’s defiance of the rule of international law as the world watches the global trauma in Gaza and the Middle East unfold? Or will she support the United States in becoming a lawful member within the international community that honors world priority first policies, which is the only way to address the all-of-world climate change emergency?
Abraham
The late feminist Marilyn French writes about the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac as a pivotal moment when patriarchy overcame the matriarchy. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son on Mt. Moriah to prove his obedience to God symbolized how “power is being asserted as superior to nature, killing as superior to giving birth.” According to Benjamin Netanyahu, the clash of civilizations is not between cultures but between barbarism and civilization. He said, “It’s a clash between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life.”
The story of the sacrifice of Isaac makes killing for God a way to prove one’s faith in God. What mother would EVER consider sacrificing her son to obey God’s words? Is it any wonder why we are experiencing ecocide on a global scale through anthropogenic climate change when such a demented political philosophy and patriarchal theocracy dictate foreign policy?
As we can see with the massive death and destruction in the Gaza Strip, which the World Court has declared to be “plausible genocide,” the state of Israel and the US are on the side of a mass murdering hypothetical supernatural deity. The frightening thing is that this murderous “God” has control of thousands of nuclear weapons that are illegal to possess with the ratification of the Treaty of the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, also called the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty (TPNW).
TPNW is a legally binding international agreement that prohibits state parties from “developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, acquiring, possessing, or stockpiling nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.” It went into force on January 22, 2021. It lays out a program of disarmament and verification with the goal of the complete abolishment of weapons of nuclear weapons to secure our global security. The treaty demonstrates collective reasoning and the need for global cooperation to overcome the existential threat of nuclear annihilation.
In his congregation address, Netanyahu told Congress he wanted to extend the 2020 Abraham Accords, which normalized the United Arab Emirates diplomatic relationship with Israel, into an Abraham Alliance. He states, “America and Israel today can forge a security alliance in the Middle East to counter the growing Iranian threat.” Such an alliance, the old boys’ ways of empire-building that in the past have led to devastating world wars, is exactly why we need the United Nations, the World Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court to prevent such alliances from forming.
After WWI and WWII, humanity should have learned that empire-building alliances lead to power struggles and war. In a nuclear-armed world, the next world war could result in an instant karma effect: a nuclear winter ecocide that humanity might not be able to recover from, resulting in a mass human extinction event. Instant karma is caused by the unwise actions of forming alliances rather than building on international law for the good of all and the whole planet's future. Full-scale nuclear war would be an instant karma effect because it is the karma of failing to disarm nuclear weapons, and they come back to destroy you and the planet’s life support system. Poet T. S. Eliot’s famous line, “This is the way the world ends/ Not with a bang but a whimper.” Instant karma is when civilization ends with the flashes of light and bang of the blast.
On Democracy Now, Palestinian human rights lawyer Noura Erakat said that Netanyahu
“called the International Criminal Court liars that we can’t trust. He contravened the prohibition on the acquisition of territory by force as he celebrated the annexation of the Golan Heights and Jerusalem to a jubilant Congress, which is basically telling the world that the United States also doesn’t believe in this international order. And so, this is what is of primary concern.”
If the World Court moves the verdict from “plausible genocide” to guilty of breaking the Geneva Convention, the US will be as guilty as Israel of the devastation and death in Gaza. President Joe Biden will be a war criminal. Kamala is now faced with a test to prove her femininity. Will she stand up for the mothers of the world by ending the reign of state terrorism that worships the patriarchal God of war and its lucrative permanent war economy that causes vast poverty and moral bankruptcy? As a commander-in-chief, would she have the inner strength to embrace reason and science and move beyond brute military force and empire domination?
Standing up for global justice and the rule of law would be a first step in the US joining the rest of civilization by observing the UN’s decision to ratify the Treaty of the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In such a feminist-led scenario, the United States and other states would disarm their nuclear weapons and move resources from AI war machines into building a 21st-century global green infrastructure within a network of solar-powered arcologies to mitigate and adapt to anthropogenic climate change. A world without end would open to us as heaven and earth unite in peace and global security.