Israel’s Ramadan massacre obliterates any remaining western claims of moral leadership
Palestinians walk at the site of an Israeli strike in northern Gaza on 18 March 2025
David Hearst writes in Middle East Eye on 19 March 2025:
At 2:20am on Tuesday local time in the Gaza Strip, Washington inaugurated a new era in world politics. This was the moment Israel timed its attacks on dozens of targets in the enclave to coincide with suhoor, the predawn meal eaten by Muslims in preparation for a day of fasting.
The timing was designed to inflict maximum civilian casualties, as families across Gaza gathered to eat and pray during the holy month of Ramadan, even if they had little or no food to consume.
The mass simultaneous attacks on 100 separate locations achieved their objective, making it one of the worst acts of wanton butchery by Israeli forces during the 15-month war on Gaza.
More than 400 Palestinians were killed, including more than 170 children, according to Gaza health officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought and got a green light from Washington before launching these attacks.
US President Donald Trump thus signalled a new era in global affairs by giving his consent for a wave of attacks that broke every aspect of the ceasefire deal, signed in the presence of international guarantors. In one act, Trump turned the West that his nation claims to lead into the Wild West.
From this moment on, no treaty, ceasefire or international agreement that the US signs is worth the paper it is printed on.
A US president who persuaded the credulous imams of Michigan that he was a man of peace, and even the next potential recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, now uses the label “Palestinian” as a political slur against Jewish Democratic politicians. The president who vowed to stop all wars has launched or permitted air strikes in Yemen, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria simultaneously, and is promising that all hell will break loose on Iran if it does not submit to his demands.
A US president who told the families of the hostages that he would do everything in his power to get them back alive, has allowed Israel to effectively apply its Hannibal Directive to the two dozen who, before Tuesday morning’s attacks, were believed to be living. If Israel behaves like this, what incentive does it now give Hamas to keep the remaining hostages alive?
Siwar Jamassi who was killed in Israel’s 18 March 2925 attack on Gaza
‘Army of God’s vengeance’
For Netanyahu, the timing of these attacks was everything, for quite different reasons. On Tuesday, he was due to appear in court on multiple corruption charges, which as the case progresses, are tightening a noose around his political neck. The renewed war gave him an excuse to tell the court he could not attend.
As Ahmad Tibi, a Knesset member and chairman of the Taal party, writes in Middle East Eye: “It is no coincidence that Tuesday’s bombardment comes just before a key budget vote, with ultra-Orthodox lawmakers threatening to topple the government if a law excluding their community from conscription is not passed, and former National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir issuing ultimatums.”