By Dr Austin Maho
Nothing typifies the United States double standards and duplicity in the international arena than it’s current position in the raging conflict in Gaza between Hamas and the Israeli defense forces.
In global affairs the US presents itself as the bastion of democracy and the promoter of human rights freedoms and progress on the basis of justice and equality.
The truth is that nothing can be further from the truth. The United States policy is crafted in double standards and duplicity that only serves its national interests. Justice and equality are alien when US interest is at stake.
A good example is the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The blatant level of double standard is apparent. The murderous campaign being perpetrated against Palestinian by the Israelis has the support of the US.
The US government has opened it weapon stock to Israel without holding back. These weapons are being used by the Israeli defence forces to target hospitals, infrastructure and civilians with score of casualty recorded including women and child.
American official position in the face of these killings of innocent civilians has not been condemnation but one of tacit support for the Israeli government to carry on with its murderous campaign on the blocked Gaza Strip.
This is in sharp contrast between US government treatment of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
Whereas it has imposed harsh sanctions because of Russia’s operation in Ukraine, the US in its double standard has turned a blind eye in Gaza.
Statements by top American officials tend to view Israeli attacks as “legitimate acts,” without a single condemnation.
The Israeli bombing of the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist Hospital in northern Gaza is a good example of American duplicity and double standards that places little value on human lives where its interests are concern.
Although the number of civilian casualties in Israel’s bombing of the hospital was much greater than losses in Russia’s targeting of the Maternity Hospital in Mariupol on March 9, 2022, the US administration did not show the same harsh reaction toward the Israeli government compared to Russia.
The US did not even hold Israel to account for the hospital bombing.
Commenting on the targeting of the hospital in Mariupol, US President Joe Biden said the attack was an “injustice” and a “disgrace to the entire world.”
“The whole world is united to support Ukraine and make Russian President Vladimir Putin pay a heavy price,” he said.
But after the attack on the hospital in Gaza, Biden said he was “deeply saddened by the explosion” at the facility. Biden even denied that Israel was responsible for the bombing!
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden said at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, evidently referring to Israeli claims that Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group with similar aims as Hamas, was responsible.
Biden also described what happened in Ukraine as “genocide,” but sees the Israeli slaughter of trapped civilians in the Gaza Strip as an act of self Defence.
The US has shown a nagging hypocrisy and duplicity in the war in Ukraine compared to what is happening in the Gaza Strip. Why the double standard? Unsurprisingly, such stances go all the way to the top of the US administration and a reflection of its duplicity and double standards in global affairs.
The reflexive identification with Israel, by both the US government and Western media and politicians is mind bugling. Palestinians who are contending with age long discrimination and occupation including the denial of their basic rights are framed as the aggressors while the Israelis are framed as the victims.
This is a pattern the US has developed over the years that calls to question its ability to mediate in global affairs with fairness, equity and justice
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