By Jamal Kanj

This piece exposes the role of the US and antisemites in enabling Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza, highlighting complicity and the weaponization of humanitarian narratives.

The devastation in Gaza continues to escalate, with ceasefire negotiations used as part of a calculated strategy and a smokescreen until Israel completes its ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza. Crucial to the success of this plan is the unwavering complicity of the Biden administration, which has embraced and amplified Israeli narratives, shielded it from accountability, and facilitated its actions.

According to Bob Woodward’s book, War, on October 12, 2023, Israeli-backer and US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken attended a meeting with Israeli leaders in the War Room, the Kirya. The Cabinet, including military leaders, were discussing the impending invasion of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, looked at the highly unusual “foreign leader” in the Kirya demanding, “We need three things: ammo, ammo, ammo.”

The American Israeli backers replied submissively, “We’re there with you … We have already set up channels . . . to deliver things. That work is already going on,” he then affirmed, again, “We’re with you,” before timidly asking “about the civilians in Gaza?”

The Israeli blueprint for Gaza was not conceived in the aftermath of October 7—it had been meticulously prepared well in advance. Netanyahu told the US Secretary of State that Israel intended to establish a so-called “humanitarian corridor” for Palestinian civilians to go to Egypt. The plan, framed under the guise of humanitarian relief, was, in essence, a mass displacement and ethnic cleansing.

Rather than outright rejecting the proposal, Blinken appeared open to discussing it further. His response— “There may be concerns about that, but let us talk with others”—signaled at least a willingness to entertain the idea. The exchange revealed the stark power dynamics at play, with Netanyahu unapologetically outlining an ethnic cleansing plan, and Blinken offering neither resistance nor condemnation but instead a willingness to consult and deliberate further. This underscores the tacit complicity of the US administration in Israel’s broader strategy and effectively endorsing the inchoate state crime.

To placate Blinken’s potential “concerns” on the imminent genocide Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs and an American-born former Floridian, offered a chilling reassurance. “There won’t be a humanitarian crisis in Gaza if no civilians are there.” Shifting responsibility and effectively absolving Israel of accountability, Dermer added, “One man—Sisi (Egypt’s president)—can’t stand in the way.”

Dermer’s remarks epitomized the cold pragmatism underpinning the Zionist culture, reducing (non-Jewish) human lives to logistical challenges while deflecting the consequences of Israel’s actions on other regional actors. This exchange not only underscores the brazen with which Israeli officials openly discuss their malevolent plans with American counterparts but, more critically, highlights the perceived tacit support from the Biden administration and its reluctance to push against Israel’s expressed intent to commit war crimes.

It seems the Israeli-firster, Blinken, did indeed have a “talk with others.” The focus revolved around solving the Israeli-engineered “humanitarian crisis” by forcibly expelling Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt. While the exact timing of Blinken’s conversations with Egyptian officials about Israel’s plan to drive Palestinians into the Sinai desert is unclear, it must have occurred before October 18.

On that date, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared that Egypt would not be a party to “forced displacement of Palestinians from their land… at the expense of [other] countries in the region.” In a pointed counterproposal, Sisi proposed an alternative: Israel should instead consider opening a corridor to the Negev desert, an area under its own control.

If Ron Dermer were truly concerned about the welfare of Palestinian civilians, he could support their right to return to the homes they were forced from during the ethnic cleansing of 1948. This would immediately alleviate the overcrowding in Gaza by enabling approximately 1.5 million people to reclaim their rightful homes and lands.

This step would demonstrate genuine care, rather than the hollow rhetoric of “pity” that Dermer uses to mask policies for the second displacement and dispossession of Palestinians from their homes.

Dermer claims that if Gaza had no Palestinian civilians, there would be no humanitarian crisis. How is this fundamentally different from the Nazi assertions if there were no Jews in Europe, there would be no “Jewish problem”? The Nazi and Zionist narratives have one thing in common: dehumanize an entire population, framing their very existence as the root of the issue, and rationalize the abominable hate to justify genocide.

With all this, and despite the immense pressure, Gaza’s fighters continued their resistance, denying Netanyahu the ability to claim his coveted “complete victory.” Fifteen months later, facing a relentless campaign by starvation, genocide, and the horrifying deaths of infants frozen in the cold, Israel has not succeeded in rendering Gaza uninhabitable. Yet, the suffering of the civilian population remains unfathomable—a harrowing testament to the first genocide documented live before the world.

Gaza has been reduced to a humanitarian nightmare. Two-thousand-pound, American-made bombs have devastated residential homes, while hospitals have been burned down, and supposed safe shelters, schools, and critical infrastructure have been deliberately targeted. The streets have become an open morgue; famished dogs and cats roaming the streets feeding on the bodies of the dead. The haunting image of stray animals tearing apart the limbs of deceased women, men, and children underscores the depth of the Israeli army’s moral depravity.

The harrowing sight of wild animals scavenging the remains of loved ones further traumatizes those already grappling with starvation and the devastating loss of family members. This unbearable reality compounds the physical and psychological toll on survivors, forcing them to endure yet another layer of indignity.

The Israeli army carries out military raids using medical ambulances full of Israeli commandos as in its raid on January 5 in the west Bank, while it projects the same to justify demolishing medical facilities under false pretexts. It targets first responders, obstructing their efforts to save the injured and condemning victims to a slow, agonizing death.

This sends a chilling message to anyone attempting to recover dying family members, forcing them to leave bodies to decompose and denying the dead the basic, fundamental right to dignity—even in death. This was not merely a failure of local resources but the deliberate result of systemic policies designed to terrorize civilian populations.

When hospitals are bombed or civilian casualties mount, US officials like John Kirby justify these actions by echoing Israel’s disproven claims of targeting “terrorist infrastructure” or accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields. For 15 months, the Biden administration dismissed the lived reality of Palestinians and absolved Israel of responsibility, thus instrumental in Israeli war crimes. Biden’s last pernicious act was an $8 billion military package on January 3, 2025, to facilitate the continuation of Israel’s genocide.

In less than three weeks, a new administration will take office in the White House. Few expect Donald Trump to bring meaningful change to the American policy on Palestine, aside from fulfilling Theodor Herzl’s vision, the father of political Zionism, outlined in his diary more than 100 years ago: “The antisemites WILL BECOME our most loyal friends, the antisemites nations will become our allies.”

While accusing human rights groups, the International Criminal Court and the UN of being antisemite, Netanyahu relishes Herzl’s prophecy aligning with the antisemites as his “most loyal friends,” from Trump and American Evangelical Christians to Nigel Farage in England, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France, and Javier Milei in Argentina, among others.

Herzl’s prediction has become a self-fulfilling prophecy for Netanyahu, with the far right and antisemites emerging as his closest allies and enablers of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

– Jamal Kanj is the author of “Children of Catastrophe,” Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America, and other books. He writes frequently on Arab world issues for various national and international commentaries. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle