“They have to go and I mean, really go…I want anything that can fly to get in there and fuck them up. There are no mileage limitations and there are no budget limitations. Is that clear?” This is the order that US President Richard Nixon gave to his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, on December 9, 1970.
A few minutes later, Kissinger transmitted the order to his deputy, General Alexander Haig: “He wants a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. He doesn’t want to hear anything. It’s an order, it must be carried out. Everything that flies, everything that moves. You understood ?
More than fifty years ago, the US Air Force executed “Operation Menu” followed by “Operation Freedom Deal” to eradicate the Vietcong, the People’s Army of Vietnam, from Cambodia. It focused on bombing large swaths of territory to destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a vast network of trails and tunnels used by the North Vietnamese through the jungle connecting North and South Vietnam, through Cambodia and Laos.
The bombing of Cambodia had already begun in 1965 under the Johnson administration; Nixon simply stepped up his efforts. Between 1965 and 1973, 2.7 million tons of bombs were dropped on the country. By comparison, the Allies dropped around 2 million tons of bombs during the entire Second World War.
Thus, Cambodia could be the most heavily bombed country in history. In terms of square kilometers and thermal value, however, this tragic record may already have been lost to Gaza.
By the 25th day of the war, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant boasted that more than 10,000 bombs and missiles had been dropped on Gaza City alone. According to the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Observatory, the explosives used in the enclave from November 2 could be twice as powerful as a nuclear bomb, surpassing Little’s TNT equivalent Boy, the 15 kiloton atomic bomb dropped. in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
On November 5, an Israeli minister, Amichai Eliyahu, dropped a different kind of bomb by suggesting that the use of nuclear weapons on Gaza was an option. Although he has been “suspended” from the cabinet, his remarks may well be the first time a sitting Israeli official has publicly confirmed the open secret of Israel’s nuclear arsenal.
The first glaring difference between the bombing of Cambodia and that of Gaza is that the former was kept secret from the American Congress, the American people and the world, as bizarre as that may seem today; it was obviously not so secret to the Cambodians. The relentless bombing of Gaza, however, is touted around the world by Israeli leaders and receives overt encouragement and material support from the United States and other Western powers.
The second difference is that while Cambodian civilians might try to flee the terrifying roar of arriving squadrons of B-52s, Palestinians in Gaza, the vast majority refugees or descendants of refugees themselves, have nowhere to go. flee in the hope of living another day.
Strangely, US President Joe Biden questioned the accuracy of the death toll released by the Palestinian Health Ministry, lending credence to similar Israeli claims. This is despite the fact that his own aides believe in these figures and even believe that they could be higher, as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf recently stated.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also repeated the Israeli narrative that Hamas “terrorists” are using UN schools, hospitals, mosques and churches as command and control posts, as well as as weapons and ammunition storage depots, making them legitimate military targets.
International humanitarian law, however, suggests otherwise, because even if the unproven Israeli claims were true, the principle of proportionality prohibits attacks against military objectives when they are “likely to cause accidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian property or damage to civilian property.” a combination of the two, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage expected.”
Israel would struggle to make its case when more than 11,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed, including more than 4,500 children and infants, and thousands more are rotting under the rubble.
Worse still, Israeli government and military officials have repeatedly demonstrated genocidal intent by declaring that there are “no innocents” in Gaza. Before the UN Security Council, Israel even accused UN ambulance drivers, medical staff and aid workers of being members of Hamas, attempting to justify the killing of more than 100 of these workers. and the direct and deliberate targeting of hospitals in Gaza.
Faced with the blatant commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, as eminent legal scholars allege, the majority of governments around the world have remained shamefully silent. It is distressing to note the caution of States prepared to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel in the face of its widespread bombing of the civilian population of Gaza.
While Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco or Turkey – not to mention Western powers, China or India – continue to maintain diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, why does the latter should he reverse his decade-long policy of apartheid, dehumanization and delegitimization of Palestinians? , oppression and enslavement of the Palestinian people, if there is no price to pay?
Why should Israel stop its incessant bombing of the Gaza enclave? Why should it rethink its illegal occupation and colonization? Why should he even listen when Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit accuses him of perpetrating “genocide” and Arab leaders make superficial statements but take no decisive action at the Arab-Islamic summit ?
Calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres did, or for a simple “ceasefire” that he did not even dare to demand, is necessary but completely insufficient. After 37 days of relentless bombing aimed at “eradicating Hamas,” there is little evidence that the objective is within our reach.
On the one hand, Hamas is not only present in Gaza but also in the occupied West Bank and elsewhere. And even if, in theory, Israel did succeed in eliminating Hamas in Gaza, as it once sought to do with Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization, what would happen next?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself doesn’t really know that, does he? Or maybe he knows it, but can’t say it. As he said, “a long and difficult war” lies ahead. Translated, this means the continuation of the genocidal attack against the Palestinians, unless and until the position of its Western supporters – and Arab onlookers – changes in word and deed.
To date, only Bolivia has severed diplomatic relations with Israel to protest war crimes against the Palestinians. Unless Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco sever diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv, as their people demand; unless countries like Turkey, South Africa and Brazil, which have denounced Israel’s war crimes, align their diplomacy with their own statements; unless these countries imitate Bolivia’s principled diplomatic approach and put pressure on their Western partners; Unless Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Qatar, Azerbaijan and other major oil and natural gas exporters use their economic influence on Israel’s blinded supporters, Gaza and its population will be destroyed, inch by inch, soul by soul. And no one could say, “We didn’t know.”
Biden, Blinken and Netanyahu should be reminded that the horrific carpet bombing of Cambodia for years produced only one notable political outcome: the takeover of Cambodia by the infamous Khmer Rouge. What the annihilation of Hamas would achieve is therefore not a frivolous question. “Everything that flies, on everything that moves” and the bombings to “screw them into the air” sowed death and craters still visible today. It produced infamy and misery, but no military victory.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
