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Turning tide: Is international support for Israel in its war on Gaza fading?
As the conflict in Gaza enters its sixth month, it appears the international support Israel previously enjoyed might be waning.
Time magazine's Yasmeen Serhan writes this growing chasm has been most apparent at the UN, where Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and Algeria have put forward multiple ceasefire resolutions, which have been mostly backed by other permanent UN Security Council members, but failed to be passed after the UK mostly abstained while the US vetoed these resolutions.
Last month, there was a marked change when the US put forward its resolution, which Russia and China vetoed.
Another resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire was eventually passed after the US was the sole UN Security Council member to abstain.
Recently, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Ireland, and Spain were among a handful of European countries who refused to join the boycott of UNRWA, following Israel's allegations some staff were affiliated with Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
These countries have also publicly criticised Israel for its military response to the 7 October Hamas attack, in which 1 200 people died.
In retaliation for that attack, nearly 33 000 Palestinians have been killed in airstrikes and a ground offensive in Gaza, which has reduced the territory to rubble.
Many of the weapons deployed by Israel come from Western backers, including Germany and the UK. The US, Israel's closest ally, has supplied the bulk of the armaments, including 2 000-pound bunker buster bombs.
Recently, Canada announced it would cease further arms exports to Israel. While Ottawa is not a major supplier to Israel's armed forces, it was a significant warning shot from a long-term Western ally.
Earlier this week, it was revealed in a leaked recording the UK government had received advice from its own lawyers that Israel is breaking international law with the ongoing conflict.
The international chorus for Israel to justify its conduct in the war is growing louder after seven aid workers were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit their convoy on Monday night. The founder of World Central Kitchen, Jose Andres, says the seven were deliberately targeted. On Thursday night, in his strongest public rebuke yet, US President Joe Biden warned that American policy on Gaza will be determined by whether Israel takes steps to address the safety of Palestinian civilians and aid workers.
As the number of dead civilians, which includes women and children, continues to rise as Gaza stands on the brink of a man-made famine, with aid barely trickling through, we ask in this week's Friday Briefing if the international tide is turning against Israel.
We have submissions from News24's foreign editor, Phillip de Wet, author John Matisonn, researcher Quraysha Ismail Sooliman, and geopolitical security analyst Adam Frank.
It is a heavy read but an important one.
Best,
Vanessa Banton
Opinions editor.
30 years ago, Rwanda changed genocide. Gaza is on track to change it again
Gaza is different from Rwanda and other suspected genocides since, in the scale of displacement of people within a relatively small area and the siege-like conditions imposed on it, writes Phillip de Wet.
Will Gaza be Israel's Sharpeville?
Israel could lose American support in the long run over the Gaza conflict, but it probably won't happen overnight, writes John Matisonn.
UN Security Council and the elusive ceasefire: Can states break stalemate?
Until emerging powers from the global South, and courageous leadership from BRICS+, establish a rehabilitated international framework supported by enforceable laws, the impasse in the global order is likely to persist when it comes to the Israel-Hamas conflict, argues Quraysha Ismail Sooliman.
Israel's standing in the world remains strong
Israel's support among the democratic nations remains solid at the state level, even as the protests on the streets become ever more hysterical, violent and aggressive, argues Adam Frank.
