American ‘ironclad’ support for Israel has much to do with the insecurity of a declining superpower.

It has now been close to 10 months that Israel has been waging a genocidal war in Gaza. Its army has violated nearly every facet of international humanitarian law in its relentless assault on an unimaginably vulnerable population.

Israel has denied the Gaza concentration camp the bare necessities of life — food, water, medicine, sanitation, electricity and fuel. And its targeting of civilian infrastructure has made the majority of Gaza residents homeless.

No Israeli military goal requires the total destruction of Gaza. Killing 40,000 Palestinians – a death toll that could reach 186,000 per some estimates – and injuring many more serves no clear strategic purpose. Nor does the systematic and wholesale destruction of Gazan universities, schools, hospitals and neighbourhoods. If Israel wants to occupy and annex Gaza, presumably it would want to inherit something more than a blast zone.

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