There is no “Red Line”

The tent massacre and what comes next.

Rafah is still under attack as I write this, and as I publish it. The atrocities of Sunday and the world’s response have yet to stop Israel’s onslaught. And Sunday night should have been the end of every country’s support for the genocide in Gaza. That night produced some of the most horrifying images of the last seven and a half months emerged from Rafah. The last place in Gaza, the Southern edge, the city transformed into the largest refugee camp on Earth, was under attack again. But this time Israel was deliberately bombing civilians on a different scale. People were burned alive in their tents in the middle of the night. Charred bodies, a child decapitated by a bomb, the world saw these images first hand. Civilians with no place to go, murdered in a prison under siege. The latest horror beyond imagination in a series of unimaginable horrors. UNRWA described what happened to Rafah as “hell on earth.”

But this nightmare was slightly different than the many that have come before. It took place on the far side of what was once a “red line.” Back in March, Joe Biden was asked whether or not there would be consequences if Israel invaded Rafah. He replied clearly and definitively: "It is a red line." And yet here we are. Israel has been gradually but steadily increasing its onslaught in Rafah, with Sunday night’s gruesome slaughter being the latest and by far the most egregious bombardment and mass murder. But the U.S. reaction has, thus far, been muted. Oddly muted. The primary reaction from the White House, from the President to the Secretary of State, has been silence.

The justification for this silence appears to be that the Biden administration is still assessing whether the Israeli strikes that killed at least 45 displaced Palestinians sleeping in a tent camp in Rafah is a violation of the President’s "red line," according to what two U.S. officials told Axios. It is immensely difficult to take this statement seriously. The idea of a red line is meant to be unambiguous. If the line is crossed, it’s crossed. That’s it. That is what the phrase means. Red lines are not blurry, are not flexible, are not meant to be moved around based on political calculations and excuses.

And that is all Israel has offered. Excuses and justifications and lies that are so exceptionally weak that it is impossible for any serious and honest observer to believe them. The morning after the tent massacre, as many are calling the slaughter in Rafah Sunday night, Netanyahu released a statement calling the mass murder a “tragic mistake.” Unfortunately for him, and for Israel’s already destroyed credibility before the world, the IDF had released a slightly different statement just an hour before. That statement takes a distinct approach, claiming that Israeli forces “carried out an intelligence-based precise strike,” and fails to even mention the slain civilians.

Despite Netanyahu’s brazen dishonesty, disproven by his own military, not to mention Israel’s repeated murder of civilians over the past seven and a half months, or their systematic AI targeting of civilians, there is something unusual and noteworthy in his statement. It’s rare for Israel’s Prime Minister to say that his country has made a mistake. And while we know the massacre was intentional, Netanyahu’s language speaks to the force of the international outcry. The IDF will not change its behavior, at least not yet, but the response to the tent massacre has the Israeli establishment a bit shaken. And that’s because people around the world, including powerful politicians, either cannot stomach what they saw in that Rafah camp or know that their constituents cannot stomach what they saw.

Summarizing all of the outcry, all of the people who have spoken out against the IDF murdering displaced people while they slept, is impossible. But the reactions from the leaders of France and Germany are both emblematic of how even many of Israel’s allies are now unable to continue supporting the genocide, and reveal why Israel may feel slightly worried about its new level of global isolation. The foreign ministry of Germany, Israel’s second biggest arms supplier and terrifyingly staunch ally, says the images from the vicious strikes on Rafah are “unbearable” and that the “civilian population must finally be better protected.” French President Emmanuel Macron chose significantly stronger language. He said, “These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian citizens. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire.”

Photo by Mohammed Ibrahim on Unsplash

But it remains unclear what actions France, Germany, or other Western nations will take to actually halt Israel’s genocide. In the U.S. some people are changing their tunes, and either speaking out against Israel’s latest massacre or escalating their demands for action. As Congressman Greg Casar wrote, “I am completely outraged by the killing of civilians in Rafah. Today, President Biden should announce an end to all bomb shipments to Netanyahu.” This is the type of clear demand we need every politician to commit to as a minimum. The IDF must stop receiving weapons of death from the United States. That clear, concrete demand is more than reasonable, it’s necessary and long overdue.

The demand to cut all aid to Israel is as vital, as needed as it’s ever been at this moment, because despite the international outcry and the many statements from powerful corners, despite the signs of Netanyahu’s weakness and international isolation, Israel continues to murder Palestinian civilians in Rafah and elsewhere and the U.S. has yet to take real action to stop them. We can all remember how many tunes changed after the workers from the World Central Kitchen were murdered, and yet the genocide and ethnic cleansing continued. They still continue. Monday night saw more killing, more Israeli bombardment, more flames erupting over the skies of Gaza.  We are confronted again with a lesson we have been shown again and again and again throughout the last seven and a half months.

The lesson is simple; in politics actions mean everything and words mean little. That axiom can be applied both to Israel and to its allies. Most importantly, we, those who want to stop the genocide and help free Palestine must internalize it. We cannot take our governments at their word, we must compel them to act. Netanyahu is trying to have it both ways; he wants to claim the tent massacre was a mistake while allowing the massacre to continue. And thus far it looks like the U.S. will also try to have it both ways; one official says Israel has blown up the red line while others try to figure out how to say the line has not been crossed. Whatever statements they release, whatever symbolic gestures they perform, our measuring stick should be clear: cut off Israel. No money, no weapons, no more diplomatic protections. Concrete action to halt the genocide, end the occupation, and end the apartheid must be our goals. And we must build that power to take these actions from hopes to reality. Nothing less will do. 

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