Liam Conner
Palestinians and others in the Middle East see the US as a “facilitator” of Israel in its war with Hamassaid Queen Rania al Abdullah of Jordan Sunday on “Face the Nation.”
“People see the US as part of this war,” Rania said in an interview with “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan. “Because, you know, Israeli officials say that without U.S. support they could not launch this war.”
Jordan, a US ally, has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1994. The queen, who is of Palestinian descent, criticized the reaction to the war by the US and other countries, saying there had been a “selective application of humanitarian law ”. This is causing a “loss of credibility” in the US
“The US may be Israel’s closest ally, but a good friend holds a friend accountable,” she said.
Rania said the world is receiving “mixed messages” from the US, which she said has expressed concern about civilian deaths in Gaza and has supplied offensive weapons to Israel “that are used against the Palestinians.” She urged the international community to use influence to force Israel to allow aid into Gaza and end the war, saying the US can do so by saying it will not continue to supply offensive weapons to Israel.
The queen described the impact of the war on the Arab world, which she said had seen Gaza become “unrecognizable” over the past seven months. As Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has continued for nearly seven months since the October 7 terrorist attack, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health said that at least 34,000 died as the humanitarian crisis worsened, although the Ministry of Health does not designate between civilians and combatant victims.
“It’s been quite devastating. And the impact has been, obviously, people are very traumatized by what they see every day,” she said. “We were traumatized on October 7th, but we think this war is not, you know, Israel is saying this was a defensive war. Obviously, it was instigated on October 7th, but the way it’s being fought is not in a defensive way. .”
Queen Rania made it clear that Hamas does not represent the majority of Gaza’s population and that Palestinians have been dehumanized for decades by Israel to “numb people to Palestinian suffering.”
“When you reduce people to violent people who are different from us – then they’re not moral like us, so it’s okay to inflict pain and suffering on them because they don’t feel it the same way we do – it allows people to do things bad,” she said. “This is the mental loophole of dehumanization, it allows you to justify the unjustifiable, do bad things and still see yourself as a good person.”
At the same time, the Queen condemned anti-Semitism, calling it “the worst kind of intolerance” and “pure hatred”. And she drew a line between anti-Semitism and demonstrating against the war in Gaza and Israeli politics.
His interview comes as President Biden meets with King Abdullah II of Jordan this week. The administration also faces a deadline to provide Congress with a determination on whether Israel is using American weapons in accordance with international law in the coming days.
