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The US-Israel peacekeeping plan for Gaza has always raised suspicion, but Indonesia just exposed the truth for all to see. Right, so the United States spent months telling the world that Gaza needed an international stabilisation force, Israel nodded along as if that idea didn’t make them sweat and why would it when they’ve been given a veto over who can be part of it? And Western media dutifully reported this as if it were both reasonable and normal. It’s not. It is clearly being set up for Israel’s advantage here. But, a big fat spanner might have just been thrown into the works. Indonesia have just offered up twenty thousand trained peacekeepers ready to go — medics, engineers, construction teams, the whole lot — How can this possibly be turned down? They fit the bill, this is what we want right, proper trained peacekeepers? Well no, Israel really don’t. I can’t imagine why, can you? Right, so Indonesia have stepped forward with the most serious peacekeeping offer for Gaza so far and they did it without theatrics, without posturing, without any of the diplomatic hedging Western governments hide behind whenever they say they want stability but mean something else entirely. Indonesia trained twenty thousand personnel. They’re not combat brigades. They’re health units, engineers, construction specialists, logistics teams. They’re the sort of people you’d send if the priority were stitching hospitals back together, making roads passable, making shelters liveable, making the place fit for human beings again after a year of aerial bombardment, siege, and systematic destruction. And Indonesia said it plainly. “We’ve prepared a maximum of 20,000 troops… we are waiting for further decisions on Gaza peace action.” No drama. No military swagger. Just readiness. And because this is Indonesia we’re talking about — the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy, a G20 state, a country with no diplomatic ties to Israel and therefore no stake in covering for what has unfolded in Gaza — it lands differently. It lands as a test. Because if the West and Israel meant a word they’ve said about the need for international oversight, international stabilisation, international protection, here it is.
By Damien WilleyThe US-Israel peacekeeping plan for Gaza has always raised suspicion, but Indonesia just exposed the truth for all to see. Right, so the United States spent months telling the world that Gaza needed an international stabilisation force, Israel nodded along as if that idea didn’t make them sweat and why would it when they’ve been given a veto over who can be part of it? And Western media dutifully reported this as if it were both reasonable and normal. It’s not. It is clearly being set up for Israel’s advantage here. But, a big fat spanner might have just been thrown into the works. Indonesia have just offered up twenty thousand trained peacekeepers ready to go — medics, engineers, construction teams, the whole lot — How can this possibly be turned down? They fit the bill, this is what we want right, proper trained peacekeepers? Well no, Israel really don’t. I can’t imagine why, can you? Right, so Indonesia have stepped forward with the most serious peacekeeping offer for Gaza so far and they did it without theatrics, without posturing, without any of the diplomatic hedging Western governments hide behind whenever they say they want stability but mean something else entirely. Indonesia trained twenty thousand personnel. They’re not combat brigades. They’re health units, engineers, construction specialists, logistics teams. They’re the sort of people you’d send if the priority were stitching hospitals back together, making roads passable, making shelters liveable, making the place fit for human beings again after a year of aerial bombardment, siege, and systematic destruction. And Indonesia said it plainly. “We’ve prepared a maximum of 20,000 troops… we are waiting for further decisions on Gaza peace action.” No drama. No military swagger. Just readiness. And because this is Indonesia we’re talking about — the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy, a G20 state, a country with no diplomatic ties to Israel and therefore no stake in covering for what has unfolded in Gaza — it lands differently. It lands as a test. Because if the West and Israel meant a word they’ve said about the need for international oversight, international stabilisation, international protection, here it is.