As predictable as ever, Western leaders, politicians, and commentators have been lightning-quick in their response to the deadly cross-border raids from Gaza to swear undying fealty to Israel and “its right to defend itself against terror”. Headlines, often in 16-point font size, blare about the “unprecedented invasion”. Always first with one-sided and misleading stories, the NYT’s immediate response was to trumpet a Netanyahu quote.
No slouch himself, Biden has jumped in with both feet: Americans unreservedly “have Israel’s back”. (Blinken, the most assiduous Washington licker of Bibi boots, will likely jet to Israel soon to swear loyalty in person.) Lindsey Graham said something Grahamish, i.e., only marginally accurate and even less useful. And GOP White House aspirants? Per the AP: “Former President Donald Trump charged that the U.S. is perceived as being ‘weak and ineffective’ on the global stage under Biden, opening the door to hostility against Israel. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accused Biden of ‘policies that have gone easy on Iran’ and have ‘helped to fill their coffers.’ And South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott alleged the attack was ‘the Biden $6 billion ransom payment at work,’ a reference to the prisoner deal.”
(Disappointingly missing is the claim that it’s Hillary Clinton and her cohort that is the pedophile ring she runs out of a pizza parlor on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, who are responsible for what Hamas has done. How do we know? It’s all right there, on that private server with all of her emails.)
The chorus from Europe is no less deafening. Always striving to be first, Germany — where out-Jewing the Jews remains very much in fashion among the purportedly well-intentioned — signaled its support by lighting up the Brandenburg Gate with the flag of Israel. (Later, Downing Street did the same.)
Someone also promptly suggested that Germany stop sending funds to the people of Gaza, blind to the obvious: Germany has been making those payments for years because it knows that Israel’s imprisonment of more than two million Palestinians there defies decency and law, but has never had the gumption to stand up to Israel and compel it to change course on its occupation and expansionist policies. Granted, Germany is in a rock/hard place spot of guilt: German money for Gaza over its own cowardice, or German subservience to whatever Israel wants because of the Holocaust.
Of course, the Germans aren’t alone in their reflexes. Everyone in the West is on board with full-throated condemnation. How dare those “barbarians” raise their heads and assert, We’re still here! But not to worry, the countless policy makers who for decades could have pressed Israel for the solution that’s always been there will steep themselves in self-righteousness as the body count in Gaza continues to rise and more draconian measures follow.
That these “leaders” could have helped avoid a generation of bloodletting and mind-numbing, petty cruelties — Israelis have never taken a back seat to anyone in that department — doesn’t cross their minds. That would risk a semblance of accountability for the years of justifying and abetting the execrable.
For the Palestinians, things will get worse, a fact of which they surely are aware. But their choice has always been to bow their heads without murmur or raise them occasionally — and suicidally — to remind the world that they exist. So it will continue. Either way, Israel will win, and not only because it is a military power armed with nukes. It controls the narrative that the world consumes.
It’s that control of the narrative which has caused the Hamas operation to surprise Israelis and non-Israelis alike. As long as Israel was able to impose itself unhindered on the Occupied Territories with little meaningful scrutiny by outsiders — who would believe an Arab in any event — the “Palestinian problem” was out of sight, out of mind. Most citizens of Western countries have little idea what actually goes on in a place where the details really matter. Now that the blow-back has hit Israelis directly, there is shock. Yes, the subjugation of others comes at a price, even if the payment is only occasional and never material enough to change things.
None of what we see happening will meaningfully change the equation. Israel will continue to steal (“expropriate”) Palestinian land, tolerate settler assaults against Palestinians, and in countless other ways make Palestinians even more miserable (and, often enough, kill them) than before. Israel will — and can — do this because no other country dares force it to accept the obvious solution that’s been there since the beginning: two sovereign states, side by side.
That’s not what Israel wants, because a sovereign Palestinian state gets in the way of what has always been the objective, which is to take all the land, preferably emptied of Palestinians. To accomplish that, we can expect Israeli policies to become even more extreme as it uses what Hamas has just done as justification. Forced expulsion within the next five years is probable, especially in light of the long-term demographic arithmetic unfavorable to Israel.
Meanwhile, the West, always ready to chastise human rights violators, will slavishly continue its exemption of Israel from civilized standards, while condemning Palestinians whenever they dare raise their voice. The louder the condemnation of Palestinians the easier to drown out all other considerations.
