Encapsulating the complexities facing the West is the one question which has been asked repeatedly of Western leaders over the past two weeks: Why has the plight of Palestinian civilians not been given the same attention as that of the Ukrainians?
At the Cairo Peace Summit over the weekend, also attended by President Cyril Ramaphosa, country after country attacked the EU delegates and EU member state representatives present. They were roundly accused of double standards and hypocrisy for condemning Russia’s breaches of humanitarian law, but not Israel’s.
This sentiment is especially prevalent in the so-called Global South.
Just four weeks before Hamas viciously and inhumanly attacked Israel on 7 October, leaders from the US and EU asked developing nations at the G20 meeting in New Delhi to condemn Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians as war crimes, in order to uphold respect for the UN Charter on international law.
Now, many of those same Western diplomats are having the same argument read back at them, in demands for condemnation of Israel’s assault on Gaza and its decision to continue to restrict water, electricity, fuel, and even aid, from civilians.
To many in the Global South, this simply confirms the long perceived notion that a world order of international law does not mean the same thing to all.
To paraphrase George Orwell, all countries and humans are equal in the eyes of the law, but some countries and citizens are simply more equal than others.
As a senior G7 diplomat said, quoted in the Financial Times, “What we said about Ukraine has to apply to Gaza, otherwise we lose all credibility. We have definitely lost the battle in the Global South. All the work we have done over Ukraine has been lost. Forget about rules, forget about world order. The Brazilians, the South Africans, the Indonesians and many more will never listen to us again.”
Increasingly, there are signs that the EU is taking heed and that the tone towards Israel is changing.
In response to a question at a press briefing on Israel’s decision to cut off services to Gaza, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said that Israel’s “total siege of Gaza, where you cut the basic infrastructure, where you cut water, where you cut electricity, where you do not allow food to be delivered, this is not in line with international law”.
Subsequently, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, called on Monday for a pause in hostilities to allow aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip.
Such sentiments are spreading and becoming increasingly strident.
Parts of the Spanish government have called for breaking diplomatic relations with Israel and sanctions against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over what Ione Belarra, the deputy minister for social rights in Pedro Sánchez’s government, has called a “genocide” of Palestinians.
The long-term impact on how the rest of the world views Israel will be profound.
The threatened land invasion of Gaza will be exponentially worse in terms of humanitarian impact and has the potential to engulf the broader region and become a quagmire for the Israel Defense Forces, dragging on for years. The Israeli end game of such a possible invasion of Gaza and eradication of Hamas is conspicuously absent.
But to continue the current siege and indiscriminate bombing will lead to mass starvation and outbreaks of disease, which broadly equates to extinguishing life in Gaza as we know it.
UN agency Unicef said this week that an average of 400 children are killed or wounded every day in Gaza.
Many more months of photos of cruelly injured infants and news reports of innocent lives lost will obscure the memories of the unspeakably cruel attacks on Israeli citizens of 7 October. What awaits is a PR nightmare for Israel.
As Thomas Friedman has argued in The New York Times, “Israel would be much better off framing any Gaza operation as ‘Operation Save Our Hostages’ — rather than ‘Operation End Hamas Once and for All’ — and carrying it out, if possible, with repeated surgical strikes and special forces that can still get the Hamas leadership but also draw the brightest possible line between Gazan civilians and the Hamas dictatorship.”
Israel argues that those criticising its war in Gaza are delusional, hypocritical or anti-Semitic. Some critics of Israel are indeed enemies of the very idea of a Jewish state. But there are many who come from a position of concern and empathy for Israel.
With allies in the Global South and even in the EU teetering, Israel is more vulnerable than ever.
The country cannot afford to simply ignore international opinion and depend solely on the US. As it enters an existentially dangerous phase in its history, the Jewish state will need all the international support it can get — militarily, economically and diplomatically.
Suddenly, the seemingly clear-cut definitions between the “good guys” and the “bad guys” – which the West tried to assert on the rest of the world in the war on Ukraine – are not quite so simple. Everything in geopolitics is looking increasingly grey, complicated and fragmented.
Perhaps the only certainty is that the consequences of the past two weeks of turmoil and brutality will live with us all for years, if not decades, to come. DM
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Quite puzzled at how it seems to be taboo to argue against the existence of a jewish state at all, as if that is a heretical position to be punished by the full might of god almighty himself. There are even words designed to label these utterances, like “antisemitic”, which immediately bundles the speaker into the same group as Hitler or Muslim extremists. I just wonder how the modern state of Israel seems to have been proclaimed by the UN supported by the US in 1948, without due consideration for the considerable population of non-Jewish people living there at the time? I’m not really surprised that the Arabs did not and many still do not recognise the state of Israel and want to “drive them into the sea”. What would you think if you were were a Palestinian pushed off your land into a ghetto? Is a “2 state solution” where you are either trapped in Gaza or severely restricted in the West Bank really the best outcome you can hope for? Stone me of you must, but I just don’t get it.
I agree with you totally Paul T. Every subject can be debated – that’s called freedom of speech. There are always two sides to a situation, sometimes even a third side. The irony of the “anti-Semitic” label is that some of the Arab tribes were/are also Semites.
Using labels to destroy the “enemy” is a Marxist ploy that works. Use the word “anti” in front of whatever subject it is and one has a pejorative term to be used with gay abandon. I don’t like injections or vaccines so I’m automatically labelled an “anti-vaxxer” as though I’m an ignorant, violent, degenerate imbecile who should be locked up and the key thrown away!
The truth is that too many people have lost the ability to think critically about any given situation. The awful, terrible, tragic situation that we have with Palestine/Israel is a humanitarian one. There are innocents on both sides who are manipulated by governments and entities who have ulterior motives.
“One death is a tragedy, five thousand is a statistic”. People talk of the several thousand deaths and reporting how many on this side, and how many on that side, completely forgetting that each life is a life lost, with hundreds, if not thousands, of children losing their lives.
When these situations cause people to say “wipe out the Palestinians”, do they really know what they are saying? And if so, could they stomach walking amongst the dead children, women and men? The reverse is true for the inhabitants of Israel.
????? The reverse is true for the inhabitants of Israel? Nothing happened there? Really ? Denise Smit
No, sorry if my sentence was not clear – what I meant was could they stomach walking through the dead children, women and men in Israel? In other words, there are atrocities on both sides so when people say “wipe out the other side”, could they handle seeing the result of what they are asking for?
Well said. You put the same question in my mind out there quite eloquently.
Thank you! I truly believe we have to be humanitarians first and foremost.
Well said. Having spent just two weeks working in Jordan twelve years ago, it was interesting to talk to a few of the two million registered Palestinian refugees there and get a totally different point of view than that fed to us/me by the pro-Zionist press and others. It set me off reading up about the history of the Levant, and how the real Semites (fair enough, excluding the Sephardic jews) were not the ‘Ashkenazi carpetbaggers’ as someone called them from Eastern Europe, but the Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Jordanians etc who have lived in the place since descending from Noah’s son, Shem. I noticed how, for example, much like the Gaza situation, that only Israeli lives matter when it came to the concentration camps, where only the ‘Jewish holocaust’ seemed to have occurred. The five million gypsies, gays, disabled and so on, don’t get a mention. Weird. Probably as weird as their religion!
Wow! A whole 2 weeks 12 years ago? How many is a few, 2 or 3? Y9u have absolutely NO idea do you? Did you develop your homophobia here or did you pick that up somewhere else?
Perhaps a kurnel of an answer to your puzzlement would be – Why would you want to argue against the existence of a Jewish state ? Would you want to question the right to exist of the Islamic Republic of Iran or Islamic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or a French state of France, or South African country of South Africa. You see Jews consider themselves (perhaps a few don’t} as being Jewish not only because of Judaism, but a 3 500 year history of a People with an ancient nation state of Israel and Zion/Jerusalem. Would you want to question only Jewish and not Arab nationalism ? It might be bigotry or antisemitism or call it what you will, when you would be puzzled about only one nation in the whole world of Peoplehoods not having a right to exist in their nation state. You might not accept that Jews are also a People, but that is hardly relevant is it not ?
It is also not correct to say that in 1948 the UN did not give due consideration to the population of non-Jews. 2 states which was then proposed, living in peace and prosperity, would not have ghettoised, trapped or restricted anybody. The current situation has context and not just popped up out of a vacuum. In the intervening period Israel has also made plenty of mistakes but this is a whole other conversation.
Zionism is a political project and Judaism is a religion. To equate the two is a master PR stroke: any criticism = anti- Semitism. The expulsion and pogroms against Jews happened in Europe and Russia. The USA turned back refugees from Nazi Germany. Perhaps it’s guilt but the hypocrisy demonstrated by the west in their attitude towards Israel is going to have repercussions for decades. To call for ‘a pause’ in the bombing of civilians is grotesque- condemn the killing of civilians and demand a ceasefire! Nothing less will do. Sanctions were imposed on S.A. to force change: so do the same to Israel.
virginia Crawford waked up and smell the roses – your continuous comments in various articles clearly defines your bias with a touch of hatred. Consider that any number of countries thst have been ‘established’ by reshaping national borders without consideration for the peoples living there. Yet you’re oblivious of this.
Gaza shares a border with Egypt, airbrushed by the media, who don’t want highlight that country’s indifference for their brother Arabs. (Just last February you witnessed how Poland welcomed over a million Ukrainians refugees fleeing the Russian invasion).
That same largess not forthcoming from the Egyptians. Gaza borders on the Sinai Peninsula one of the least populated areas in the region, a territory the size on Mpumalanga with 5 million peoples, in stark contrast to the
Wake up and smell the roses is a condescending and childish response. Please read updates on the response to Ukrainian refugees in Poland. All Arabs are not the same in exactly the same way that all Europeans are not the same, as all the English speaking countries are not the same: to lump all Arabs as one is racist and ignorant. Please note that Christians, Jews and Muslims inhabited the same area for millennia – so ask what has changed since 1948. Please don’t accuse me of hatred: whom am I meant to hate? Admittedly bigots are a bore, but I don’t even hate them.
Well said. The Zionist mafia strikes again. I seem to hear it’s called ‘whataboutism’, trying to deflect attention from their mates’ actions as if it’s the same.
virginia Crawford waked up and smell the roses – your continuous comments in various articles clearly defines your bias with a touch of hatred. Consider that any number of countries thst have been ‘established’ by reshaping national borders without consideration for the peoples living there. Yet you’re oblivious of this.
Gaza shares a border with Egypt, airbrushed by the media, who don’t want highlight that country’s indifference for their brother Arabs. (Just last February you witnessed how Poland welcomed over a million Ukrainians refugees fleeing the Russian invasion).
That same largess not forthcoming from the Egyptians. Gaza borders on the Sinai Peninsula one of the least populated areas in the region, a territory the size on Mpumalanga with 5 million peoples, in stark contrast to the Sinai’s numbers of less than 600,000.
Why not ask humanitarian agencies, The Red Cross, U.N. to house those refugees in the Sinai. The simple answer, Egypt will have none of that, they care less for their Palestinian brothers than missing the bus, as do the U.N. et al.
As a footnote, try to read the history of Gaza and the Sinai these past 50 years, such research may be a bit distasteful to you and your ilk.
Does anyone not know that Egypt and Israel don’t share a border? Interesting how the media could or would “airbrush ” this fact? A parallel universe? Too much rose sniffing?
I think Virginia has smelt the roses !!!
In any event, to play Devil’s Advocate, why must surrounding Arab countries take in Palestinians? In order that the Zionist can steal all the land? So you agree that the Zionists are the cause of millions of refugees?
Plus it’s the Sinai Desert: no infrastructure, baking in summer, freezing in winter. No water source etc.
Sinai Desert! No infrastructure- blazing in summer, freezing at night. No water etc, so not an option.
Take a look at a map – 20 kn further west from the border you might find a city with an airport that can accommodate jets. Been there seen that, but bow down to armchair genius and keyboard combatants sitting thousands of mile away
If you mean Arish then note that it is a small city (pop 250 000) in a desert and ill -equipped to receive over a million refugees who are refugees because they are being bombed.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
As long as the USA and the EU “stand firmly” behind Israel, the Zionists will continue to act with impunity. There are so many Jewish Rabbis outside Israel condemning their acts and so many Rabbis within Israel being abused for speaking out against Zionism. These Rabbis are begging the World to see the vast difference between Judaism and Zionism. Israel is Zionist State not a Jewish State.
I agree with you. It is convenient to label any criticism of the policies of the Israeli government with anti-Semitism. Makes me wonder how one would label thousands of people of the Jewish faith who condemn this indiscriminate bombing of men, women and children.
Hopes for peace between Palestine and Israel after the signing of the Oslo Accords, were shattered the night that an extremist far right supporter shot and killed Yitzhak Rabin at a peace rally. The assassin believed that ceding territory to the Palestinians was a betrayal. The then leader of the opposition was Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke at demonstrations where slogans included included “Death to Rabin”, and in July 1995 walked at the head of a mock funeral procession featuring a fake black coffin. Rabin had refused to wear a bullet-proof vest at the rally – his fate was sealed on the night of 4 November 1995. That act of political violence achieved its aim of halting the Middle East process which has stalled to this day.
Netanyahu has always wanted the entire area for a Zionist State, Yitzhak Rabin, was just a “speed bump” in his way.
Ben Gvir, Netanyahu’s current National Security Minister, campaigned for the release of Rabin’s murderer.
But Enver, doesn’t that signal the eventual end of Israel? A crook in charge, surrounded by far right fascist types, currying favour with a bunch of facetailed religious weirdos who breed like rabbits because Yahweh told them to and will need land for houses to put them in? And who apparently spend all day ‘researching’ a weird book of fairy tales not doing anything useful.
The best comment yet!
Here in SA – our very own history teaches us: you can subjugate, oppress a nation, people for 20 years, for 50 years – maybe even for +75 years (since 1948) – but not forever!
Would, today and in retrospect, any one of us condemn the ANC’s deadly attacks and killings before 1990 as unjustified “terrorism”?
Never mind the present (horrible) outcome: The people, ALL nations living in SA gained freedom, gained their humanity, dignity. So it will also happen in the former British Palestine. Inevitably so. In 2023 – or years later. But it will happen. The “Jewish State” will disappear.
NB: to make it clear: the disgusting, repulsive, horrible slaughtering of civilians – babies, children, women, old people – can in no way ever be viewed as justified. It was an orgy by bloodthirsty barbarians – who will, hopefully, never be viewed as ‘freedom fighters’!
99.9% of opinions are light on fact and the remaining subjective.
The only certainty is that everyone has one.
Russia invaded Ukraine without warning under the pretence of a special military operation
Hammas attacked Isreal without warning killing everybody they encountered
How on earth can Isreal be considered in the same boat as Russia
What we are witnessing is a histerical support for a group of terrorist who bit off more than they can swallow
Zionists invaded Palestine, just like Russia invaded Ukraine, can’t you see the similarity???
“In 50 years time”, when Russia controls more than 70% of Ukraine, will you see Ukranian Militants as terrorists or freedom fighters?
what utter garbage
Israel is currently committing war crimes in Gaza. Starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime. Deliberately killing citizens is a war crime. Destruction of civilian infrastructure is a war crime. 2.2 million people in Gaza are being mercilessly massacred because of the actions of a few. This is not about “hysterical support for terrorists”. This is about a lack of humanity in Israel’s response.
Rubbish
It takes courage to sustain compassion.
What are we without compassion though? Extremists probably.
Hammas
“Why has the plight of Palestinian civilians not been given the same attention as that of the Ukrainians?”
That’s pretty obvious to anyone thinking clearly. Because the Ukrainians didn’t vote an extremist terrorist organisation with the publicly stated aim of committing genocide on their neighbour into power.
And … which Israeli Leader said: “I wish I could wake up one day and find that Gaza has sunk into the sea.”?
Zionists threatened to wipe out Palestinians and even denied the existence of Palestinians long before Hamas threatened “genocide” against them.
More nonsense
There have not been democratic elections in Gaza since 2006. You cannot punish and starve the entire Gazan population for the actions of a few. This is known as “collective punishment” and deemed a war crime, prohibited by treaty in both international and non-international armed conflicts. Imagine if we were bombed and starved because of the stupid things our government did!
No democratic elections because an extremist terrorist organisation has no interest in democracy. Or in providing any services to its population. Instead of spending money on water, sewage, medical care, education and other services needed by a 21st century population, they spend it all on weapons.
Are you suggesting that the Gaza population, when they voted Hamas into power, expected that elections would happen regularly every 4 or 5 years?
William – remember: when Hamas (initially sponsored by Israel as a counterweight to Arafat’s Fatah) won free and fair elections in the Strip, in 2006 – Israel, the World refused to acknowledge, accept that. Arafat ‘deposed’ Haniyeh in 2007, Hamas murdered Fatah-members in Gaza – and became a radicalised, dictatorial power since then!
Why? Israel, the “Global North” refused to accept the outcome of free and fair elections. Which leads us to October 7th …
Guterres is right, 150%!
Not genocide – they just wanted their land back…
Hey – no Palestinian ever wanted to “genocide” jews (that was the privilege of the Germans!). They just want to have their land back – from which they were driven by Irgun, Stern Gang / Levi, and Haganah, all confirmed (by Britain) as being terrorist groups. And their political successors.
The only solution: one person, one vote – from the Med to the river Jordan.
Sadly – they haven’t yet found their Madiba… 🙁
William, that was my thought exactly. And anyway is the premise of this question even correct ?
There is always a huge outcry in the U N and world media to constrain Israel at the times of war and terrorism against it to protect the Palestinian civilian population. In the light of these latest atrocities, Israel now has declared that they must eliminate Hamas as a threat. They have never said as some dis-inform in these comments ” we want to wipe out the Palestinians”
Both sides are deluded if they think that either side is going to disappear.
Exactly, but lets not let facts get in the way of good old hypocrisy
“Why has the plight of Palestinian civilians not been given the same attention as that of the Ukrainians?”
Let’s see. Hamas invaded Israel, took hostages and killed everyone they could. Russia invaded Ukraine, took hostages and killed everyone they could. Now Israel is giving Hamas a snotklap and Ukraine is giving Russia a snotklap. Are you suggesting that the plight of Palestinian civilians be given the same attention as that of Russian civilians?
Or would you prefer some other false analogy?
“The long-term impact on how the rest of the world views Israel will be profound.”
About time too.
Agreed
Oh the ZIONISTS the ZIONISTS the ZIONISTS. If you want to use a perjoritive term just write ZIONIST.
It has become so dreary my dears. Perhaps if you considered to stop for one second and consider where the term comes from some of you will perhaps realize that Zion (land) and Judaism (religion) and Jewish Peoplehood (nation) are inextricably linked through an unbroken 3 500 years connection to their ancient homeland of Israel, and not one or the other. Zionism is the name given to the political movement because of this very fact, as the modern liberation movement (heard of these ?) of the Jewish People. Now let us consider the Arab people living in the British Protectorate of Palestine at the time.. It is not true to say that in 1948 the United Nations said to them “voetsak’, it all belongs to the Jews. They were offered their state living side by side in peace and prosperity with Israel. They, or the Arab League on their behalf, declined because they could not abide the idea of a tiny Jewish state in the midst of the vast Arab lands of the Middle East. So they went to war against Israel with genocidal intent. Read their own words – they are their words not mine. And again and again and again. War has terrible consequences for all those on both sides. They (as in Hamas today) don’t want to accept the existence of a Jewish state, fine. You want to argue against the right of a Jewish state to exist, fine. Just don’t expect the Jewish People to go along with you.
Well said, Sir.
Both the wife and I had German Jew Grandfathers. Every Jew that I know does not want to be associated with the Zionists, they regard them as people who perverted the true religion to support their whims and fancies. The meaning of Zion (land) is not of issue here, it’s the actions of those who see themselves as Zionists that is the issue. Actions speak louder than words.
The Samson Option refers to Israel’s deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a “last resort” against a country whose military has invaded and/or destroyed much of Israel.
Where is the human rights condemnation of Hamas? They started the war, that is the difference between Russia and Ukraine. Hamas started, Israel must finish or be continually at war. Palestine must be liberated from Hamas not Israel, which left Gaza in 2005 with full infrastructure etc. So much distortion to fit the narrative.
Giving the impression that the war started on the 7th of October is itself a distortion of the narrative. Isreal has been annexing Palestinian land since 1948. Palestine has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. Before the attack by Hamas, Israeli soldiers had killed over 172 Palestinians in the Westbank where Hamas has no control ( this is the figure for 2023) . The same soldiers had killed more people in Gaza. This is from a UN Humanitarian Affairs Office.
Israel has also come under criticism for its use of the military force to debilitate civilians. It routinely shoots to cause permanent injury and targets health infrastructure – an act which is in contravention of the Geneva convention – 2,7 to 7 percent of the Palestinian population is disabled. Israel is backed by a country with the strongest military and media apparatuses in the world.
Daily the public is being fed the narrative that Hamas is a terrorist group yet Israel’s actions that have murdered scores of Palestinians and created the largest population of refugees (over 5.6 million globally ) are positioned as not quite genocidal?
Who is really distorting the narrative ?
The bombing is not indiscriminate. It never has been, Natale . Just like the suicide bombings that you’re too young to remember. Just like the Hamas terrorist attack of 7 October. What exactly would you have Israel? The Gazans can’t get rid of Hamas. The Muslim world won’t. So Israel’s responses have to be entirely in Israel’s hands. It could be different. The UNGA and particularly the Human Rights Committee offer nothing but resolutions against Israel which it doesn’t deserve. They don’t bring peace – the Israelis and Hezbollah just shoot at each other over the heads of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon. Why are they even there? The Israeli’s first duty is to Israelis, not Gazans. The Gazans are the first responsibility of Hamas, Iran and the rest of the Muslim war. ‘The Israeli end game of such a possible invasion of Gaza and eradication of Hamas is conspicuously absent.’ by what? How do you know? You don’t!
Forget the history, it’s well-known and does not need repeating. This particular war was triggered by Hamas invading Israel by land and air, Hamas are by definition terrorists as they targeted civilians whom they tortured and murdered in many barbarous ways, then took hundreds of hostages. Some IDF were killed and taken hostage too, but they were incidental to the main thrust of the attack -civilians. Hamas are cowardly terrorists too. They hide behind civilian shields, both the hostages but mainly behind the Gazans when they place their rocket launchers in hospitals, malls and homes. They know the IDF would selectively take out these rocket bases and the Hamas headquarters without civilian injuries if they were not behind human shields. So why are the masses in the West screaming for the bombings to stop? Israel knows it has to eliminate Hamas, it’s now or never. There is no other way to eliminate the cowards hiding amongst the population!
What the author has failed to mention is how the most ‘powerful’ (militarily) state in the world has for decades ‘used’ numerous media outlets to engineer an “Israeli Victim” narrative, to seduce ‘western mind/s’. Watch the “Occupation of the American Mind” for details , which has been accompanied by the occupation of Palestinian territory (post ’67 resolution) and relentless expansion of settlements on occupied land. So much so, that an exasperated Obama (only US president to do so) once dared to ask the simple question – can’t they just stop building new settlements on occupied land ? Mind you … not a ‘return’ of ‘occupied’ land ! So much for US justice (sic).