Updated Jan. 8, 2024 at 8:15 p.m.
-Analysis-
PARIS — October 7 in Israel, and the events that have followed in Gaza, were the final straw: the rift is well and truly there — and is undoubtedly irreversible. Public opinion in the Global South, even more than their governments, has taken up the cause of the people of Gaza, who have been dying under Israeli bombs for three months.
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They are turning to the West and saying: what happened to all your talk of international law, war crimes and justice?
The brutality of Israel’s response, and the images of Palestinian civilian victims broadcast and amplified by social networks, have created an untenable situation for those who defend Ukraine in the name of the law in the face of Russian aggression. The unanimous message from opinion in the South, and even from plenty of Westerners, notably in the United States, is: enough with your lessons of morality.
Western role in the Middle East
The West has only itself to blame: for the past two decades, it has turned its back on the Palestinian question, which appeared too complicated, and even seemed to be under control with some Arab countries negotiating new relations with Israel… The Americans, who were orchestrating the rapprochement between the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia in the run-up to October 7, are left drowning in crisis management.
Why are we giving Israel the means to continue?
U.S. President Joe Biden is in the uncomfortable position of being the guarantor of Israel’s security in the face of the Hamas attack, without having the slightest confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The United States supplies Israel with the necessary ammunition, and does what it can to maintain regional balance in the face of Iran and its Lebanese and Yemeni allies. But add to this two U.S. vetos to UN ceasefire request.
This makes Washington’s criticism of Israeli strategy, and the number of civilian casualties, incomprehensible to the rest of the world: if you don’t agree, why are you giving Israel the means to continue along this path?
Credibility at stake
The Europeans are less involved, both in terms of military support and influence, but their declarations of unconditional support for Israel in the emotional aftermath of October 7 stand in stark contrast to their discretion in the face of the Jewish state’s disproportionate response.
You really have to strain your ears to hear the calls for a ceasefire — and rest assured that these timid declarations do not reach public opinion in the Global South, for whom Europe maintains a hypocritical silence when the victims are not European.
The West can only become credibile if it is serious about a two-state solution.
Humanitarian aid is important, but not enough to change the perception of Western complicity in the deaths of Gaza’s children. The West can only become audible, if not credible, if it is serious about a political solution and a two-state solution.
The first test may not be in Gaza, but in the West Bank, where the issue is not the military wing of Hamas, but colonization and the bloody struggle (500 deaths in 2023) for land and space. We can no longer condemn Russian expansionism in Ukraine while turning a blind eye to the colonization of the West Bank. The rest of the world is watching.
