In Gaza, it’s all black and white, and very simple
- The rest of the world has been doing everything to save Palestinian lives, but the West, led by the US, has been thwarting them at every turn
You really have to wonder about the Western alliance sometimes. Is it cynicism or delusion? As Israel continues its medieval siege of Gaza with its unprecedented killings of women and children totalling about 16,000, and journalists (at least 112), medical workers (at least 326) and United Nations aid personnel (at least 146), the United States has not only provided practically all the weapons but decided to sanction ... Hong Kong. Seriously!
Washington has blacklisted two companies in the city and the United Arab Emirates for supposedly shipping Iranian commodities for the Houthi resistance movement in Yemen, which has been threatening sea lanes in the Red Sea in an attempt to stop the genocide in Gaza, and which has been bombed by the US and Britain as a result.
When Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians are written, future historians will not be able to say the world did nothing.
To be sure, much of the West has deliberately shielded Israel from accountability while the US is fully implicated in the carnage. But the rest of the world has done everything – from mass rallies, humanitarian appeals to Israel, and public criticism to UN diplomacy and armed intervention (from the Houthis). It has been trying to do its basic duty to humanity. But the West, led by the US, has been thwarting them at every turn.
Now, in a truly unfathomable move, Germany has chosen to defend Israel at the International Court of Justice where the latter is facing a charge of genocide.
At least some US allies in the West such as Canada and France have kept their mouths shut about the case in the world court.
You can probably attribute Germany’s moral self-immolation to the ideology-driven, but diplomatically inept, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her coterie of Green comrades within the highly fractious and equally disastrous coalition government. But they are not alone.
As a learned correspondent has put it, “One must at least give Germany credit for consistency.
“A German government supported genocide against the Hereros and Namas of German South-West Africa (today’s Namibia) at the start of the 20th century, a German government supported genocide against the Jews, the Romas and other perceived undesirables during the second world war and a German government is supporting genocide against the Palestinians today.”
That is precisely why the government of Namibia has issued a strongly worded criticism of Germany.
It then explains that history mandates its government to take a stand against genocide.
“On Namibian soil, Germany committed the first genocide of the 20th century in 1904-1908, in which tens of thousands of innocent Namibians died in the most inhumane and brutal conditions,” the statement says.
“The German Government is yet to fully atone for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil.
“Therefore, in light of Germany’s inability to draw lessons from its horrific history, President Hage Gottfried Geingob expresses deep concern with the shocking decision communicated by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany yesterday, 12 January 2024, in which it rejected the morally upright indictment brought forward by South Africa before the International Court of Justice that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
Now I am not accusing today’s Germany of going Nazi again; quite the opposite. It’s all part of the country’s collective post-war atonement for its crimes against the Jews. As a result, many leading German politicians and business executives think their country must support Israel through thick and thin, no matter what. That’s a recipe for disaster.
The German government and big businesses have long suppressed criticisms of Israel. But since the invasion of Gaza, it has banned most gatherings protesting against the Israeli bombardment, with protesters violently subdued and arrested by riot police.
Company executives, law students, and Starbucks employees who have spoken out against the carnage have been fired or threatened with the sack, and publicly smeared and harassed.
Arab and Palestinian journalists in German state-owned media have been discriminated against and sacked.
The Economist magazine reported early this month that “Some German Jews say their country goes too far defending Israel … And they find themselves attacked for antisemitism.”
Germany, and much of the West, is making the Palestinians pay for the Holocaust. That’s not moral accountability; it’s moral cowardice, and blindness and self-delusion of the worst kind.