Observers and scholars are shocked by the statements of Western political leaders that focus on condemning the killing of “Jewish civilians,” while completely ignoring the condemnation of the killing of “Palestinian civilians,” no matter how horrific the way they were killed, and no matter the scale of the massacres and the number of victims, children, women, or the elderly.
The observer is astonished by the major Western media’s coverage of the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip, and the curtain of obfuscation and misinformation surrounding the heinous, systematic massacres it is committing.
Let us take, for example, US President Joe Biden, who, as strict as he was in condemning Hamas and the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, did not utter a single word condemning the daily massacres committed over a period of about a month in Gaza, which led to the deaths of more than 9,000 civilians and the destruction of large parts of the Gaza Strip.
In fact, the American President reached the point of questioning the reports of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which daily monitors the numbers of martyred, wounded, and missing Palestinians, and he sided with the inconsistent Israeli narrative in denying its responsibility for the massacres, including the Baptist Hospital massacre, despite the fact that all evidence points to Israeli responsibility for it.
There is another American example, John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, who previously said after the Russian attack on Ukraine that “it is difficult for any official with values or morals to justify it,” but when “Israel” carried out its aggression and massacres in the Gaza Strip, he spoke “realistically,” claiming that “this is the nature of war, it is ugly, bloody, chaotic and innocents fall in it, but it must happen,” and thus Kirby disavowed all the values that he preached to others.
The European leaders in Germany, France, Britain and Italy do not deviate from these dual positions.
They spoke of their horror at the “Israeli civilian casualties,” strongly condemned “Hamas terrorism,” and spoke of what they called “Israel’s right to defend itself,” but they did not mention a single word condemning the crimes of the Israeli occupation.
Documented Israeli crimes:
On the other hand, politicians who absolve the occupation of its crimes not only ignore the numbers of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, but also ignore the reports of accredited and reliable international human rights organizations in the Western world, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
The latter two have revealed, over many years, that “Israel” has committed war crimes and serious violations of Palestinian human rights, which they have confirmed again during the current aggression against the Gaza Strip.
The United Nations Relief and Works Organization for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which specializes in Palestinian humanitarian affairs, also confirmed the accuracy of the Ministry of Health’s figures, and that its experience indicates the credibility of this ministry in past rounds of wars.
This position confirming the reliability of Palestinian statistics was also shared by Human Rights Watch and media outlets such as the American newspaper The Washington Post.
Immediately after Biden objected to its numbers, the Palestinian Ministry of Health issued a 212-page list containing the names of all martyrs and their identity numbers so that they could be easily verified.
The Holocaust Complex:
There are five factors that push American and Western politicians, to varying degrees, to ignore the horrific massacres committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people, and even to acquit them of responsibility for them.
The “Holocaust complex” and the Western feeling of guilt for the massacres that occurred against the Jews, especially at the hands of Nazi Germany, and the view of the Zionist settlers in Palestine as fleeing persecution and “returning to their land,” is the first factor.
At the same time, Israel was able to deepen this complex in the Western conscience, and used the weapon of accusation of “anti-Semitism” to silence any political or public figure who opposed it.
Therefore, there was widespread fear of any charges being brought against Israel, no matter how aggressive its behavior. At the same time, the Palestinians are seen as anti-Semitic, and as wanting to expel the Jews from their “only and last refuge”!
Representing Western civilization:
The second factor is evident in considering the Zionist colonial settlement bloc in occupied Palestine as part of the “world of the white man” and a representative of Western civilization, and an “oasis of democracy” in a backward environment.
This idea is intended to say that even if Israel is a force of oppression and occupation, it is in the position of “self-defense,” and that any aggressive Israeli behavior, whether military or security, no matter how harsh and brutal, is considered “acceptable behavior,” as long as it protects this “oasis” against the “savage” behavior of Palestinians and others.
Accordingly, resistance and national liberation movements become “terrorism.” Accordingly, America and several Western countries classified Hamas as a “terrorist movement.”
Based on this, Western politicians have become always ready to ignore, forget, and absolve the Zionists of their crimes.
This happened in the massacres and ethnic cleansing in the 1948 war, which led to the displacement of the Palestinian people and the usurpation of their land, and in all subsequent wars and uprisings.
Dealing with “Israel” as a state above the law has been the dominant position in the United Nations and the Security Council for the past 75 years. The veto power was always ready to cover the crimes of the Israeli occupation.
The cultural-religious dimension:
The third factor is based on the religious dimension, especially among evangelical Protestants who support the establishment of the Israeli entity for religious reasons, and see in this the fulfillment of prophecies such as the coming of Christ and the happy millennium.
Mixed with this dimension are the historical, civilizational and cultural backgrounds of conflict between the Western world and the Islamic world for hundreds of years.
Whoever is affected by this dimension, in their support for Israel, does not deal with the logic of truth, justice, and international law, but rather ignores reason in favor of religious fanaticism or cultural and historical hostility.
Then, Israel’s stability and security become a “great value” against which the value of killing enemy civilians diminishes, and crushing its opponents becomes “natural” and “necessary” behavior, and a “morally and religiously justified” act, as long as this provides protection and imposes prestige and dominance. The researcher will see the religious backgrounds of many political leaders, such as Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Ronald Trump, and others.
Strategic interests:
As for the fourth factor, it is Western strategic interests in the presence of the Zionist entity as an advanced fortress in the heart of the Arab and Islamic world, guaranteeing the interests of the major Western powers in the region, and ensuring the weakness, fragmentation, and backwardness of the strategic environment surrounding it, and its remaining in the circle of dependency.
This approach wants the Arab countries to be producers of raw materials and a consumer market for Western goods. While the Israeli entity turns into a policeman for the region, this has been the case in our Arab region over the past decades.
Therefore, “Israel” remained the cornerstone of Western American policy in the region, and it was natural to overlook its transgressions and crimes, considering these to be among the expected requirements for performing its required tasks.
The influence of the Jewish-Zionist lobby:
The fifth factor is the enormous global influence of the “Israel lobby,” especially in the United States and Western Europe.
This lobby has great influence on decision-making due to its political, economic and media influence, especially when it comes to the policies of these countries towards the Middle East and the Arab-Islamic conflict with “Israel”.
It is difficult for any American candidate for the presidency or for public office to succeed without the support of this lobby. For example, about 60% of election campaign funds in the Democratic Party and about 30% in the Republican Party come from Jewish donors. Although the percentage of Jews in the United States does not exceed 2% only.
Many political leaders in the Western world are pinning their political future on appeasing the Zionist lobby and competing in presenting its credentials, and examples of this are almost countless.
Therefore, remaining silent about the crimes of the occupation or acquitting it becomes expected from these politicians, otherwise they will be exposed to media distortion, expelled from political work, and cut off from sources of support.
Finally, Western officials’ ignoring of the massacres committed by the occupation is a form of the “state of denial” in which they live, and a form of contention, a victory for the Israeli narrative, which is weaker than spider webs, and to provide cover for the occupation’s continued crimes against the Palestinian people, their land, and their sanctities.
Written by: A. Dr. Mohsen Muhammad Saleh
