AMMAN, 27 May 2025 – “In a 72-hour period this weekend, images from two horrific attacks provide yet more evidence of the unconscionable cost of this ruthless war on children in the Gaza Strip.
“On Friday, we saw videos of the bodies of burnt, dismembered children from the al-Najjar family being pulled from the rubble of their home in Khan Younis. Of 10 siblings under 12 years old, only one reportedly survived, with critical injuries.
“Since the end of the ceasefire on 18 March, 1,309 children have reportedly been killed and 3,738 injured.
In total, more than 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured since October 2023. How many more dead girls and boys will it take? What level of horror must be livestreamed before the international community fully steps up, uses its influence, and takes bold, decisive action to force the end of this ruthless killing of children?
I dislike even this assessment. The accusation that Israel is a colony or garrison is, counterintuitively, imperialist and “western supremacist”. I constantly see implications that they are just puppets of the US, and the same rationalisation applied to other countries in the ME or Africa, where they are implied to be not fully aware of their actions and perhaps a little bit savage. Even your point here
is a suggestion that the poor old house of Saud can’t be imperialist on its own, and all that they do they learned from Europeans. It’s essentially the flip side of the White Man’s Burden and I reject it completely. Arabs are perfectly able of being imperialist and to claim otherwise shows a glaring lack of historical context. Saudis have agency. So do Israelis and Syrians and Nigerians. They are not puppets of the US or Russia or China. The genocide that Israel is committing rests solely on the shoulders of Israel.
Yes I think you’re right in that it is Israel’s choice to eliminate the Palestinians and the Arab elites, and Turkey and Iran for that matter, have agency in supporting their own imperial ambitions in the region and aren’t just Western or Russian puppets.
But there is strong convergence with Western interests in seeing the Palestinians eliminated and in Israel’s case they couldn’t achieve this without a constant supply of weapons, technology transfers and diplomatic shielding as well as domestic repression of dissent by Western powers. Israel and the West are partners in genocide even if the moral responsibility for the genocide falls squarely on Israel.
I really don’t think so. My impression is that the west doesn’t particularly care about Palestinians – certainly not enough to want them gone – and would very much prefer for Israel to stop. Israel is a useful ally in the “unsinkable aircraft carrier” sense but a repeat of the 40s (or 60s, or 70s) would be bad for everyone. Israel should frankly STFU and be content with what they have.
They cared in the past though. Previous “mowing the lawn” massacres like Operation Cast Lead were cut short after only a few weeks because of pressure from the US. Back in the 1980s Reagan accused Begin of committing a “Holocaust” in the invasion of Lebanon and the Sabra and Shatilla massacres were met with revulsion in the West.
The question then is why would they be indifferent to a full blown genocide now? You mention Kissinger-esque realpolitik in your other reply but that wasn’t any different under Obama.
Ultimately I think we are arguing the same things. Whether one frames Israel as a colony or garrison state or ally of the West it is viewed (by the West) as a rampart of Western power that can’t be easily replicated. Perhaps the reason the genocide is tolerated is that the West, unlike in earlier eras, is in structural decline and it needs to hang on to it’s strategic assets at all costs.
I agree that this is probably a factor. Everything is on shaky ground. If the US weren’t run by a lunatic we might see a more coordinated condemnation of Israel, but I suspect the war in Ukraine is a major factor here, and China’s ticking deadline to make an attempt on Taiwan.
Why the west isn’t imposing sanctions dirrectly on the genocidal government? Many western countries lied about no longer selling arms to israel
I think because their governments believe the geopolitical convenience of having Israel on side outweighs the moral aspects. That’s of course a psychopathic, Kissinger-esque conclusion to reach, but it isn’t much different than the way the US and EU are stringing along Ukraine rather than giving them the tools they need to decisively end the Russian invasion.