The war on Gaza and the attitudes towards it in the West created a unique situation, especially on the part of decision-makers. Western leaders declare their denunciation of war, in terms of rhetoric, and it does not harm them to see the war machine claiming victims, displacing families, and exposing them to hunger, cold, and loss every day. Homes are being demolished on top of their owners, places of worship and hospitals are being targeted, without Western leaders doing anything practical to stop the machine of destruction.
They express their concerns, their anxiety, and their preoccupation, as if war were the wrath of nature, and they could not do anything about it, and then they moved on to something else. Or they have priorities that they do not want to achieve. What the American administration announces is not what it contains. It expresses something and produces something that contradicts it, which is called schizophrenia or schizophrenia.
The West, which holds freedom of expression, confronts freedom of expression with obscenity, impudence, and slander, as did the British journalist who disturbed human rights activist Mustafa Barghouti, in a judgment of values.
As much as the Western diplomatic machine is moving, the Western media has begun to fade away, in a kind of state of being accustomed to what is “going on in Gaza,” and falling into indifference. The war in Gaza is no longer the top news on Western screens, and the Russian-Ukrainian war has regained its prominence. There is limited coverage of the war on Gaza, which does not make the headlines, with an intentional direction to adopt the Israeli narrative.
The official spokesman for the Israeli army can speak to all visual media in France, and any objection to it exposes the person to disciplinary measures, whether a journalist or a guest. Therefore, the guests are carefully chosen, and those who do not adopt the Israeli narrative are avoided from appearing.
On some channels, such as CNN, it is not permissible to use the terms “genocide” or “war crimes,” even if the reality indicates genocide and speaks of war crimes. It is not enough for Israeli officials to declare that they treat the Palestinians as animals, another threat to use the nuclear bomb on Gaza, the use of all acts of killing, destruction and starvation, the targeting of civilian children and women, the bombing of hospitals, schools and places of worship, and the razing of Gaza to the ground.
All of this is not genocide, and does not amount to war crimes, as Blinken stated in his press conference in Israel. The difference between double standards is a conscious and intentional distinction. As for schizophrenia, it is truly believing that what is happening in Gaza does not amount to genocide, even if that is not true.
It is difficult to judge someone who is accustomed to judging others. This will not be accepted by you, of course, but you cannot turn a blind eye to the schizophrenia of the West.
The West, which holds human values, forgets that there are people who have the same blood running through their veins as Westerners, as in Shakespeare’s expression in The Merchant of Venice, and they have the right to be treated with the same standards as any human being.
The West, which holds freedom of expression, confronts freedom of expression with obscenity, impudence, and slander, as did the British journalist who disturbed human rights activist Mustafa Barghouti, in a value judgment.
The West, which believes in systematic doubt and teaches the “barbarians” its virtues, does not hesitate to adopt Israel’s narrative of ruptured stomachs, burned bodies, and severed heads, without question or investigation. He does not do anything except offer an apology after what was promoted was proven to be false to the point of ad nauseam.
The West, which is very rational, forgets its rationality, in the name of belonging and identity of the civilized against the “barbarians.” He promises that what happened on October 7, as Blinken announced, will not be repeated, and he does not question what happened before this date, including the slow killing of the people of Gaza, the dispossession of the people of the West Bank from their lands, and the continuing violations of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The democratic West, the bearer of people’s sovereignty, does not value its public opinion.
The West, the bearer of freedom of thought, pursues those who do not think from within the channels of Orthodoxy (literally, orthodox thinking, and idiomatically the general trend), and carries out a kind of McCarthyism, in tracking down those who support the Palestinian people, or simply call for an end to the war, even on university campuses.
The West, which is jealous of freedom, even sexual freedom, forgets the first human right, which is the right to life. He mobilizes for the freedom of a transgender person, and he does not care about children being killed, or the right of a wounded person to express his groans, or the right of a wounded person to complain about the injustice that befell him.
The West, which has been calling for tolerance since Locke and Voltaire, is persecuting Muslims in the West, in their dress, food, beliefs, and ideas.
The West, which has held, since Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait, a rehearsal for a new world order, forgets (or forgets) that there is a reality of occupation in Palestine. He does not stop recruiting his rhetorical bombers into the “two-state solution”, while covering up the settlement series, providing loans to establish them, and granting aid.
The West, or the United States to be precise – since the title of the West, as the French philosopher Régis Debray says, is “the White House” – is the one who drew the plan for a solution based on land in exchange for peace, and the honest mediator, completely forgot what he himself had established, and continues to provide diplomatic and financial support to Israel. He spoke a few words to the Palestinian Authority, and carried out a series of repeated operations that contradicted what was required by the role of an honest mediator.
The United States – as Bush reminded us in his famous “a few days” speech following the September 11 strikes – is a beacon of freedom, pluralism, and democracy, which is what hateful extremists believe in the United States and hate it for that. We don’t want to hate anyone. We only have the right to be reminded of the values that the West promotes, and the state of inconsistency between what it says and what it merely does. Or just a lack of consistency.
The West, which believes in man as a human being, is the one who conceals the reality of apartheid in the West Bank and in Israel.
The United States, which criminalized a president as happened with President Nixon – because he lied and covered up the truth – did not hesitate to lie about Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction and its involvement with Al-Qaeda, or to repeat the narrative of ripping women’s stomachs, burning children, and bombing Baptist Hospital by the Palestinians. Themselves… US President Biden takes the initiative as soon as he sets foot in Israel, to tell us the “certain news” that the Palestinians were the ones who blew up the Baptist Hospital.
The United States, which rose to liberate Iraq from a tyrant, was the one who gave it “practical lessons” on respecting human rights in Abu Ghraib prison! Today, she is the one who remains silent about civilians whose dignity is insulted, in Gaza, and who are stripped of their clothes, in the cold, and when the houses of God are stormed, with shoes, and their sanctity is violated.
The United States, the bearer of the torch of peace, or Pax Americana, is the one that sends its military experts to Israel, offering its field experience and intelligence, as well as weapons.
The United States, which sees the devastation and does nothing to stop it, mobilizes the “brothers” in order to rebuild, and conducts shuttle travel, to reassure that the “allies” in the “covenant” in order to complete the journey, the journey of the Abraham Accords, is what is important. As for tens of thousands of children and civilians dying, being displaced, and their homes being destroyed, there are side events, details, or an insufficient number, as a former American official said, who is gaining power over an Egyptian “ghalban” who sells hot dogs.
A final word on the country of lights, the Declaration of Human and Citizen Rights, and secularism. Lights only shine for the benefit of a limited group, equality is a variable geometry, and secularism does not place religions in the same rank, in the name of positive secularism. Analyze and discuss. With support for the “service Arabs”, as in the “Galilee” era of colonialism.
We are not in a position to think slowly and contemplate calmly, because we are in the midst of war, but there is a pathological or abnormal condition in saying something and doing something that contradicts it. The matter has a price, of course, which is a weak ability to persuade, or as Goethe says in his masterpiece Faust. “We are free when we commit the first act, and we become prisoners of the second act.”
No one can say, we did not know, or we did not know, or invoke the “moral duty,” as Habermas argued, regarding things of the past, and remain silent about what is being done openly today. Everything is before our eyes: the bombs falling on hospitals and schools, the bullets piercing the chests of pedestrians carrying white flags, and the trembling of children as they are led out of the rubble… We know, the world knows, and no one can use ignorance as an excuse.
It is more than a double standard, but schizophrenia is not mitigated by the denunciation of some liberals in the West. The lesson is reality. In reality, it is killing, destruction, and displacement projects. Does this absolve the West of its responsibility? Can he teach lessons after today? Even if he did, no one would listen to him.
