Biased Israel-Palestine rhetoric is fueling the fire

Biased Israel-Palestine rhetoric is fueling the fire

By: Rachel Marsden

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — “Heads up, Palestinian civilians! Here come the Israeli forces! Get out of the way, or else!” Sorry, but that’s not how international law works, although it’s the message that Western authorities have been foolishly enabling.

“Israel has a right to defend itself … Civilians must be pre-warned and alerted about incoming military operations, allowing them to leave, and this is what Israel has done,” said the chief mouthpiece for the European Commission in a press conference last week. He added that Hamas shouldn’t use civilians as “human shields.”’

So civilians of Gaza, including children

who reportedly comprise nearly half of its population of more than 2 million souls, but also the hospitalized, elderly, handicapped, or bedridden, are supposed to all just flee under the threat of death by bombing? Where exactly does it stipulate in international law that war crimes don’t apply if you yell “heads-up” like you’re playing touch football or ultimate Frisbee with your pals and want to be off the hook for dinging any bystanders in the head?

Imagine if every wartime actor applied that reasoning. That’s quite the precedent. And one which you’d better believe would subsequently be evoked in every other conflict.

And referring to either hostages or Palestinian civilians as “human shields”, as various Western establishment leaders from the EU to US President Joe Biden have, comes off as an attempt to frame the demise of civilians on all sides as exclusively the responsibility of Hamas. But let’s call it what it is — spin that carelessly reduces innocents to little more than potential collateral damage in favor of preemptively absolving Israel of any responsibility.

From the outset, the West has encouraged and enabled Israel’s firm response to Hamas’ terrorist act, but while swift revenge might serve to scratch an urgent itch, the repeated comparisons made by both Israeli and Western officials to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on American soil should also take into consideration the fallout from America’s response to 9/11.

The resulting invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq set off unrest all across the Middle East that had an astronomical cost in blood and treasure, and with little to nothing to show for it over 20 years later as Afghanistan has fallen back into the hands of the Taliban, al-Qaida still exists, and Iraq is a mess. Does anyone seriously want to open up yet another Pandora’s Box of a powder keg in the Middle East that risks drawing multiple Arab states into a direct conflict with Western-backed Israel?

Sure, Israel could just level and take over Gaza in the name of fighting terrorism. But then what? Are they going to do the same with the Palestinian West Bank? And do they think that all this will occur in a vacuum and that the entire Arab world would just be chill about what could potentially amount to ethnic cleansing?

Why is it so difficult for the West to say in the same breath that while there’s no excuse for terrorism, there’s also an absolute imperative to protect innocent victims on both sides of the conflict? Based on the rhetoric coming out of the mouths of the Western establishment, you’d think that there were just two sides to this clash: Israeli citizens on one side, and Hamas terrorists on the other.

The rhetorical recklessness of Western leaders also risks extending unintended consequences to their own countries. Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said recently of Germany that “it was a grave mistake to let in so many people of totally different culture and religion and concepts, because it creates a pressure group inside each country that does that.”

And let’s face it — every single western nation, with very few exceptions, has done exactly that. They wanted cultural diversity, so now they’re reaping what they’ve sown. Western establishment elites imported microcosms of all the conflicts in the world onto their own territories. They personally profited from these foreign conflicts, pandering to one or both sides, playing on identity politics to shore up their own voting base.

Now the check for their recklessness has come due. Western politicians won’t be able to take sides in this conflict without the risk of setting their own countries ablaze and creating rifts with longstanding allies on all sides for years to come — or even setting off a new, wider war that could get out of hand and pull them in at great cost.

If any of them have any brains left, they’ll cut their losses and sit this one out, reminding Israel of its obligations to abide by international law, despite temptations for short- term gratification and its multiple violations to date of UN Security Counsel resolutions related to Palestinian civilians. They should be encouraging Israel and the Arab states to work out a long- term, two-state solution for the Palestinian people, with security guarantees for everyone.

Ultimately, the West needs to butt out and stop “standing” with any and all non-NATO countries on the other side of the planet. They clearly have more than enough work to do at home in securing lasting peace and prosperity for their own people.