What does a world where Israel can do no wrong in the international political arena look like?

Posted on December 10 2023

Aditya Chakrabortty wrote an article in the Guardian last week that is well worth reading. It was on student protests on Gaza in Luton and the absurd reaction of the school in question. But let me pull out one quotation because I think it very true (I have edited it to remove his multiple arguments):

Well, sometimes the biggest favour a journalist can do their readers is to step outside, hold up a palm and report back that, yes, it really is raining. So in that spirit let me make … [a] simple observation. Th[at] is that for many people under 25 – whether brown or black or white – the daily pulverisation of Gaza is the totemic international issue of their time, just as the Iraq war was 20 years ago or apartheid in South Africa was for me as a kid.

I think Aditya is right, but that very few people get this as yet.

I know how significant apartheid in South Africa was in my own political development at a great many levels.

Iraq showed up the fact that the West's superpowers could be very wrong, and changed perceptions forever.

And so it is with Gaza. The daily imposition of unwarranted death on innocent people will leave the perception of Israel changed for good, and that will have long term political implications, whatever side anyone takes on this issue.