Will the shift in Western opinion on Israel end the assault on Gaza?

For decades, the West has provided Israel with an impenetrable shield. This backing reached a zenith after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The aftermath has laid bare the moral bankruptcy of the “rules-based international order”.

The United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others rushed to Israel’s defence – not diplomatically, but militarily, politically and rhetorically. This support ranged from arms sales, intelligence-sharing, and diplomatic cover at international forums, to the complicit silence of Western governments even as Israeli bombs flattened schools, hospitals and entire neighbourhoods in the Gaza Strip.

The mainstream Western media, for its part, has served less as a watchdog and more as a megaphone for Israeli state propaganda. It has parroted the language of “self-defence”, framing Israel’s military campaign as a justified response to terrorism and willfully ignoring both the context of a 75-year colonial occupation and the ongoing subjugation of millions of Palestinians.

The repeated use of euphemisms has allowed the West to mask the grotesque reality of what is unfolding in Gaza: not a war against Hamas, but a sustained, systematic assault on an imprisoned civilian population.

What the West has refused to acknowledge – until now – is that Israel’s conduct is not exceptional, it is...

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