Pepe Escobar, a Brazilian journalist, recently said, "You have to leave the West nowadays to have a civilized conversation."
The West has a long history of colonization, war, occupation and slavery. These undermine its claim to the moral high ground on any issue, particularly the Gaza genocide in which it has collaborated in the destruction of the Palestinian people.
The reason we do not hear many moral voices from the West decrying the massacres and starvation of Palestinians is that it is perfectly in line with the West's own moral history. In 1945, France perpetrated a massacre against Algeria to subjugate and colonize it, killing 45,000 civilians. Yet today, the global community turns to France for moral leadership on Gaza, only to be shocked by its failure to defend the victims of slaughter and instead side with the perpetrators.
Why is the global community shocked by France’s failure to offer moral leadership?
The new generation in the West has utilized platforms like TikTok and other social media channels to express their profound anger and shame at the complicity of their Western governments in Gaza's genocide. Their shock suggests naivete on their part, even ignorance of their countries’ own history. However, it should be remembered that at school, they are taught the curriculum of colonizing power.
One of Britain's icons is Winston Churchill. He is a man still idolized by Britons, many of whom may not know about his white supremacist ideology. A man who asserted that no "great wrong" had been done to the "Red Indians of America and the black people of Australia," as he believed that a "stronger race, a higher grade race, a more worldly wise race" had "come in and taken their place."
As the prime colonial power responsible for the occupation of Palestine, the world turned its attention to London and questioned why the U.K. government was not halting arms sales to those carrying out the genocide of the Palestinians. People asked why the U.K. was supporting Israel in mass slaughter. "It doesn't make sense that my country is supporting Israel and allowing this to happen," protested one baffled Londoner. But actually, historically, it makes a lot of sense.
Churchill's colonial policies were undoubtedly a major factor in exacerbating the famine in India, ultimately leading to the deaths of approximately 3 million people. In fact, enforced famine has been a tactic employed by British colonial powers for centuries, including on its own doorstep, Ireland, resulting in the deaths of countless millions.
What is shocking is how successful the propaganda of Western media has been, with people often unquestioningly regarding France, the U.K., Germany and the U.S. as the moral authorities in today's world, expecting high ethical standards from them. People in those countries believe the image their governments present of being humane, concerned about equality, and dedicated to human rights.
The reality is that the West manipulates human rights rhetoric to suit its interests. The U.S. and the U.K. suddenly became deeply concerned about the rights of Afghan women under the Taliban. They promised to save them and others from Taliban rule. This led to an invasion and occupation that resulted in the deaths of thousands of men, women and children – all in the name of “democracy and freedom of speech.” Similarly, the West claimed to care about the people of Iraq, claiming to bring them freedom through invasion, but instead caused starvation and the deaths of over a million people.
The illegal invasion of Iraq was carried out under the pretext of liberating the Iraqi people from a dictator possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMD), which was untrue, as it was later proven. The West has shown its "concern" for Libya, Yemen and Syria, with the same devastating consequences for the populations of those countries.
There are current reports of sexual abuse of Palestinian men, women and children by Israel. Palestinian children kidnapped and detained by the Israeli army in prison are reportedly subjected to sexual abuse. There is a deafening silence from Western media. However, they were quick to report the alleged rape allegations on Oct. 7, despite the lack of proof or evidence for such claims. These allegations of mass rape were investigated and declared unfounded. Yet, they were immediately and widely disseminated by Zionist-supporting media outlets such as The New York Times despite the lack of evidence or eyewitness testimony. The sole basis for these claims was Israel's assertion.
The constant talk of Hamas is a deliberate attempt to subconsciously and repeatedly bring the message home that Arabs, Muslims and all Palestinians in Gaza are terrorists as opposed to the West and its superior civilization.
As Palestinian American professor Edward Said once said: “In newsreels or news photos, the Arab is always shown in large numbers. No individuality, no personal characteristics or experiences. Most of the pictures represent mass rage and misery ... Lurking behind all of these images is the menace of jihad. Consequence: a fear that the Muslims (or Arabs) will take over the world.”
The U.S. has adopted a winning strategy: Claiming to fight terrorism, it can commit numerous war crimes with impunity. In reality, the U.S. and its allies' so-called war on terror has spread its unique brand of terror across nearly half the globe. According to statistics from the U.S. Smithsonian Institution Magazine, since 2001, U.S. wars and military operations under the guise of "anti-terrorism" have affected approximately 40% of countries worldwide. How foolish of us to expect a moral intervention in Gaza from such a nation!
Recently, the country currently committing the most severe crimes against humanity since World War II was welcomed to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. The Israeli singer waved the Israeli flag above her head, sending a message that Israel can act with impunity. Despite widespread protests, Eurovision claimed it could not exclude Israel due to its non-political stance. Curiously, it had no qualms about taking a political stance when it previously banned Russia in 2022. The unabashed hypocrisy and double standards of the West could not be more blatant. Israel relies on the torture, maiming and slaughter of the Palestinians to sustain its regime. The West is complicit in enabling this brutality. Without its approval and support, Israel would not be able to perpetrate its atrocities.
Interestingly, Western media outlets have been engaging in discussions among politicians, journalists and political analysts for several months on news networks and discussion programs, debating whether "Israel has gone too far?” Since many of the actions taken by Israel could be seen as repeating historical atrocities committed by Western nations, how can they say that Israel has gone too far?
We are told Hamas is the evil that must be quelled to save civilization, and Israel is the victim that must defend itself. Throughout history, any resistance to colonization, from Gandhi to Nelson Mandela, has often been labeled as terrorism. The British media, which now labels Hamas as terrorists, previously referred to Mandela in the same way until public opinion demanded the end of apartheid.
The premise of discussing whether suffering in Gaza is inevitable is an inherently immoral one. Justifying collective punishment and the starvation of babies and children because of Hamas is a conversation that lacks any moral compass. Yet, this murderous dialogue persists in Western media and politics.
We have been taught to regard the West as the moral authority, but what credentials does it really have for such a role? Similarly, we've been conditioned to view the Middle East as barbaric and in need of civilizational, much like slaves were once deemed to need control.
Africans were considered devoid of morality, while whites could enjoy culture, art, theater, literature and politics. There's a deliberate and undeniable blind spot in the West. How could there not be? How can the U.S., founded on the blood, massacre, and dispossession of natives and slaves, view itself as holding such high moral ground otherwise?
The real question is, why do we allow the West to police the world as to what's right or wrong when we know its vicious, violent and indefensible history?
Peter Oborne, a British journalist, made a poignant observation when he highlighted the stark difference in reactions to the killing of seven aid workers by Israel, which sparked significant backlash and condemnation, compared to the lack of similar outrage over the deaths of nearly 40,000 Palestinians. Oborne said, “Israel's slaughter of aid workers is a tragedy. But it is also a story of western racism.” It highlights the West’s unequal treatment of others based on racial and geopolitical factors.
Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi once remarked that the core of our civilization lies in prioritizing morality in all aspects of our public and private affairs. If civil society selectively determines who is worthy of moral consideration, does it cease to be a civilization?
Have we been so brainwashed that we no longer trust our own inner moral voices?
Many countries around the world commit atrocities, but they do not place themselves at the pinnacle of justice and fairness and they do not volunteer themselves to police the morality of the rest of the world. It is necessary to reject the West as the global moral authority, especially in view of its betrayal of Gaza; it has failed the ultimate moral litmus test. Today, amid the devastation of their homes, Gazans are defiantly inscribing messages on the walls, declaring, "We'll never surrender. We'll win or die. You'll have to fight the next generation and the next ... and I'll endure more than my hangman." This comes from a quote attributed to Omar al-Mukhtar, the leader of Arab native resistance against Italian colonization of Ottoman Tripolitania during the Italian invasion of Libya in 1911. And he was right; his legacy certainly lived longer than his hangman.
In a notable incident, Omar al-Mukhtar protected two surviving Italian prisoners, affirming, "We do not kill prisoners." When reminded that their European enemies killed them, he responded, "They are not our teachers."
Similarly, as the West financially supports and enables the starvation and killing of children in Gaza, isn't it time we finally admit, “They are not our teachers?"
