Weak Power

Why Western leaders are showing unwavering support for Israel's aggression

Western support of the impending Israeli attacks shows the consequences of the fragile position of those at the helm of Western power.

In the hours to come it looks increasingly likely that retaliation to Hamas’s terror attacks will, in the eyes of Israel’s leaders, act as justification for the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Half of the 2 million residents of Gaza have been ordered to move by Israel. People who have been without electricity and water for days, with no access to transport, injured and sick and nowhere to go. The conclusion is obvious to see.

These are war crimes. Contravention of the Rome Statute and Geneva Convention.

Despite this, Western leaders, blood-soaked hand in blood-soaked hand, stand behind Netanyahu. The justified outrage at Hamas’s attacks is no justification for genocide and it is weakness in the West that will lead to unfettered bloodshed in the Middle East.

A common enemy can be a bond to paper over the cracks of national division. In the words of Russian philosopher, Alexander Dugin: “What we are against will unite us, while what we are for divides us. Therefore, we should emphasize what we oppose”.

This is the playbook for the weak in charge of the West.

Olaf Scholz seems a man uncomfortable in power. Since he became chancellor the SPD has sunk to third in the polls, behind the CDU/CSU and Germany’s far-right party, AfD.

He suffers from pragmatism poorly communicated and has on various occasions made odd strategic decisions. 

Germany is so scared of being seen as anti-Semitic that it has adopted the position of blindly holding the hand of Israel as it unleashes fire and hell upon Palestinians.

In doing so it has equated Hamas with Palestine, no matter the consequence to human life.

The SPD’s popularity increased slightly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but has been in freefall since then. Scholz has ignored morality and put his support behind Israel in the hope his legacy won’t see him regarded as Germany’s second-worst leader.

Politics in the UK is a joke no one who lives there finds funny. Thirteen years of the Conservative party have seen the greatest decline in living standards since records began.

The Torys under (checks notes) Rishi Sunak are lurching from crisis to crisis in the run-up to next year's elections. 

They are expected to announce on Monday that prisons are full, so rapists and burglars will not be incarcerated. This on the back of the scrapping of HS2 and schools collapsing is not a good look for a scandal-ridden party that looks to have no hope of retaining power.

Spearheaded by their ultra-right wing Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, their tactic has been to double down on anti-immigration, right-wing policies. 

The ‘Stop the Boats’ rhetoric is the stark and frightening display of the low level of political intelligence fluttering through the UK government. 

Britain takes no responsibility for the situations that have caused people to become refugees and does not take its fair share of migrants into the country.

The issue is only an issue because the UK has not made appropriate preparations for migrants, allowing the government to spin their right-wing, anti-immigration, anti-human narrative.

Little Rishi hopes that his stance on Israel will secure him a place down among the big boys and do something to give him hope in the polls. 

Of course, it won’t. He’ll lose next year’s election and history won’t look kindly upon his premiership. Though, he’ll have his billions to keep him warm at night.

The only thing out at night in Paris at the moment are bed bugs. This after Emmanual Macron announced a ban on demonstrations in support of Palestine.

Macron needs to look strong, or at least he feels he does. Re-elected last year, his approval rating has declined to around 30%, not helped by the fallout from the pension reforms earlier this year.

France’s recent history is not one that reflects well as a modern, multicultural country. Banning protests however, is un-French as chastity. 

France has a long history of public participation in politics through protest. The difference here is that, one presumes, a large section of the protesters will be Arab-French. A diaspora regularly persecuted and, as we tragically saw in the case of Nahel Merzouk, sometimes murdered by the police. 

The defense of this ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations is a rise in anti-Semitism. The narrative; let’s use racism to stop racism. 

Events can be policed and those guilty of anti-Semitic racism arrested, but the right to freedom of expression and the right to protest must be upheld.

Macron also has other issues. Despite only being elected last year, France’s statute gives leaders a maximum of two terms and the unofficial campaign for his replacement has already begun.

Without a majority in parliament, Macron needs to keep his party and the country together. As threats to power come from the far-fright, Macron will be looking to a successor who can defeat Le Pen. Being a bit more right himself isn’t a good look, but it might keep his party united.

By the time the U.S. election comes around Joe Biden will be 81 years old, the average life expectancy in the U.S. is 77. He has an approval rating under 40% and needs to win votes on the American right if he wants to continue being president well into his soup and daytime TV years.

The American government’s unwavering support of Israel is no surprise to anyone.

Israel is a key military strategic partner in the Middle East, particularly useful if the U.S. ever needs oil from Israel’s neighbors or gets around to finally invading Iran.

For Biden, support of Israel is business as usual, and as with the other weak leaders described, a lurch further to the right in support of Israel and being anti-Palestine can help popularity among the center-right and right of American politics.

The alternative to Biden could be the return of Trump, assuming he himself is not in jail.

Weakness across the West and the rise of the right is a dangerous cocktail that sees leaders drunk on power. Pacts of a political reprieve are signed in Palestinian blood. Logic, law and ignorance become victims of simplified rhetoric that has seen unnecessary loss of life.

In the days of parchment and scrolls, history was an account of nobility and wealth. Time may smooth the creases, but in the digital age nothing is forgotten, everything is accessible and time will harshly judge those who support the callous murder of innocent people.