The Judgment of History Won't Save Gaza

New York Times

3 days ago

On Oct. 25, 2023, the Egyptian Canadian novelist Omar El Akkad shared on social media a video of a devastated, rubble-strewn Gaza street, the kind of image that at that time, still retained the power to shock. He added, 'One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.'
In time, the post became a book, with a striking cover for the British edition that reprinted the original text as its title. In the United States, the cover bore a shorter version of the title: 'One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.' This month, as Israel began its sudden offensive against Iran and just before American bombers joined in — opening up the possibility of a much-expanded and much-extended regional conflict, or perhaps even World War III — I found myself staring at those book covers, and wondering … will they? Or is the world more likely to just move on, now?
When the first Israeli strikes hit Iran on June 13, it seemed to open a new chapter in the global unraveling of the last few decades, in which the relative stability of what was once called an 'American-led international order' gave way to something both more violent and more chaotic.
But it may also have marked the closing of a chapter: one in which Israel's conduct in Gaza was the subject of ongoing, if sporadic and not necessarily consequential, moral scrutiny.
As recently as last month, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, was calling the war in Gaza unjustifiable on television, and the prime minister of Spain was calling Israel a 'genocidal state' in the Spanish Parliament. The leaders of France, Canada and Britain jointly released a statement calling the suffering of Gazans 'intolerable,' the amount of humanitarian and food aid 'inadequate' and 'unacceptable' and, although they acknowledged Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism, a recent escalation 'wholly disproportionate' — and threatening concrete action if Israel did not suspend its offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid.
Along with Australia, Norway, Canada and New Zealand, Britain also sanctioned two Israeli officials — Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich — for 'repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities,' freezing their assets and blocking them from entering their countries.
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