The Israeli attacks and violence against the innocent people of the Gaza Strip including children, women, the elderly and the disabled have been continuing for the last two weeks. On the one hand, it has been bombing indiscriminately not only civilian buildings and homes of ordinary people, but also schools, hospitals and places of worship, targeting of which are generally considered war crimes. On the other hand, confining civilian people to a certain area and depriving them of basic needs such as electricity, water, food, and medical needs also constitute crimes against humanity.
Against all these crimes, no Western government has really criticized Israel; they keep repeating the phrase “Israel has the right to defend itself.” They did not question any discriminatory and illegitimate Israeli policy, including continuous occupation of the Palestinian land and oppression against the Palestinian people. Therefore, Western governments that provide unconditional support to Israel are at least as guilty as Israel, and the international community will never forget their biased attitudes.
When looking at the problem from a different dimension, another issue attracts attention. Western governments have remained indifferent to the Israeli state’s killing of their own citizens in Palestine. They have remained silent when Israel targeted schools and hospitals run by Christians. Western governments did not even care about Israel bombing churches.
No Western government dares to criticize the Israeli government. For example, by a vote of 97 to 0, the United States passed a resolution affirming its support for Israel and its right to self-defense. Ninety-nine of the 100 senators cosponsored the resolution, only one senator, whose office later declared his support for the resolution, did not sign it. Most Western politicians do not want to risk their political careers for the sake of the protection of some principles and values. In other words, they sacrifice the national interests of their states to personal interests, since they know well that they have to obtain the support of the pro-Israeli lobby to get elected in national elections.
West cannot question Israel
All these attitudes demonstrate that Israel is an unquestionable and untouchable political entity for Western governments, including the European Union. While they know that giving unconditional support to the Israelis will harm their interests, most Western governments prefer Israel’s interests to their national interests. For example, they experienced this after the fourth Israeli-Arab war in 1973. Oil-producing Arab countries imposed an oil embargo against the Western states that supported Israel.
Most European countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany, the two largest countries in Europe, have been bandwagoning with the U.S. policies. Most Western countries just follow in the footsteps of the U.S. in many regional crises and international issues. One of the most recent examples was the Ukrainian-Russian War. Although the interests of the European countries required them to maintain their dialogue with Russia, they had to follow a much more hawkish policy toward Russia as a result of the pressure coming from the U.S. Similarly, most European countries have been providing unconditional support to Israel.
Especially considering that the EU was founded on the foundation of traditional Western values of freedom and protection of human rights, it is quite ironic and paradoxical to see the EU leaders rushing to support Israel in its brutal campaign against innocent civilians. However, not all EU members give unconditional support to Israel. While some member states are strictly pro-Israel, some others clearly criticize Israel for its war crimes. It seems that the Israeli-Palestinian problem will remain as one of the most significant challenges for the EU in the near future. Particularly, the Mediterranean European countries such as Spain, Italy and Greece have been trying to follow a more balanced policy toward the conflict, mainly due to their high level of interdependent relations with the Arab countries.
In spite of the biased pro-Israeli policies of the Western government, millions of Western people strongly oppose the policies of their respective governments and support the rights of the Palestinians. Many Western academicians and intellectuals are increasingly aware that the biased pro-Israeli Western policies damage Western interests. They know well that the Israeli aggressive policies have been keeping the foreign policies of most Western states hostage. Sooner or later, the bottom-up pressure will force Western governments to change their rhetoric regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict.
