My Take | Netanyahu is right: Gaza war is ‘clash between barbarism and civilisation’
- Two self-proclaimed leading democracies openly embrace and celebrate mass murder as Israeli leader again addresses joint session of US Congress
The spectacle of a fiery Benjamin Netanyahu meeting repeated thunderous applause and standing ovations from his obsequious servants in the US Congress was truly something to behold.
Here it was: two of the world’s self-styled leading “democracies” openly and unashamedly embracing and celebrating their mutual criminality and systematic dismantling of international law, while denigrating the common decency and courage of many of their own citizens and the almost universal opinion of humankind on the question of Palestine.
Some 146 countries now formally recognise the state of Palestine, making the United States and a handful of close allies the outliers in their refusal. What could possibly go wrong when it comes to liberty, justice and nationhood as these ideal standards are being twisted and reimposed on – or rather against – the rest of the world? So much for “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind” as famously stated in the US Declaration of Independence.
Netanyahu’s address at the joint session of Congress came less than a week after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its advisory opinion, at the request of the United Nations General Assembly, on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
The court concluded what everyone has long known, and its judgment has no power of enforcement. Still, it’s useful to have its decision on record as part of a large body of almost unanimous international legal statements on the status of Palestine.
