Asian Angle | Gaza and ‘the graveyard for children’: the moral decline of Western politics

Irrespective of your political beliefs, the reality is that the worst wars of this century have a common thread: Western intervention, instigation, or historical entanglement.

As the horrors of the month-long assault on Gaza’s civilian population stuns and numbs onlookers, people around the world are left wondering why and how Western powers have stood in the way of calls for a ceasefire that would put a stop to the daily vengeful killing and save the lives of innocent people – mainly children.

The blocking of a ceasefire option by Western powers has brought to the fore a recurrent question: what are the reasons for the moral bankruptcy within Western societies, and especially their political leaders? This is being asked across the world, including by some of the West’s leading public intellectuals.

European and American friends of mine working at various institutions have posed the same question in social-media chat groups, but feel unable to publicly voice their concerns at home. Despite all the grandstanding about freedom of speech in the West, there is a clear obstacle presenting itself here: the fear of being accused of being an antisemite runs deep, even if one is simply asking for the bloodshed to stop.

Levelling the charge of antisemitism against anyone who questions Israel’s crimes against Palestinians is an abuse that needs to be challenged so that it does not become normalised across the world. This practice has silenced many in the West and allowed its politicians to lose their moral compass. It is not antisemitic to criticise war crimes by a government which has overseen the murder of thousands of children in the space of a few weeks. In a similar vein, condemnation of the actions of Hamas should not be seen as anti-Islam.