In Gaza, the "West" is digging its own grave!

In early May, the UN Human Rights Council published a report titled “Anatomy of a Genocide,” laying out in detail what it described as the ongoing “Israeli genocide” in Gaza.

Alex Lo, a columnist for the South China Morning Post, referenced the report in his May 11 op-ed, writing that “the West is digging its own grave in Gaza.” He emphasized that Western leaders had crossed a moral red line by allowing Israel to act on what he called its genocidal impulses.

Lo pointed out how Western governments continue to frame Israel’s actions in Gaza as “self-defense,” while many of those same governments—especially the US and Germany—have long embedded Holocaust education into their national civic values. Yet today, he argued, these same nations turn a blind eye to what he called a “real-time genocide” in Gaza. According to Lo, the West seems more concerned with the feelings of perpetrators than with the lives of victims. “The West no longer inspires,” he wrote, “it’s just another place on the map—killing itself with its own hands, as the screams of tens of thousands of children echo from Gaza.”

That same day, American political scientist Prof. John Mearsheimer published a blog post titled “Another Report on Israel’s Genocide. More Silence and Complicity from the Liberal West.” Quoting Lo’s article, Mearsheimer lamented the moral collapse of liberal Western institutions, writing:

“Where are the liberal academics, activists, journalists, and policymakers—those who’ve spent their adult lives preaching the virtues of human rights and a liberal international order? Now faced with one of the greatest crimes of modern times, they’re silent.”

Meanwhile, the UK announced it was suspending trade negotiations with Israel that had been ongoing since 2022. It imposed sanctions on just three illegal settlers in the West Bank—leaving out Israeli ministers and government officials widely seen as enablers of settler violence. These toothless measures raise a difficult question: can such symbolic actions actually deter Israel?

On May 9, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, the EU’s former ambassador to Palestine, wrote an op-ed in Politico titled “Europe Cannot Sit on the Sidelines in Gaza.” He argued that the devastating civilian toll in Gaza has become a test of whether the EU’s stated values still hold meaning. “The bloc has the means and the influence to make a difference,” he wrote. “What it lacks is the courage to act.”

Despite their governments’ complicity, public opinion in many Western countries is turning against Israel. Israeli officials are increasingly voicing concern that public pressure may eventually force governments to take stronger action. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking to the BBC on May 20, warned that Zionists are losing their allies in the West. He said the Netanyahu government’s actions in Gaza were “almost” a war crime.

Olmert used even stronger language in a Hebrew op-ed published in Haaretz on May 22, stating that the Israeli government sees all of Gaza as “Hamas” and is effectively planning to destroy over two million people. “We can no longer dismiss global outrage as mere antisemitism—as if the whole world just hates us. That lie has run its course,” he wrote.

Olmert concluded with a stark warning: “It’s time to stop—before we are expelled from the family of nations and summoned to The Hague for war crimes. And we won’t have a good defense.”

Yair Golan, retired general and leader of Israel’s Democratic Party, echoed these concerns in a radio interview, saying:

“A sane country doesn’t declare war on civilians, doesn’t kill babies for sport, doesn’t set goals like mass displacement.”

He too warned that Israel is on the path to becoming an international pariah, like apartheid-era South Africa.

While these debates are happening inside Israel, many Western governments—including the US—continue to silence critics of Israeli policy by accusing them of antisemitism and resorting to censorship.