Israel is testing the West’s most fundamental values

The student protests that are roiling US universities and colleges — and now spreading into Europe — over Israel’s war on Gaza are testing the Western world’s long-held principles and values. Images of police cracking down on largely peaceful gatherings have shaken the foundations of the American republic, its Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The attacks on elite universities for not clamping down on protesting students are being led by vehemently pro-Israel Republican lawmakers. They have called on President Joe Biden to send in the National Guard and suppress what they call pro-Hamas, liberal-funded antisemitic infiltrators.

The fact that Jewish organizations are involved in the antiwar protests has carried little weight with the conservative mainstream media and the Zionist lobbies that have sought to demonize them. Professors as well as students have been arrested, some beaten and manhandled, amid calls by lawmakers to terminate federal funding to colleges that either refuse to call in state police or have reached an agreement with protesters to divest from companies supplying weapons to Israel.

The crisis has raised questions about the fundamental individual freedoms that are protected by law and considered sacrosanct in Western societies. It has polarized an already divided American society over Israel’s war on Gaza and the gross human rights violations committed there, in addition to the horrific human toll on the Palestinians.

The Biden administration is already under fire from both sides: from the left for enabling Israel’s genocidal war and from the right for not doing enough to help Israel finish the job in Gaza. Biden is caught in the middle. His support among the Democratic youth and Arab and Muslim voters is waning and may play a vital role in him losing his reelection bid in November.

US politicians are sending the message: when it comes to Israel, there are special rules that do not apply elsewhere

Osama Al-Sharif

The president’s Republican foes, including Donald Trump, refuse to give him a free pass. Despite his long history as a self-proclaimed Zionist and ardent supporter of Israel, he is being blamed for helping Hamas buy time, weakening the Netanyahu government, and ignoring a steep rise in antisemitism at US colleges and universities.

There is one clear message that US politicians on both sides of the aisle are sending to the rest of the world: when it comes to Israel, there are special sets of rules that do not apply elsewhere. Forget about Israel’s excessive use of US-supplied firepower against civilians, the accusations of genocide and war crimes, and the breaches of international laws and conventions. Israel gets special treatment all the time. It is not only the politicians that are involved; it is also the mainstream media, the lobbies, the CEOs of the tech giants and the military-industrial complex, the evangelicals and many of the special interest groups.

And it is not only the US institutions that the pro-Israel lawmakers are pressuring. This week, Zeteo revealed that 12 GOP senators informed the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, that any attempt by the court to hold Netanyahu and his colleagues to account for their actions in Gaza would be interpreted “not only as a threat to Israel’s sovereignty but to the sovereignty of the United States.” “Target Israel and we will target you,” the senators told Khan, adding that they would “sanction the ICC employees and associates and bar you and your families from the United States.” Somewhat ominously, the letter concludes: “You have been warned.”

Pro-Israel lawmakers have lambasted the UN, its organizations and officials, including Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, numerous times after the body criticized Israel or called for independent investigations into possible war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank. In the 1990s, Congress enacted a law that mandates the withdrawal of US funding if the UN or any of its agencies recognizes the Palestinian state as a full member.

Europe is not much better. Despite massive weekly demonstrations calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the punishment of Israel, most European governments have taken hasty steps to contain such protests. In the early days of the war on Gaza, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin threatened to arrest anyone participating in antiwar marches and rallies. That threat did little to stop tens of thousands of people from taking to the heart of Paris in support of Palestine. Critics called Darmanin’s protest ban an attack on civil liberties.

The reverberations of Israel’s war on Gaza will go deep into Western societies long after that horrific war is over

Osama Al-Sharif

In the UK, the Conservative government tried to demonize pro-Palestine marches. Pro-Israel Home Secretary Suella Braverman was sacked after drawing anger for accusing police of being too lenient with the protesters.

More recently, the German government banned British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta from entering the country to deliver testimony about his experiences in Gazan hospitals. On Saturday, he was also refused entry to France due to a German ban affecting all Schengen Area countries. Before him, former Greek finance minister and anti-Israel activist Yanis Varoufakis was also banned from entering Germany, where he was due to participate in an antiwar conference.

These and other examples have struck deep into the very fabric of Western societies. Israel’s automatic impunity in the eyes of Western governments and the ruling elite is gnawing at the foundations of fundamental individual freedoms and rights, not to mention raising legitimate questions about the undue influence that Zionist bodies have over Western politicians.

The reverberations of Israel’s war on Gaza will go deep into Western societies long after that horrific war is over. The link will linger for many years. Israel will have to face a reckoning if the international rules-based order is to survive. Failing that, a new order is already in the making. It coincides with the visible decline in US global hegemony as it battles internal tests about its commitment to its fundamental principles, which were meant to protect the interests of the American people first and foremost.

Israel has become a severe liability to the West and it is using its last reserves of support among politicians who will, at the end of the day, have to answer to voters. Vibrant democracies have a way of correcting themselves. Israel’s credit line among politicians is coming to its inevitable conclusion.

In the end, Israel will have to fight its own battles at the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice and other forums. The stigma of its atrocities in Gaza will not go away. The Global South, an emerging power, observes the unfolding calamity. Gaza is no longer about Palestine, even though that cause persists, but about the fidelity of a world order that is designed for all members with no exceptions.

Israel is the last of the 19th-century colonial projects and it has outlasted its expiration date. Historical Palestine/Israel needs to coexist to prevent a recurrence of genocidal wars like the one in Gaza. International law and the tenets of what the West has been preaching all these decades are being tested, both in the West and beyond. The credibility of the West is at stake. The road ahead leads to a fork and making the wrong choice will be detrimental. Europe should know better: the line between fascism and democracy can be invisibly thin.

• Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. X: @plato010