By Mohamed Harees –
As the brutal Gazan genocide is being continually livestreamed into our living rooms, two social media posts which addresses the failing humanity should engage our attention. “When you need to have hundreds of protests just to tell the world that bombing innocent civilians and children is not OK, that is when you know that humanity has failed”. Then, “Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world. Gaza was hell before October 7 and the world was silent. Should we be surprised at their silence now. If you are not appalled by what is happening in Gaza, if you are not shaken to your core, there is something wrong with your humanity”.
In 2022, standing at the White House podium, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was tearing up, about the suffering of the people of Ukraine, due to Russia’s unconscionable war of aggression.“It’s difficult to look at some of the images and imagine that any well-thinking, serious, mature leader would do that,” he said, choking down clear and genuine emotion at the horrors of war. I watched his press conference from my office at the State Department, and I shared his real pain at the suffering we were seeing. A year and a half later, Mr. Kirby was at the podium again, this time talking about Gaza. At that point, three weeks into the conflict, thousands of Palestinian civilians had already been killed by the Israeli bombardment. Mr. Kirby did not tear up that day. Instead, he told America: “Being honest about the fact that there have been civilian casualties, and there likely will be more, is being honest, because that’s what war is. It’s brutal, it’s ugly.”
As Ivo Daalder, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a former US ambassador to NATO noted, “Israel was attacked, and it has a right to self-defence. But it is doing so in a territory it occupies, and which the entire world thinks is occupied territory. On the one hand, we’re trying to get other countries to oppose what Russia is doing in Ukraine, while on the other hand we’re trying to have them support what Israel is doing in Gaza.” The million dollar question will be to what extent this obvious hypocrisy will come to matter right where it hurts these politicians the most — at the ballot box?
Turkish author Mehmet Çelik draws attention to the double standards in the treatment of conflicts, specifically comparing the situations in Ukraine and Palestine. He argues for a consistent approach to conflicts, a world where the same standards apply whether it’s Ukraine or Palestine. He calls out the West for its indifference to the suffering in Yemen, Myanmar, Libya, and Syria. There is a disconnect between the empathy shown across the U.S. government to Ukrainian victims of Russian aggression, or the Israeli victims of Hamas’s atrocity of Oct. 7, and Washington’s response to the immense tragedy that has unfolded in Gaza in the weeks since.
By continuing to flow weapons while vetoing any effort in the United Nations to establish a ceasefire, the U.S. appears to have a complete lack of recognition of the humanity of the Palestinian people. Perhaps it is because what is happening in Gaza is being done with US arms, and their funding. Since Oct. 7, America has supplied Israel with thousands of bombs, missiles and shells, on top of the tens of billions of dollars we have provided in military assistance in the past decade alone.
Masha Gessen, the 2023 Hannah Arendt Award winner, eruditely compares Israel’s invasion of Gaza with the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. Reports of the summary executions of Palestinians, expanding the slaughter already underway, are surfacing including from Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor Arieh King who sent a photo of naked Palestinians in Israeli custody and wrote that the “IDF is exterminating the Nazi Muslims in Gaza.”Atrocities occur when there are no witnesses around. Al-Jazeera journalists courageously try to cover the whole war zone but they’re often killed by the IDF. Israel’s Genocide enabler in chief Bibi’s manipulation of religion having the IDF’s rabbis invoking the biblical Amalekites, whom God told Saul to wipe out every man, woman and child, his reincarnating them as Palestinians is incitement to commit murder. IDF soldiers chant and sing that they’re going to “wipe off the seed of Amalek” and that there are “no innocent civilians” in Gaza.
With the death toll in Gaza now well over 30,000 mark — about 70% of the casualties are thought to be women and children, the Post WWII world appears to be in a state of dilemma, while the US and UK led West brazenly supports a ‘live’ genocide in Gaza. In the face of unimaginable violence in the civilized world of 2023, the moral compass of the West is being tested, and the promise of a civilized world remains uncertain. Disturbingly, data from the ground indicates that the explosive force unleashed on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 is comparable to the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Some writers likens to Nazi Holocaust
Children and civilians are being murdered at such a high rate in Gaza that the “counting machines” cannot keep up. Perhaps we understand the extent when Save the Children says that a child is killed every tenth minute. 2.2 million people are locked in a prison. Without food, without water, without medicine, without power. The only thing heaven offers, is bombs. It cannot be endured. Gaza has been an Israeli concentration camp, particularly since the imposition of Israel’s illegal 2007 military blockade. Now Gaza is an Israeli death camp.On the West Bank where Palestinian homes are being demolished at a record rate and their land continues being stolen for illegal Israeli settlements some 318 Palestinians have been killed after Oct. 7 by the IDF and settlers. Israel which tortures prisoners has incarcerated 4,800 Palestinians since Oct. 7.
What adds a layer of complexity to this dire situation is the unwavering political and military support extended to Israel by the seemingly most democratic and powerful nations of the West. While some diplomatic efforts from leaders in countries like Türkiye, Qatar and Egypt aim to provide humanitarian ease to civilians, the Western world appears largely unmoved by the harrowing imagery emerging from Gaza, where children are tragically reduced to pieces. The pressing question looms: When will the West draw a line in supporting Israel’s assault on Palestinian children? Will the collective consciousness of these nations spur them to translate their condemnatory words into decisive action, perhaps advocating for a ceasefire?
Decades after decades, the world has failed in its attempts to create lasting peace in the Middle East. Now, a world with benumbed world led by the West sans a moral compass has lost the last vestige of humanism. With open eyes, their complicity and silence have let mothers and fathers carry their children to the grave. US and its Western lobby have been financing the bombing of hospitals and refugee camps. Already Gaza has been bombed to Stone age. The ability of doctors and aid organizations to save lives have been stripped because the power has been cut, the water is turned off, and the medicine and equipment are blocked.
Discussions often focus on little more than the delivery of more humanitarian aid, presumably to be administered somehow while the bombing continues. It is, as Rev Isaac said, an exercise in “complicity.” Palestinian Christian pastor Reverend Munther Isaac used his Christmas day service in Bethlehem, entitled Christ in the Rubble: A Liturgy of Lament , to underline the point. “Leaders of the so-called ‘free world’ lined up one after the other to give the green light for this genocide against a captive population,” he said. “They gave the cover.” The sermon was a searing, shaming reminder of a hideous reality. He added, “Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world. If you fail to call this genocide, it is…a darkness you willingly embrace.” If you are not appalled by what is happening in Gaza, if you are not shaken to your core, then there is something wrong with your humanity.”
The world is currently witnessing the grotesque spectacle of major political parties in the Western world engaging in domestic point-scoring and tactical positioning on Israel’s nearly three-month war on Gaza. The shameful thread that runs through supposedly progressive Western politicians and parties’ stance on Gaza is clear: all along, they have seen it as a political issue when it is, in fact, a moral one. Some of these leaders are in government, others are governments-in-waiting. No matter. No exercise in dull semantics can be a substitute for the moral clarity demanded by the scale of ongoing death and devastation in Gaza.
In fact, the leadership in the U.S. in particular and the West in general have absorbed decades of Israeli propaganda that dehumanizes Palestinians, leading to the argument that, in the words of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible” for the Oct. 7 attack. Whatever the reason, the lack of ability to see the suffering of Palestinians – to recognize in them the same humanity extended to Ukraine.
It is shameful that the UK has been dubbed the poodle of the US- neither a dignified or principled place to occupy on the international stage through its craven abstention on the issue of a Gaza ceasefire. No sane country on this planet will regard the conduct of the Genocidal Israeli Government in Gaza as remotely acceptable. Thus to respond to the cries of dying children in Gaza with an abstention is an act of cowardice from a country with no moral compass remaining. As an UK MP pointed out, ‘With Westminster so clearly out of step on public opinion over a matter integral to our collective moral compass, it can, in no way, claim to be representative of Scotland or Britain as a whole. It’s a broken system when 71% of the population support a stance as important as this, yet Westminster’s two biggest parties ignore it in favour of their own morally-bankrupt stance in support of more suffering and death”.
As the West seems to have lost its basic moral compass, it needs that perspective more than ever. On the greater scheme of things, both US and the West are also doing harms to their shared strategic interests, besides going against the very values that bind them together as partners and allies. Author Çelik peels back the layers of the concept of Western moral superiority, revealing a history of exploitation and dispossession. From colonial history in Africa, Asia, and South America to the treatment of Indigenous communities in North America, he argues that the phrase ‘Western moral superiority’ is a smokescreen for material interests and theological aims. Çelik argues that true solidarity with Palestine should extend beyond temporary attention during times of crisis to a genuine recognition of Palestinian lives as equal to Jewish lives. UN with its veto system in the security council has become a toothless tiger. Resolutions one after the other against Israel have become dead pieces of paper.
Nearly 70% of the Gaza Strip’s residents are Palestinian refugees. They lost homes and homelands not 2,000 years ago but 75 years ago. Living a few miles away, they grew up watching their original homes be taken. It is the colonial project and the continuing Nakba that are the merits of the ongoing violence. Palestinian refugees were denied the chance to rebuild a new life. This state of despair deteriorated after 2006, when Israel imposed a siege over Gaza to the level of determining the type and number of calories that Gazans can consume, alongside their ability to move, to work, or to dream. This was the situation on the eve of October 7. It was not a peaceful situation that Hamas breached. It is a one-sided war all the time.
The Palestinians rightly view the American and Western European states’ bias and responsibility for their tragedy. Time and again, they failed the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation and its associated regime of violence and dispossession, with an empty promise for a two-state solution to be reached via negotiations. What are Palestinians expected to do? Should they submit to the Israeli political will or resist it? Should they accept the humiliation and constant dispossession and watch the Israeli encroachment of their lands, homes, and lives? Israel’s strategy of raising Gaza to rubbles has concealed hidden echoes of “the final solution”. It seems like the Zionist regime is avenging the holocaust from the people who were not remotely responsible for the tragedy. Reckless rage cannot justify ethnic cleansing; self-defence does not involve bombing hospitals, schools, or civilian homes; wrongs cannot have approximately.
What happened on 7th October 2023 is being responded with collective punishment, war crimes followed by a livestreamed Genocide. And humanity’s broken morality compass failed to identify and address it. No human being can sit without taking an action. Gaza is not only the largest open-air prison, but it is also an experimental laboratory. It is not only a ground where Israeli weapons and technology are frequently revealed and used in the last years but also a testing ground for morality, hypocrisy, and privilege. It is a lab to test our human values.
Pandi Kutti / February 26, 2024
Yet to see an article by these fake Arab, immigrant South Indian Thamizh origin, Sri Lankan Muslims, on what is happening to the Thamizh on the island at the hands of the racist Chingkalla state and the state sponsored discrimination, marginalization and structural genocide on the island’s Thamizh that is also overtly and covertly supported by these fake Arab immigrant South Indian Thamizh converts to Islam, who have now become more Arab than the actual Arabs themselves, to prove some point. However, we get lots of articles from them in support of Palestinians, sometimes two or three a week from these fake Arabs. As even fake Arab, immigrant South Indian Thamizh origin Sri Lankan Muslims or Moors, as they love to call themselves, to prove some connection to the Arab world, need to show support their support to their fellow Arab Muslims, living in Palestine and establish their so called Bonafide Arab origin and credentials to the rest of the world. Their actual Thamizh origin and ethnicity be damned in the name of Islam and this fake Arab origin.
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Pandi Kutti / February 26, 2024
These South Indian Dravidian, Sri Lankan Muslim, fake Arabs who do not care for their own Thamizh ethnicity and their plight on the island, but are crying, crying everywhere for the plight of the Palestinian Arabs, whilst many of the actual Arabs and Arab nations have largely betrayed the Palestinian Arabs and sold out to the west. What an irony, fake Arab Thamizh Muslims of Sri Lanka betray their own Thamizh ethnicity and deny it and join the Chingkalla Sri Lankan state to commit war crimes and genocide on the Thamizh but cry moan and rant constantly on the plight of the Palestinian Arabs, everywhere, whilst the actual Arabs have largely given up on the poor Palestinians. Charity begins at home first cry about the plight of your fellow Thamizh on the island, instead of damning them in the name of Islam and a fake Arab origin, by joining with the largely racist Chingkallams, and then cry about others.
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Muhandiram / February 28, 2024
You are still a Pandi”kutty”? You don’t want to grow up and become a Periya Pandy? Being a “kutty” pandi, you are living in your small world and you DON’T LEARN anything. No wonder, you continue to eat the ‘Rubbish’ you are fed by your older Pandis and Spew All the Rubbish you are fed whenever you make your appearance here.
I will call you Periya Pandi in the faint hope that it might change you even a bit.
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Pandi Kutti / February 28, 2024
Keep on ranting fake Arab Thamizh Dravidian immigrant convert from South India, proves what I stated is correct.
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Champa / February 26, 2024
The United States has a long history of engaging in proxy wars and coup-d’etats to destabilize far away regions and rival countries. The latest is the West Asia region.
The White House does not consider killing 100 civilians within 24 hours in the Gaza Strip a large-scale military operation. It does not consider killing 30,000, injuring 70,000 and forcibly displacing 1.9 million Palestinians is genocide.
The United States has vetoed the third UNSC Resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. I wonder what happened to the rival resolution drafted by the US against Algeria’s UNSC resolution. Is it my imagination that the US initiated hostage talks always coincide with UNSC Resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire? Next time, I hope Hamas will be more vigilant about the United States’ sneaky tricks.
Without leadership, the world rallied behind Palestine. There has never been a time where there is this much concern for humanity. The world’s collective goal is to free Palestine from the Israeli apartheid regime. I still have hope that ICJ will call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to prevent Israel’s planned Holocaust in Rafah, the tent city, where 1.4 million Palestinians sought their last refuge.
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Captain Morgan / February 26, 2024
How many articles did Lukman Harees and Latheef Farook write when the Sri Lanka government was raining bombs and firing artillery shells on civilian targets in the North and East, especially during the closing stages of the war?
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SJ / February 27, 2024
Are some of us not diverting attention from the biggest genocidal campaign by resorting to personal attacks?
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Muhandiram / February 28, 2024
SJ
Are you referring to Pandi’kutty’? You know a kutty is a small creature which depends on the bigger creatures for every thing. This Pandi’kutty’ is also a small creature depending on its elders for everything. This ‘kutty’ has been around for quite a long time and having been fed Rubbish by the elders for so long. this ‘kutty’ knows ONLY Rubbish which he keeps spewing here Always.
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Pandi Kutti / February 28, 2024
Cry and rant Thullukan. The only rubbish that was fed to you fake Arab converted Dravidian Thullukans from Thamizh Nadu is by your elders, was to hate your own Thamizh origin and ethnicity and run behind everything remotely connected to the Arabs and that your largely converts from South India are of Arab descent, to deliberately hide your actual largely low caste origin, so a little bit of Arab/Camel or hyena, amongst a few of you converts, became a blanket origin for the entire community, thinking everyone will believe in this lie and myth and for political and economic benefits. Why don’t you go and look at yourselves in the mirror, do you seen an Arab or Camel? 97% of you look like typical South Indian Thamizh Dravidians that you really are. Only around 3% of you show some imprint of an Arab or other western Asians.
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Pandi Kutti / February 28, 2024
The Chingkallams , aided and abetted by your selfish power-hungry elite and politicians, deliberately encourage you fake Arabs to believe in this fake Arab origin as they want to divide and rule the Thamizh Now in the name of Islam and a fake Arab origin you opportunistic selfish immigrant turncoats from South India, are crying about the plight of the Palestinian Arabs, with most of whom other than the slender thread of Islam, ( as 10% of the Palestinians are Christians and many are Druze too), you have nothing in common but were joining the Chingkallams to kill, loot, murder, ethnically cleanse and commit structural genocide on the island’s Thamizh, with the intention of stealing their lands, especially in the east where you fake Arabs. fleeing persecution, arrived as refugees, claiming to be Thamizh, just like the way many of you run to the west and claim Asylum claiming to be persecuted Thamizh. Thamizh when it suits you but at all other times Thamizh hating fake Arabs.
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Pandi Kutti / February 28, 2024
We saw you fake Arab low caste converts from South India dancing on the streets in May 2009 and celebrating with the Chingkallams and holding victory parties, when over 170000 thousand innocent Thamizh civilians were killed by the Chingkalla Sri Lankan state and war crimes were committed. Brainwashed hypocrite. I know the truth hurts this is why you are ranting. Asking for support from a well-known self-hating Thamizh quisling on this forum takes the cake.
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Muhandiram / March 1, 2024
If, in 2009, you saw people celebrating the End of the LTTE, that was 15 years back. So, far from being a Pandi “kutti”, you are Very Much a Periya Pandi, though you are still a Kutti Pandi in your thinking, thanks to your elders who fed you All the Rubbish you come out with in these pages.
By the way, where did you see these so-called celebrations? In Yaalpaanam? It would have been IMPOSSIBLE for you to see them outside Yaalpaanam because the Thamizh like you were so scared that they were in hiding even in Yaalpaanam. As there is NO chance for you to see these so-called celebrations, this is obviously one of the RUBBISHES you were fed by your elders.
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old codger / February 28, 2024
CM
“How many articles did Lukman Harees and Latheef Farook write ……..”
That is unfair. CT only started up in 2012.
Before 2009, you could get murdered for writing that sort of article, and no editor would publish them anyway.
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SJ / February 27, 2024
Attacking the West as a whole distracts attention from the main culprits: US imperialism and its criminal agent in the Middle East.
There is much to blame about many Arab states for failure to act against the oppressors.
Why do we never talk of the role of Iran here?
Is is not more proactive in defending the Palestinians than any Sunni Arab state?
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Adiwasiya / February 28, 2024
October 7th, 2023, celebration by Gazans has become. unthinkable disaster or agony for them. In Buddhism it is descried as aasanna karma. Gazan’s so-called rescuers. HAMAS Brought them. this agony. HAMAS knew very well the practices of their enemy. Mogadishu and Antabay disasters. thought them very good lessons.erlier occasions. yet HAMAS do their terrorism. Soon they will regret
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