The West’s hypocrisy is a bottomless pit for Palestinians

At the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted a war against Hamas. After killing 42,500 civilians, displacing the entirety of Gaza’s population and killing prominent Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar, Netanyahu took to his colonial podium again to remind the world that the “war” is not over. Because, according to Zionist colonial logic, genocide can only be over when no Palestinians are left in Gaza.

Israel’s allies in the West hailed Sinwar’s death. Take Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, for example, who described Sinwar as “an enemy of the Israeli people and an enemy of peace-loving people anywhere”. Hamas never internationalised its resistance – it continuously maintained that its anti-colonial resistance is contained against Israel – a right under international law – so why is Albanese attempting to make Sinwar’s assassination relevant to people outside of Palestine? To score points in favour of Israel’s genocide from those already supporting it? The people who understand legitimate anti-colonial resistance will not be swayed, and if international law was truly upheld, there would be no space for Albanese comments, and neither for Israel. For let us remember that the UN declared itself committed to eradicating colonialism, but failed to keep its word.

European leaders did not fare any better. European Council President Charles Michel blamed Hamas for the Palestinian people’s suffering throughout the genocide. French President Emmanuel Macron described Sinwar’s killing as a turning point. “We should seize this opportunity to free hostages and to end the war,” he stated after the European Council’s summit. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock described Sinwar as causing “immeasurable suffering across an entire region”. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who kept silent throughout the ongoing Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza apart from maintaining her pro-genocidal and pro-colonial stance, described Sinwar’s death as “certainly significantly weakening Hamas.”

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden congratulated Netanyahu on Sinwar’s killing, because the Hamas leader “has a lot of blood on his hands – American blood, Israeli blood, and others.” Blood types matter to colonialists, it seems. Because the blood of the colonised, which Netanyahu and the entire state of Israel is not only drenched in but built upon, never gets a mention, despite its visibility. For in the colonial version promoted by Israel and the US, Palestinians have no blood, it seems.

What emerges at face value, is that Western leaders purportedly see “opportunity” in Sinwar’s killing, while Netanyahu sees no end to the genocide until the last Palestinian standing falls. However, whatever Western leaders say, their support for the genocide is unwavering. To maintain a semblance of the non-existent status quo, Western leaders lost no time in scrambling towards the usual rhetoric of freeing the Israeli hostages, negotiating a ceasefire and the West’s favourite premise – the two-state paradigm.

Sinwar’s killing, if Western leaders are heeded, holds the key to all three occurring. Yet the West knows that Netanyahu dictates the pace, and he has already decided there is no turning back from genocide, no ceasefire and no two-state. Isn’t it time that the West takes Netanyahu at his word publicly? Why do Palestinians still have to listen to the two-state nonsense, talk of opportunity, ceasefires that never happen? How is it that the West still needs to exploit Palestinians to maintain its relevance in this context?

According to Albanese, a ceasefire after Sinwar’s killing will “break the cycle of violence and put the region on the path to an enduring two-state solution.” On Thursday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated, “There is a proposal from President Biden and others as to what … a ceasefire could look like and we fully support that.” Is it that hard to imagine what a ceasefire could look like? Perhaps, if by ceasefire, the West means a ceasefire in which Israel keeps bombing civilians at whim.

After the genocide, the West will never be believed again. Sinwar’s killing, according to Biden, gives the chance “for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.” Whatever term the West uses to describe the genocide in Gaza, the facts are that 42,500 civilians have been killed and the death toll is most possibly higher. Palestinians in Gaza remain forcibly displaced and unable to return home. Israel is bombing densely populated areas to inflict higher kill tolls on Palestinians. So, what is the political settlement that the US envisages?

For decades, the two-state compromise has been relevant only to Israel and the international community. Shame on all countries, especially those who have been more vocal in their criticism of Israel and support of Palestine, to still have supported such a travesty, knowing full well that colonial expansion would not allow the establishment of a Palestinian state, because it allows for no reversal of colonialism.

Since Netanyahu has clearly established the genocide will not stop, and since not even the live footage of Palestinians shredded to ribbons of flesh or being burnt alive constitute evidence of war crimes for the US, Biden and his allies should clarify to the Palestinians that the so-called political settlement envisaged is one with no Palestinians at all.

The Jerusalem Post has reported another macabre move by the Israeli military – dropping leaflets depicting Sinwar’s lifeless body with a warning: “Whoever drops the weapon and hands over the hostages will be allowed to leave and live in peace.” First of all, so many Palestinian civilians are unarmed and have been unarmed. Secondly, civilians are not hiding the hostages – they are busy trying to survive Israel’s genocide. And leave to where, exactly, when Israel’s tactic is to round up civilians to inflict a higher kill toll? Or bomb supposedly safe trajectories when Palestinians are being forcibly displaced?

Palestinians are not relevant to the two-state paradigm, except to maintain its existence until necessary. By referring to the two-state politics at any crack of diplomatic opportunity, the West is taking the focus away from the genocide while allowing Netanyahu to continue annihilating Palestinians. This is the abyss the two-state paradigm and all its supporters created for Palestinians – the macabre farce of forcing Palestinians into purported pragmatism to facilitate their slaughter for Israel.

The West’s hypocrisy is a bottomless pit for Palestinians