History cannot excuse today’s crimes

One of Mark Twain’s most famous aphorisms is: ‘History never repeats itself, but it often rhymes.’ Humorous, no doubt, but it hardly seems adequate to Israel’s genocidal destruction of Gaza, its long-running settler-led expansion of the West Bank, or its irrational use of history to justify current policy.

If there is one population in the world we might expect to be sensitive to the effects of racist mass murder, it is the Jews. No doubt some of them are, as evidenced by ongoing demonstrations against Netanyahu’s increasingly brutal and authoritarian rule, but the net effect is alarmingly reminiscent of what the Nazis did to the Jewish populations of Eastern Europe. Indeed, Hitler’s megalomaniacal quest for Lebensraum, or a larger ‘living space’ for the German people, may have been epic in scale, but his desire to eliminate people who stood in the way of the fulfillment of a sacred national destiny seems alarmingly familiar.

Like Giora Eiland‘Gaza must be completely destroyed: terrible chaos, severe humanitarian crisis, screams to heaven,’ says one of the architects of Israel’s evolving military strategy. Likewise, a senior minister Bezalel SmotrichHe suggested that starving 2 million people to death might be ‘justifiable and moral’ under certain circumstances. No doubt Heinrich Himmler he sympathized with such feelings. Perhaps enthusiasm for genocide owes more to personality types than to ideology or race.

Either way, even António Gutteres, the indefatigable but largely impotent leader of the United Nations, described Israel’s policy in Gaza and the West Bank this way:ethnic cleansing‘. It is becoming increasingly clear that the overall aim is to remove Palestinians from Gaza completely, or, if this is not possible, to kill them where they are. How else can we explain the repeated, indiscriminate targeting of hospitals and residences while the entire region is reduced to uninhabitable rubble?

Equally inhumane decision Banning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the only effective aid agency in Gaza, is not only extremely insensitive, but also seems entirely in line with the overall aim of killing the Palestinian people or expelling them from their traditional homeland. .

True, Israel did not begin setting up extermination camps and sending in its own version of the Einsatzgruppen or Nazi death squads, which managed to kill an estimated 1.5 million Jews. But for victims, whether you were killed by a bullet to the back of the head or in a collapsed building is probably a moot point. At least the German method was instantaneous; It’s better than lying in pain in the ruins of your house for a day or two before it expires.

No doubt drawing parallels between the policies of the Nazis and the current Israeli government will cause consternation among Netanyahu’s supporters, not to mention the all-too-predictable accusations of antisemitism. So, does the incredible, inhumane horror of World War II or October 7 mean that we must remain silent forever, no matter what the state of Israel does?

Given the tragic history of the Jewish diaspora, giving the Israeli government a free pass is not a good precedent. Should we show similar tolerance to Vladimir Putin as he is busy restoring Russia’s greatness to a nation traumatized by Stalin’s murder of millions of its own people? Should we take a more tolerant attitude towards Xi Jinping’s China when we remember that Mao’s great breakthrough probably resulted in the deaths of 30 million people?

Of course, it is simply not possible for the United States or Australia to take into account history and unreasonable feelings of grievance about their treatment when it comes to relations with Russia or China. But it is worth remembering that in the nineteenth century there were some. 4-12 million Chinese He became addicted to opium, thanks to the ruthlessly implemented imperial trade policies of England. If AUKUS advances, Britain will once again send warships to the Far East.

Even now, double standards and hypocrisy are common. Repeated expressions of American (and Australian) ‘concern’ and ‘regret’ over Israel’s massacre of Palestinians stand in stark contrast to, for example, the furious outrage over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

To be clear, Russia’s aggression is not a good thing; especially as it serves as a painful reminder that misleading leaders are capable of starting pointless conflicts at any historical juncture. We might have hoped that it had now become clear that there are no ‘good’ wars, even if they are fought by people we consider friends, allies or politically and strategically important.

And yet Political importance of IsraelIt means that American policymakers, especially as a crucial election approaches, are increasingly reluctant to criticize their increasingly uncontrollable ally, and are increasingly cutting off the flow of arms that is allowing continued carnage. Just like before and during World War II, there always seems to be some compelling reason or another that allows genocide to continue.

Perhaps this is what Netanyahu has learned from history, at least: Moments of geopolitical paralysis and indecision by potentially important powers do indeed present an opportunity to get away with murder. While the United States is preoccupied with its own political crises that threaten to undermine the foundations of its security and that of the world, Netanyahu’s government is demonstrating that the opportunities for unprincipled, immoral authoritarians everywhere to operate with relative impunity can only increase.