Double Standards
US duplicitous foreign policy has been exposed like never before...
We often talk about double standards; in every day life and in politics. But what we are witnessing from the US and UK at present is the most grotesque illustration of double standards that I remember in my lifetime. Gaza is a bloodbath; but Putin is the bad guy.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 we have been persuaded that Russia is our mortal enemy, a threat to our very existence. Russia became the ultimate bogeyman, the antithesis of the ‘western values’ that we hold dear, Putin supposedly the archetype of evil itself. But Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak are willing to stand by and watch Israel commit mass murder in Palestine, turning a blind eye to this atrocity because it suits their longer term strategy of maintaining influence in the Middle East.
9370 Palestinians are dead, including 3826 innocent children and over 32,000 people are injured. Israel is committing what Michael Lynk, former Special Rapporteur to Palestine has said is somewhere ‘between war crimes and genocide’. The former head of the UN in New York recently resigned from his position, feeling helpless to combat what he said was obviously ‘a textbook case of genocide’. Yet all we hear about is Israel’s need for self-defence after the Hamas attack of 7th October. Attacking mercilessly civilians who run from corner to corner of the ‘cage’ they have been living in under Israeli occupation is not self-defence. Palestinians have no army, no air defence; it is not a fair fight. Most of the globe understands this; as we saw at the UN when the vast majority voted for a ceasefire, putting the US and UK to shame.
Almost the same number of civilians have been killed in three weeks in Gaza as have died in 20 month long war in Ukraine (9614 according to the OHCHR).
Yet the only calls to ‘Boycott Israel’ come from pro-Palestinian UK activists. Compare this to the organised, orchestrated campaign against Russia which followed its invasion of Ukraine February last year (although arguably aspects of it started prior to that date). Western companies were pressurised to leave Russia, flights ceased between the West and Russia, Russian media was banned and journalists harassed for working for Russian news outlets; it was no longer acceptable to read Dostoevksky and listen to Rachmaninov, a whole range of cross-cultural projects were abandoned.
Perhaps the most iconic example of the double standard towards Russia and Israel is demonstrated by the International Olympic Committee. When Russia was charged with a ‘state-sponsored doping program’ after the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Russian athletes were subsequently banned from competing under the Russian flag; they had to compete in the 2020 Beijing Olympics as ‘neutral’ competitors, stripped of their nationality, the Russian national anthem replaced by Tchaikovsky, as if the whole world couldn’t tell where they were from.
This shameful and demoralising spectacle is something that Israel will never have to endure, because it has special status: it is a US ally. Like Saudi Arabia, it is given carte blanche to commit whatever atrocities it sees fit. So when the IOC was recently asked what it thought the impact of the Israel/Palestine conflict could be on the upcoming Paris Olympics in 2024 it stated:
"The IOC is committed to the concept of individual responsibility and athletes cannot be held responsible for the actions of their governments."
So why were individual Russian athletes held responsible for their ‘state’ engaging in a doping program? Because discrimination against Russians doesn’t count; that’s why.
The mask is off.
No-one is going to buy the demonization of Putin any more, while Biden embraces Netanyahu. No-one is going to sit back and watch the massacre of innocent civilians in Gaza while the US and its vassal states harp on about ‘human rights abuses’ by Russia. The vacuous nature of US and UK foreign policy has been brutally exposed in the last three weeks like never before.
Photo credit: Amos Ben Gersham GPO
It’s bizarre, because any parent knows that two children ought to be treated equally; you can’t have one rule for one and a different rule for the other. It’s an innately human phenomenon, fairness. So why is it that western elites cannot see this? How can they let Gazans be persecuted by the Israelis in the most brutal fashion? How can they let the Israeli defence minister refer to Palestinians as ‘human animals’ and snot condemn it? This is how the Nazis came to power and were enabled to ethnically cleanse the Jews in the 1930s. Because it was allowed to happen.
But the people are speaking.
Pro-Palestine protests, although played down by the corporate mainstream media, demonstrate the humanity of western societies. The Anglo-American white supremacist and racist elites may try to manipulate populations, focusing on stories about the rise in anti-semitism in the West and Jews fearing to go outside (nothing has necessarily taken place but the ‘fear’ is already worth a story) while reports of civilians dying in Gaza take a backseat; but our multicultural, multiethnic societies will not buy this. Thanks to social media and a couple of mainstream news outlets: Channel 4 News and Al Jazeera, the truth will prevail. The man in the street knows that a Palestinian life = an Israeli life, as if it even had to be said.
The multi-polar world is emerging and the Anglo-American ‘rules-based world order’ has been exposed for what it is: a big con. The influence of the US since the fall of the Soviet Union is receding and a new one based on power parity, equality and mutual respect is waiting to be born. The stumbling, bumbling Joe Biden is symbolic of this, desperately gripping on to power even though he is incapable of exercising it justly. It’s been an entertaining show, but now it’s over. The truth always comes out.