Tone Deft Politics

The term let them eat cake is first attributed to an eighteenth-century princess in France who upon being told the peasants had no bread responded with the infamous quote. Let them eat cake was also attributed to Marie Antoinette, queen of France and wife of Louis XVI during the dark days of the French Revolution. The expression when placed in the mouth of the ruling class is reflective of an attitude of frivolity and disinterest in the plight of the suffering and starving masses.

In the context of the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank, it seems as though the US, Israel, and the European Union have become as tone deft as the princess in France and queen Marie Antionette, if indeed the latter did tell the starving Parisians to eat cake if they had no bread. There is a growing disconnect between the cries of the masses and the public pronouncements of the ruling political class in the US the European Union and to a lesser extent the state of Israel.

To say that Israel and Hamas are at war is as laughable as saying that an elephant and an ant are fighting. Hamas fighters, armed predominantly with homemade rockets are as ill-equipped to fight a war against Israel as is an ant to wage war with an elephant. Hamas rockets fired into Israel between 2001 and 2014 killed less than fifty Israelis. Israeli military operation in Gaza during the same period however resulted in the death of hundreds of Palestinians.

A UN document entitled Israeli-Palestinian Fatalities Since 2000- OCHA Special Focus points out that in 2002, the ratio of Israelis killed to Palestinians was relatively low. 2.5 Palestinians were killed for every Israeli killed. By 2007, the death ratio had risen significantly. Palestinian were being killed at a rate of 25-1. The current round of atrocities has claimed more than 1400 Israeli lives while the Palestinian death toll is approaching 9 000.

Civilians and children, who are supposed to be protected by international law, account for most of the dead in the ongoing onslaught in Gaza. While the White House and the international media have walked back the initial reports of Hamas beheading forty babies, substantial evidence is mounting to support the fact that Israeli bombs are killing hundreds of Palestinian babies. The Israeli tactic of collective punishment which includes the illegal acts of cutting off humanitarian aid, water, electricity, and fuel to Gaza has also put at risk the lives of hundreds of pregnant mothers and new born infants, especially those in need of special medical care.

As the death tolls rises, the international community seems to be awakening to the reality that this is no war. The events of October 7, are simply being used as a pretext by Israel to engage in some hardcore ethnic cleansing that will make Gaza more unlivable than it already is. The disproportionate destruction of lives and property and the incessant demands of the Israeli Defense Force for Gazans to relocate to the south of Gaza even though all of Gaza is under attack is resurrecting memories of the Nakba of 1948 when Palestinians were driven from their land.

Hundreds of thousands of ordinary men and women are taking to the streets all over the globe to protest the disproportionate bloodletting accompanying the Israeli military operations currently taking place in Gaza and to a lesser extent in the West Bank. The operations of arms manufacturers producing the weapons that are killing Palestinian children and civilians are being targeted in some countries. Sit-ins are taking place in government buildings while MPs, congressmen, and other political functionaries are being pressured to come out in support of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Regrettably while the international streets are pro-justice for Palestine, Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, Justin Trudeau, Giorgia Meloni, Ursula von der Leyen, Narendra Modi and a host of other Western leaders are unwavering in their support for Israeli. Like Marie Antionette and Louis XVI, many of these politicians have become tone deft and run the risk of paying a political price for their racism, cowardice, and pusillanimity.

How ironic it is that Europeans, who were the chief persecutors of the Jewish people historically, are the people edging the Israelis on to commit the same kind of barbaric atrocities perpetrated against them by Europeans. Another irony in the current ethnic cleansing in Gaza is the bold pro-Palestinian stance being taken by Jewish organizations and individuals in the US, UK and elsewhere. Jews and Jewish organizations are demanding a ceasefire and an end to the atrocities being committed by the Israeli Defenses Force under the pretext of protecting Jews and the state of Israel. Western leaders could learn a thing or two from these Jewish organizations and individuals.

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka is the founder of Afro-Caribbean Spiritual Teaching Center and the author of The Grand Failure: How Christianity Became a Force for Evil in the World.

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