For two years, the world has watched as Israel has systematically destroyed the Gaza Strip, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and maiming an untold number more. As dangerously, Israel continues to methodically target the healthcare, education, water and sewage systems to ensure that life cannot resume in the Gaza Strip.
Western governments’ responses to Israel’s actions have ranged from cheerleading and unconditional support in the first year of Israel’s attack on Gaza after 7 October 2023, followed by statements of concern and handwringing, to, more recently, occasional expressions of consternation and empty threats that continued Israeli attacks may, at some unspecified time, lead to an arms embargo or a drop in trade relations. In the last few months, there have also been the greatly celebrated proclamations of conditional recognition of a Palestinian state. The irony cannot be more profound: tepidly recognizing a state as it, and its people, are being erased without mercy.
