‘Finish them’: How Western leaders blame Palestinian victim, hail aggressor

By Maryam Qarehgozlou

In a classic case of blaming the victim and brazenly whitewashing the Israeli regime’s atrocities, many world leaders have again jumped in defense of the apartheid.

Since the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched its military operation on the occupied territories on Saturday morning, in retaliation for incessant violations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the international community has rushed to reaffirm their support for the apartheid regime.

Since the operation was launched, more than a thousand Israeli soldiers and settlers have been killed and hundreds more are held in the besieged Gaza Strip as war prisoners.

Israeli regime’s indiscriminate bombardment of civilian areas in the coastal strip has also resulted in the death of more than 500 Palestinians, all of them civilians, unlike the targets in occupied territories.

Israeli regime has also intensified its blockade of the Gaza Strip, cutting off water, and electricity and relentlessly attacking civilian areas and residential buildings.

The blockade has left the 2.3 million people living in the area largely cut off from the outside world.

However, world leaders have turned a blind eye to the Israeli regime’s occupation, crippling siege and daily atrocities against Palestinians, dubbing the Palestinian resistance as “terrorist groups.”

US President Joe Biden, reacting to recent developments, pledged “rock solid” support for Benjamin Netanyahu, calling the Palestinian operation “terrorist assaults.”

“I made clear to Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the government and people of Israel,” Biden said in a statement.

“Terrorism is never justified. Israel has a right to defend itself and its people.”

He conveniently forgot what the Israeli regime has been doing in the occupied territories for seven decades and continues to murder Palestinians, including women and children, with impunity.

The US president also forgot what the regime in Tel Aviv did to Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist, who was killed in cold blood in broad daylight in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin last year. No one was punished for the murder.

Late on Saturday, Nikki Haley, Former US ambassador to the UN and a Republican presidential candidate, also sent a message to Netanyahu on Fox News, telling him to “finish them [Hamas]”.

“Finish them. Finish them. They should have hell to pay for what they’ve just done,” the hawkish Republican said in the interview, sounding completely hysterical.

Halley’s statement generated intense social media debate with many X (Twitter) users slamming her for making a provocative remark. Some users even urged the X chief Elon Musk to suspend her account.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement said the world “should be revolted” with the developments in Palestine, referring to the Hamas operation.

“We unequivocally condemn the appalling attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israel. We stand in solidarity with the government and people of Israel and extend our condolences for the Israeli lives lost in these attacks,” he wrote in an X post, without even mentioning Palestinians murdered by the regime.

On Tuesday, he wrote that he had spoken to the Israeli regime foreign minister Eli Cohen on “how the US is supporting Israel as it defends itself against Hamas’ terrorist attack and reaffirmed efforts to secure the immediate release of all hostages.”

The top American diplomat needs to be reminded of thousands of Palestinians languishing in Israeli jails without any charge, for no crime, under the so-called draconian ‘administrative detention’ policy.

Europeans also jumped on the bandwagon, defending the indefensible.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Union Commission, in an X post, defended the child-murdering regime’s right to “defend itself” saying the operation has left them “breathless.”

On Sunday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also pledged his country’s “steadfast support” to Israel. His office, Downing Street 10, also flashed the flag of the regime as a mark of solidarity.

He offered to provide diplomatic, intelligence or security support to the regime in Tel Aviv if requested and said the UK stood “poised” to help Israel militarily if it asked for assistance.

French President Emmanuel Macron, in a post in Hebrew on Saturday on his X account, also voiced support for Israel’s “right to defend themselves.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made similar comments in a statement on Sunday, and addressed Israelis saying “Germany is on their side.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also took to X and labeled the operation a “terrorist attack”, saying India “stands in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour.”

Modi’s post was accompanied by several other posts by Hindutva cheerleaders in India, who pledged support for the Israeli regime, prompting many to link Zionism with India’s militant Hindutva.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky also said Israel has an “indisputable” right to defend itself.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which has been tracking deaths in the occupied territories since 2008, more than 6,400 Palestinians, including more than 1400 children, were killed by the regime up to September 19, 2023.

More than 152,000 Palestinians have been injured since 2008 up to September 21, 2023.

In the almost same period, 308 Israelis died and 6,300 were injured in Palestinian operations.

But, while the killing of Israeli settlers, legitimate and warranted, draws anger and outrage from the West, the cold-blooded murder of Palestinians every single day has been normalized.

Maryam Qarehgozlou is a Tehran-based journalist.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)

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