Israel is shredding the roots of Western Societies
I am just the messenger; do not shoot the messenger
What are Western societies? It's a group of nations and states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia.
What do these societies mainly represent? these shared values originated from the Age of Enlightenment and Judeo-Christian values. and can be broadly explained with these terms
Individual liberty, democracy, rule of law, human rights, rational thinking, capitalism, and modern technology.
How does the support for this ethnoreligious extreme state happen over the decades?
To support an extreme act, one has to create ground for it, and rationalize it; you have to generate the consensus that this extreme act being done is not by an ordinary entity but by a victim who has suffered tremendously; show to the general population that this victim entity is an extension or representation of same values you support like democracy and freedom of expression and speech; and this extreme act is heroic because these victims are fighting against backward people, who don't exercise human rights and are uneducated and are not compatible with modernity.
To maintain enough support in the masses, western societies control the narrative through education and media, promoting Israel as a shining city on the hill; rising and breathing in the darkness of enemies surrounding it and always in danger of its existence.
Different organizations like AIPAC lobby and pump millions into Congress, so candidates are groomed and promoted based on their affiliation to the Israel cause, also there are several Jewish senators and members of the House of Representatives who make sure Netanyahu and its extreme policies are backed and protected from any international pressure.
Over the decades many Western nations have built strong military relationships with Israel, there is an exchange of military and intelligent information, and also Israel provides them with an ally close to Oil supply and shipping routes.
Another big factor contributing to Israel's support of the masses is the Christian Evangelical belief in making Israel great again, which will set up the stage for the rapture and the second coming of Jesus. It's said that 1 out of 3 Christians in the US hold this idea very dear to them. This sentiment also runs deep in different government officials and parliamentarians across both sides of the Atlantic.
According to Goldman, British foreign secretary Lord Arthur James Balfour’s “religious beliefs influenced his political decisions, particularly on the question of a Jewish return to Palestine, which he felt would be the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.”
Status Quo
Western values are born out, of a lot of suffering and also the backdrop of Christianity and multiple accounts of infighting between different European tribes.
But over time Western world today has been taken over by a set of oligarchs and billionaires, they want a free hand in their business dealings with minimal government intervention; so they can continue their status quo by misusing public rights or deceiving them with the least amount of liability to generate more wealth for themselves, with no regard for nature.
What does the government do to protect these oligarchs? is to instill fear and war-mongering in the public about some external or internal force; so people are divided and do not come to a common understanding of reality and ask for more rights and better living conditions.
The idea of land like Israel in the middle of Arab land makes perfect sense to the status quo, it provides them an opportunity to have a hot conflict with its neighbors where they can continue selling weapons to different proxies making countries around unstable; also in case of any bad media or something not going to plan, blame would not come back to the mainland of Europe and America.
For Israel, already a cover web is made up in the name of victimhood, and by the fact they are surviving in the middle of these barbaric nations; so if anything blows up it can easily be painted with a set of lies to justify the act.
Many Christians Evangelicals will not in any way question Israel, because of their unwavering support and anything it did can be wiped clean by this one sentence “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse”
Israel in return provides a perfect laboratory for testing security and intelligence operations ( with several Palestinians to test these on); with a moral cover, they can also be a bad guy in the middle to providing these to autocratic nations like China and Russia where they also need to control and surveil the population.
Most of the European nations were also pushed toward Israel, because after the Cold War US took upon the leading role of protecting these European lands and providing necessary military support; but over time US has been pulling away from this role; now the bigger economies of Europe like France and Germany (in the face of so-called Russias aggression) lack far behind in those capabilities to defend themselves; and here the role of Israel become critical for them.
Western Liberal Order
The basic idea behind individual liberty and nationalism is that every human values certain ideas like Justice, fairness, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness; while nations are created to protect that individual in a collective form and will provide necessary safety and laws governing them.
What the West perceives as Western values are not specifically the products of the West only, but these are shared aspirations of human values across the globe; that took a specific shape and form in the Western world and promoted to different lands through Colonization, imperialism, and power projections.
These same ideals developed differently in what we say close societies of Russia and China and Muslim lands.
Western societies' thoughts after the Cold War; when the world became unipolar that these ideas would automatically find ground in every other democracy and nation around the world and people would accept it gleefully; but it did not go as planned.
In search of promotion of these Western ideals ( after the fall of the Soviets); the Middle East was selected as the next enemy and Muslims became bad guys ( contrary they were good before because they helped defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan and millions poured into Pakistan)
9/11 happened and then a constant barrage of destruction of people land and property was started starting from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. Media portrayals of Muslims as being backward were promoted along with Islamophobia. This also suits the idea of Israel perfectly and sets up the weak government around being made weaker.
With the destruction of Arab land, more and more people started reaching the shores of Europe, it was hard for these people to get integrated into the society with a foreign language, and not necessary education and skills, and it caused societal unrest and polarization against Islam.
Many Westerners are aware of ideas of Western imperialism and colonization, but they necessarily do not think their government's actions to go to war are wrong, some believe the narrative that they are going to provide freedom and democracy to the people; and removing dictatorship is a good cause, some think it is necessary to project power to counter the influence of Russia ( in those lands) else they will make alliances and will cause harm to Western interest.
My two cents to Westerners, they need to realize, that not everyone is against their way of life and they should not be afraid of systems that do not follow their ideals of freedom and liberty. One cannot view the world from the lens it wears and think it is the only lens, but there are more perspectives and ways of life, and what they follow is not necessarily perfect for others.
However, we all humans can agree on two shared values; which are to always hold on to Justice and the Sacredness of human life and property; and put them even higher than nationalistic ideals.
Shredding of Western Values
With Individualism being the religion of most Western societies, what will happen if trust erodes from the government and its institutions?
Nationalism and patriotism are the keys to uniting people in a secular society; in the absence of religion, but if people become convinced that their government, institution, and media are in bed with a foreign entity and working in its interest rather than providing and improving the lives of its citizens they will start to revolt and undermine the government.
When they notice that campus protest or putting a symbol like Kyffiea around is projected as a symbol of hate towards a certain community (while it's just a cloth) and is shown with despise in mainstream media; the question becomes where is freedom of expression.
When people are let go of their jobs, by sharing or speaking about what is happening in the land of Palestine, or protesters are jailed for exercising their civil rights; people will question the liberty they have been left with.
When their government cannot explain why it has given more than 22 billion to an external entity in one year; while people are struggling to make ends meet and do not have insurance or battling with hurricanes with no help arriving. Shouldn't they be mad about it? and question the mutual contract they have with the government as citizens.
When Palestinian Christians write letters to Evangelicals Pastors, begging to stop this blind support for Israel, explaining how this funding and votes are causing their suffering (on a wrong interpretation of certain verses) but in return they turn a blind eye; this act can put basic teaching of love your neighbor into the bin; this will cause many to question their evangelical and Christian upbringing and move away to a different Ism.
Institutes like the UN, UNRWA, and ICJ are created mainly by the West to protect against human rights violations and a place to resolve disputes; Also many Westerners value them a lot and see them as institutes creating peace in the world and avoiding major conflicts; but last one year has shown how useless it has become and even same western nation especially the US is destroying all the credibility these institutes hold. This again will raise questions in several minds where is the rule-based order?
If Capitalism and Technological advancement cannot bring prosperity to the major population while serving to bring more wealth into the hands of a few it will judged against, West was able to prosper because of startup culture and the ability of people to take risks; but when in the name of serving few and foreign entities if they destroy the middle class than there will be very few left to make those endeavors and Capitalism will be envied and hated and alternate will be searched.
People have a moral compass, you cannot deceive them forever; they can realize the hypocrisy of their government and its narrative when they notice different treatment is given to the Ukraine war vs the Palestine. If we can call human rights violations in Ukraine why not in Gaza; if we call Russia the oppressor why not Israel? On one place we are against oppression while on the other side, we are supporting oppression. Is there any rationality about it?
This will create a wedge in an already atomized society and will push far-right ideas, where one group is celebrating the pieces of burnt mutilated bodies while another is shedding tears and protesting to stop the genocide.
Both narratives cannot work together or continue to live side by side; when each has its version of truth, what one can see others cannot and this will destroy the very essence of Western Civilization.
Years of enlightenment, wars, and suffering to create a shared culture, but it's getting dismantled by the greed and ego that have overcome it; though it has cracks of its own making that were hidden for a long time, but Gaza war is shattering it piece by piece.
If this war continues it has the potential to bring millions of deaths on both sides; but in the aftermath when one looks backward a lot will be lost; probably a whole civilization and it is quite possible that Western nations will go backward to Christian Nationalism and return to the Dark Ages.