[News] The Arab, the Left and those who remained silent: History will not forgive you

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 The Arab, the Left and those who remained silent: History will not forgive
you
By Ramzy Baroud <https://english.palinfo.com/?p=250012>

Wednesday 13-August-2025 -
https://english.palinfo.com/opinion_articles/the-arab-the-left-and-those-who-remained-silent-history-will-not-forgive-you/

The consequences of the Israeli genocide in Gaza will be dire. An event of
this degree of barbarity, sustained by an international conspiracy of moral
inertia and silence, will not be relegated to history as just another
“conflict” or a mere tragedy.

The Gaza genocide is a catalyst for major events to come. Israel and its
benefactors are acutely aware of this historical reality. This is precisely
why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in a race against time,
desperately trying to ensure his country remains relevant, if not standing,
in the coming era. He pursues this through territorial expansion in Syria,
relentless aggression against Lebanon, and, of course, the desire to annex
all occupied Palestinian territories.

But history cannot be controlled with such precision. However clever he may
think he is, Netanyahu has already lost the ability to influence the
outcome. He has been unable to set a clear agenda in Gaza, let alone
achieve any strategic goals in a 365-square-kilometer expanse of destroyed
concrete and ashes. Gazans have proven that collective sumud
(steadfastness) can defeat one of the most well-equipped modern armies.

Indeed, history itself has taught us that changes of great magnitude are
inevitable. The true heartbreak is that this change is not happening fast
enough to save a starving population, and the growing pro-Palestinian
sentiment is not expanding at the rate needed to achieve a decisive
political outcome.

Our confidence in this inevitable change is rooted in history. World War I
was not just a “Great War” but a cataclysmic event that fully shattered the
geopolitical order of its time. Four empires were fundamentally reshuffled;
some, like the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman, were erased from existence.

The new world order resulting from World War I was short-lived. The modern
international system we have today is a direct outcome of World War II.
This includes the United Nations and all the new Western-centric economic,
legal, and political institutions that were forged by the Bretton Woods
Agreement in 1944. This includes the World Bank, the IMF, and ultimately
NATO, thus sowing the seeds of yet more global conflicts.

The fall of the Berlin Wall was heralded as the singular, defining event
that resolved the lingering conflicts of the post-WWII geopolitical
struggle, supposedly ushering in a new, permanent global realignment, or,
to some, the “end of history.”

History, however, had other plans. Not even the horrific September 11
attacks and the subsequent US-led wars could reinvent the global order in a
way that was consistent with US-Western interests and priorities.

Gaza is infinitely small when judged by its geography, economic worth, or
political import. Yet, it has proven to be the most significant global
event defining this generation’s political consciousness.

The fact that the self-proclaimed guardians of the post-WWII order are the
very entities that are violently and brazenly violating every international
and humanitarian law is enough to fundamentally alter our relationship with
the West’s championed “rule-based order.”

This may not seem significant now, but it will have profound, long-term
consequences. It has largely compromised and, in fact, delegitimized the
moral authority imposed, often by violence, by the West over the rest of
the world for decades, especially in the Global South.

This self-imposed delegitimization will also impact the very idea of
democracy, which has been under siege in many countries, including Western
democracies. This is only natural, considering that most of the planet
feels strongly that Israel must end its genocide and that its leaders must
be held accountable. Yet, little to no action follows.

The shift in Western public opinion in favor of Palestinians is astounding
when considered against the backdrop of total Western media dehumanization
of the Palestinian people and Western governments’ blind allegiance to
Israel. More shocking is that this shift is largely the result of the work
of ordinary people on social media, activists mobilizing in the streets,
and independent journalists, mostly in Gaza, working under extreme duress
and with minimal resources.

A central conclusion is the failure of Arab and Muslim nations to factor
into this tragedy befalling their own brethren in Palestine. While some are
engaged in empty rhetoric or self-flagellation, others subsist in a state
of inertia, as if the genocide in Gaza were a foreign topic, like the wars
in Ukraine or Congo.

This fact alone shall challenge our very collective self-definition—what it
means to be an Arab or a Muslim, and whether such definitions carry
supra-political identities. Time will tell.

The left, too, is problematic in its own way. While not a monolith, and
while many on the left have championed the global protests against the
genocide, others remain splintered and unable to form a unified front, even
temporarily.

Some leftists are still chasing their own tails, crippled by the worry that
being anti-Zionist would earn them the label of antisemitism. For this
group, self-policing and self-censorship are preventing them from taking
decisive action.

History does not take its cues from Israel or Western powers. Gaza will
indeed result in the kind of global shifts that will affect us all, far
beyond the Middle East. For now, however, it is most urgent that we use our
collective will and action to influence one single historical event: ending
the genocide and the famine in Gaza.

The rest will be left to history, and to those who wish to be relevant when
the world changes again.

*-Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of the Palestine Chronicle.
He is the author of five books. His latest is ‘These Chains Will Be Broken:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons’. Baroud is
a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global
Affairs (CIGA) and also at the Afro-Middle East Center (AMEC).*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20250813/19549177/attachment.htm>