An air of complicity has prompted new rhetoric from UK and EU leaders. But it won’t redeem them – or change history’s course
Why now? That’s the question. Why now, after 19 months of relentless assault that was plain for all to see, and declared by Israeli authorities themselves, has the tide begun to shift on Gaza?
The marked change in tone this past week from leaders in the UK and EU is a clear break from the pabulum of “concerns” and reiterations of Israel’s right to defend itself. Now the rhetoric is that Israel’s actions are “morally unjustifiable” and “wholly disportionate”, and the threats of its leaders “abhorrent”. Some of this is future-proofing. The war has amounted to genocide and ethnic cleansing in ways that are increasingly undeniable, indefensible and unspinnable. Some had a good go at it for a year and a half, but now cannot stand at a lectern or sit at a dinner table and argue that, yes, actually, there is an argument for killing 100 people a day, as was the case last week. Or that Israel has any plan other than what its leaders have consistently declared to be one of displacement and settlement. Long gone is the argument that this is simply about wiping out Hamas. Israel, as one British media ally lamented, has hung its friends out to dry.
Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist
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