Greetings,
And I hope you are having a good weekend.
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This week’s roundup is on the decline of the west as a force for good in the world. It has been forced on me by the combination of the horrors of the Hamas attack on Israel and the Israeli attack on Gaza, the American threats to abandon Ukraine, and the rise of Donald Trump out of his too-shallow grave.
All point to waning Western power.
By the West I mean the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia together in an alliance which, for all its faults and crimes, stands up for democracy. The US is, of course, the essential partner. The arsenal of democracy, to use the old description, and now an arsenal that is running down its stocks.
One of the least noticed features of the Gaza war is how Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition (which includes the extreme right) have made fools of the Biden administration.
Biden has spent a vast amount of political capital on an ingrate regime. It has armed Israel, and sent out the US Navy to deter Iran from attacking. US bases in Syria have been hit. In the eyes of much of the world, the US has debased its reputation by vetoing motions critical of Israel in the UN Security Council. And then there is the horribly plausible theory that left-wing and Arab-American voters may take out their anger about Gaza on Biden and hand swing states to Trump come November.
Before I go any further, I should make clear that as a “Cohen” I am acutely aware of the prejudices writing about Israel bring out.
I am sick to death of people telling me I must condemn Israel to prove I am a fully paid-up member of the Western progressive tribe (a club I have never wanted to join) or that I must defend Israel and not betray my Jewish roots (my Jewish ancestors were, incidentally, socialists and I cannot see them endorsing support for Netanyahu).
Apart from telling people to go to hell, the best way out of tribalism I know is to read the journalists on Haaretz
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