© 2023 FdR / RESY CANONICA
Let’s be clear: France, Britain, and the rest recognizing the State of Palestine is not some long-overdue moral awakening. Nor is it evidence that leaders have finally listened to their citizens. It’s the same tired script—platitudes recycled for decades—rooted not in principle but in the calculus of domestic politics.
Once again, Palestinians are left clutching at straws. What else can they do? They pin their hopes on demonstrations, inevitably marred by the usual vandals; on the latest flamboyant flotilla bound for Gaza; on passionate appeals shouted in the squares or whispered to ministers.
None of it will move the needle.
Inside Gaza, two apocalyptic worldviews are locked in a tragic embrace. Each depends on the other for survival. Both have long since tossed reason and morality aside like worthless scraps of paper.
Hamas preaches collective sacrifice as the only road to Jerusalem. Talk of a Palestinian state is almost incidental. In this stance, I struggle to detect even a trace of resistance as a fight for self-determination. Instead, Gaza’s population is sacrificed twice over: dehumanized by Hamas in the name of “the cause,” and dehumanized again by the Israeli army.
Israel, for its part, clings to an equally eschatological vision of its destiny. In its current frenzy—barely bothering anymore to mask its cruelty—I see no connection to the long-term security and survival of the state or its citizens.
Fail to recognize this, and fail to say it aloud, and you are left with only one role: that of the false friend. Pretending to be wounded by a false conscience. Falsely pretending to rescue an omelet that is already, irreversibly, scrambled.
(gianluca grossi)