Did Netanyahu and Blinken just declare modern-day colonial onslaught?

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Israel visit on Thursday and his joint comments with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Hamas and Palestinian supporters have underscored their colonial mindset.

Both Blinken and Netanyahu talked about having “moral clarity” in the bombardment that Israeli jets are carrying out on Gaza in which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced.

They accused Hamas and its supporters - be it Palestinians or anyone else from across the world - as “enemy of civilisation”, a label which has long been used by Western colonial powers to dehumanise indigenous communities they decimated in the US and elsewhere.

Experts have pointed out that what underlies this mindset is a belief that non-Western communities need to be ‘civilised’ by greater powers.

What their statement implies is that Palestinians and their supporters protesting the killing of civilians in Gaza need to be civilised by the Israeli occupation forces and its allies in the US.

The choice of words must not have escaped anyone who remembers how the US officials drum up rhetoric before launching a war in another country.

Blinken and Netanyahu called Hamas ‘evil’, taking a page from how the former US President George W. Bush referred to the invasion of Iraq as a fight between good and evil and lied about weapons of mass destruction.

While US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, who initially supported the invasion of Iraq, was a critic of Bush’s Middle East policy, he appeared to be on the same page with the Republican leader as he described Hamas resistance against Israel as an “act of sheer evil”.

This rhetoric related to being an enemy of civilisation and war of good versus evil has been used by not only Biden, Blinken and Netanyahu but also European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is from Germany, whose dark Nazi past became the reason for the creation of Israeli state in Palestine.

“It is an ancient evil, which reminds us of the darkest past and shocks all of us to the core," said the European Commission President on Wednesday. Again, a top Western leader is talking about not only evil but also “an ancient evil”, a phrase that Christians used against Muslim empires.

War on whom?

Blinken and von der Leyen also appear to have embraced Tel Aviv's age-old narrative, which defines the Israeli aggression and occupation as a defence of civilisation against 'war-mongering' Palestinian groups.

Since the late 1950s, when the Palestinian uprising began, Palestinian resistance groups, including Hamas since the 1980s, primarily focus on challenging Israel.

When American and European officials categorise Hamas’s attack on Israel as “an act of war” on civilised nations, and promise to stand with Israel, they invariably back Tel Aviv’s atrocities in Gaza.

During his emotional speech, Blinken described himself “not only as the United States Secretary of State but also as a Jew”, sharing his step-father’s experience during the Holocaust. He didn't talk about how hundreds of Palestinians have to flee their homes due to Israeli bombardment.

With the US and European countries backing him up, Netanyahu didn’t hesitate identifying Hamas with Daesh (ISIS), declaring that “just as ISIS was crushed, so too will Hamas be crushed.” He added that “Hamas should be treated exactly the way ISIS was treated.”

Blinken als backed the comparison, saying that Hamas’s recent attack “brings to mind the worst of ISIS.” Blinken described pro-Hamas base as “what is the worst in humanity” while Israel and its allies as “what is best” in the world, quoting his step-father’s writing.

While Daesh’s attacks were largely condemned by not only Western nations but also Muslim countries, Hamas is seen as a legitimate resistance movement by many.

The Daesh-Hamas comparison also has other problems. While almost the entire world joined to both condemn and destroy Daesh, many countries including Russia and China, the two powerful states, have shown a neutral stance on Hamas’ recent offensive on Israel, urging both sides to reach a ceasefire.

Furthermore, the Palestinian Authority, based in the occupied West Bank, which is recognised by the international community as a legitimate authority, have rejected any condemnation of Hamas's attack on Israel.