"IN this moment, we must be crystal clear: We stand with Israel... We stand with Israel. We will make sure it has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself and respond to this attack. There’s no justification for terrorism. There’s no excuse.”

That was US President Joe Biden in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas invasion of Israel. As with all military actions, terrible things were done that day. Some 1,200 Israelis were killed – civilians, children  and soldiers. There were also claims that Hamas fighters were guilty of rape and sexual assault. 

In the days immediately following  October 7, Israel was warned – not least by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar – that it would lose world sympathy if its response to the Hamas fighters’ incursion was excessive. Since then, Israel has dropped nearly 30,000 unguided bombs on Gaza (which is smaller than County Louth, Ireland’s smallest county)  and has killed 22,000 Palestinian civilians, most of them women and children. A note of caution: the number of fatalities may not  be completely accurate: it’s almost certain more bodies lie buried under the rubble.

There are three countries which have given Israel unconditional support in this genocide against the Palestinian people: the UK, Germany and the US. The UK government is afraid it might be judged anti-Semitic; if Jeremy Corbyn could be framed as anti-Semitic, so could Rishi Sunak. Germany suffers from a huge guilt hangover, due to the six million Jews Germany killed in the Holocaust. The US is supportive of Israel because the Jewish lobby in Washington is very powerful, as is the Israel-supporting evangelical Christian lobby, and Joe Biden cannot afford to alienate any group, as he’ll need their vote next November.  “Wretches hang that jurymen may dine,” Alexander Pope wrote over three centuries ago. Today, Palestinians die that Joe Biden may get a second term in the White House. 

Faced with this unspeakable use of violence against the innocent, what if anything can ‘ordinary’ people do? The vast majority will look at TV footage showing injured and dead Palestinians and click their tongues or sigh. A smaller number will send contributions in response to  charity appeals for Palestinians. A smaller number again will check online what companies are Israeli or are funded by Israel, and will boycott these companies. This boycott of Israeli goods by ordinary punters may seem limp, but remember that it was the boycott of goods from apartheid South Africa, alongside the ‘cutting edge’ of the ANC,  that brought about the downfall of white rule there. Israel is an apartheid state that penalises Palestinians within its borders and kills those without.

A less-reported but still important element in all this brutality is the occupied West Bank. Since October 7, somewhere between 100 and 200 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank. Some have been killed by Israeli troops, some by illegal Jewish settlers, and some by Jewish settlers supported by Israeli troops. I don’t think they needed the example of the Glenanne Gang to encourage them in murder, but the parallels are unmissable.

Slowly, very slowly, Western support for Israel is falling away. Meanwhile, Palestinians who have been forced to abandon their homes number in the hundreds of thousands. 

The Irish philosopher Edmund Burke, contrary to popular belief, did not say "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Other ingredients – including military might, contempt for the enemy, ruthlessness – are necessary for evil to flourish.  

Today, evil runs rampant in Gaza. The Palestinian people will never forget. Neither should we.