by Dejan Krstić
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These days, a witty joke is making the rounds on the Internet, and it accurately mirrors the world we are living in today.
“Is the war between Russia and Ukraine because of religion?”
“No, both are Christian Orthodox.”
“Does America support Ukraine, while China supports Russia?”
“That’s correct.”
“Were the ancient Chinese Buddhists, and are they mostly atheists now?”
“Yes.”
“What about Americans?”
“Americans are a mix of Protestants, Catholics, and many other religions.”
“What about Israel?”
“They are Jews.”
“And the Palestinians?”
“Palestinians are Sunni Muslims.”
“Who supports the Palestinians?”
“Iran.”
“Are Iranians also Sunni Muslims?”
“No, they are Shia Muslims. They generally disagree with Sunnis, but if they have to choose between them and Jews, they side with Sunnis.”
“What about Albanians?”
“Albanians support the Jews.”
“But they are Muslims?”
“Yes, but they align with America, and America supports Israel.”
“If Muslims from Kosovo and Albania support Israel, then Muslims from Bosnia must support Israel too.”
“No, they support Palestine.”
“So, Serbs must surely support Palestine, which has not recognized Kosovo, and oppose Israel, which has?”
“No, Serbs also support Israel.”
“What about Ukrainians?”
“They support Israel.”
“So, Serbs must surely support Ukraine, which supports Israel.”
“No, Serbs are rooting for Russia.”
Though crafted for amusement, this hypothetical dialogue rings painfully true. In recent years, the modern world has come to resemble a department store overseen by a stubborn and corruptive manager. Every autumn, after returning from his vacation, he rearranges his “store.” Suppliers bribe him just to mess with customers. A few years ago, he created total chaos in the pharmacy by mixing aspirin with sleeping pills, substituting ibuprofen for cannabis oil, and mandating the wearing of cloth masks. Next winter, he turned his attention to groceries. Flour and oil from Russia were substituted with those from Ukraine, and vodka was permanently removed from the shelves. This year, it was the turn of oriental food. Baklava and Turkish delight were replaced by bagels, hummus, and other kosher foods. As for the people, they grumble for a couple of days, then adapt and become accustomed to the new arrangement. And so it goes, until the next year brings a new set of surprises.
The latest chapter in the global landscape of atrocities began on October 7th, when Hamas terrorists launched hundreds of rockets at Israel and used paragliders to attack attendees of the “Supernova” music festival. It’s estimated that the attack killed over a thousand Israelis and resulted in a number of hostages being taken by Hamas. Surprisingly, the attack eluded detection by the Israeli Mossad—widely considered one of the best-organized secret services globally, with an extensive network of spies across the Middle East. It’s astonishing that such a rudimentary attack by Hamas, managed to evade them. In usual fashion, what intelligence agencies missed was corrected by military action. A few hours after the onset of the attack, the Israeli army retaliated with heavy artillery and airstrikes, targeting Hamas. However, the real casualties were Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Israel’s response was lethal, with a ratio of approximately a hundreds of civilians killed for every music festival goer. Since the Israeli offensive in Gaza began, more than 6,000 Palestinians have died, and over 15,000 have been injured.
Parallel to the military operations, the machinery of media manipulation swung into action. Those defending the aggressor were often the same voices that had previously condemned the Russian aggression in Ukraine. With the obligatory narrative of “the Palestinians started it,” a wave of global amnesia seemed to wash over intellectual circles and the so-called “progressive” forces of the modern world. Historical aggressors have always found pretexts for subsequent atrocities; staged or tragic events often serve as a catalyst for far bloodier conflicts. The first step in this disingenuous propaganda is skillful public manipulation, leveraging people’s emotions and fears to garner support for military operations. The pretext for World War I was the assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which led to over 20 million deaths. Hitler’s justification for invading Czechoslovakia, initiating World War II, was the supposed endangerment of the German minority in Sudet area – seven years and 70 million lost lives later, that issue was “resolved.” The Viet Cong’s attacks on American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964 precipitated U.S. involvement in Vietnam, resulting in 1,355,000 casualties by 1975. Putin, too, has invoked the “endangered minorities” argument, claiming to “protect” Russians in Ukraine since 2014.
When defending the indefensible, many turn to history—especially ancient, distant, and hard-to-verify history. Serbian nationalists often start narratives with the Battle of Kosovo, just as Zionists and their patrons invoke a 3,500-year Jewish heritage, Abraham, and the Torah. It’s easier to justify current war conflicts by citing events from distant history, as if taking a time machine thousands of years into the past would reveal all the answers.
At the beginning of the 20th century, present-day Israel was part of the Ottoman Empire. Jews were cautiously dreaming of returning to their promised homeland, as per ancient scriptures. This aspiration, known as Zionism, was formulated in the 19th century and has had significant ramifications. The fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I paved the way for increased Jewish migration to the Middle East. Great Britain received the mandate from the League of Nations to govern Palestinian territory and initially supported Jewish immigration, triggering conflicts between the new arrivals and local Arab communities.
Unfortunately, the Allied forces did little to prevent the anti-Semitism that culminated in the Holocaust during World War II. Post-war, there was widespread support for the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East. In 1947, the UN passed a resolution to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. This sparked the Arab-Israeli War in 1948, which led to the formal establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948.
The fulfillment of a centuries-old dream initiated another wave of Jewish migration, quickly overwhelming the allocated territory. Israel’s favored position in the UN encouraged further territorial aspirations. Over the years, Israel waged several wars in the region. After Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, Israel, with a support od France and Great Britain, attacked Egypt and seized the Sinai Peninsula. In the Six-Day War of 1967 against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, Israel captured the Golan Heights, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and the Gaza Strip. Israel’s 1982 intervention in Lebanon weakened Palestinian militant groups and displaced civilians in southern Lebanon. Despite Palestinians forming the majority in East Jerusalem, Israel declared the city its capital, effectively legalizing the eviction of Palestinians from the area.
Regarding the recent conflicts in the Gaza Strip, American intellectual Ben Shapiro recently said, “Israeli intervention must continue until the last son of a bitch in Gaza is killed!” This statement caused a collective media orgasm and received unconditional support from Western intellectual elites. Global efforts for human rights, freedom, and democracy slid into the sewerage of global morality. Israel closed off the Gaza Strip and banned journalists from entering the occupied territory, so all reports are coming only from border areas in Israeli territory. The senile U.S. President also joined in on the unprecedented media propaganda, spreading disinformation about Gaza. First, he reported false news that Hamas members were beheading children (the White House later denied the President’s “report”), and then informed the world that the attack on a civilian hospital in Gaza was carried out by the Palestinians themselves. If the President of the world’s most powerful country openly lies, one can only imagine how his media reports.
Every war represents an irrational category, and it is difficult to find any sense in it. The little logic and common sense that remain force us to ask: how is it possible for a people who have survived the Holocaust to so ruthlessly ethnically cleanse Palestinians just a few decades after the genocide against their own nation? “But they started it first!” still echoes in the world media.
In Serbian language, there is a saying, “he kills a cow for a pound of meat,” which aptly describes Israel’s recent actions in Gaza; they resemble a bailiff ordering the demolition of a house to solve a mouse problem in the basement. Human rights activists around the world aid in the “forced eviction” and demolition of the “building,” and will soon, without any conscience, finance the construction of a new multi-story building, which will again be torn down in a few years.
When it comes to war, the first casualty is truth. There is no greater folly than when people commit evil against each other in the name of God. In war, no one wins, except the war industry, forgetting that all the ideals in the world are not worth the tears of a single child. (Johnson, Pascal, Brecht, Dostoevsky)
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