London / PNN / Roddy Keenan

‘We condemn attacks on civilians’, these political minnows repeat, dutifully, mindlessly, mechanically. ‘Israel has a right to defend itself under international law’, they chant robotically.

And as they perform against the backdrop of unfolding events in Gaza, the sheer perfidy of western leaders reveals itself for everyone to witness.

First we had the EU Commission President, Ursula Von der Leyen, declaring that she ‘unequivocally’ condemned the military operation carried out by Hamas. ‘It is terrorism in its most despicable form,’ asserted the EU leader who is an enthusiastic advocate for arming neo-Nazis in the Ukraine. Von der Leyen, whose father was a Nazi sympathiser and worked for the infamous SS official Walther Darre, is evidently someone familiar with the operation of terror. Of course, she added that Israel had ‘the right to defend itself against such heinous attacks’.

Then there was the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, referring to  ‘Hamas terrorists’. The grotesque effrontery demonstrated by the leader of a country whose history is bathed in the blood of imperial terrorism and brutality was astonishing.

Sunak declared himself to be ‘shocked’ by the events in Gaza. However, we are still to hear him express his shock at the murder of almost 250 Palestinians this year by Israel, the self declared ‘most moral army in the world’. Unsurprisingly, Sunak repeated the assertion that Israel has a right to defend itself.

Throughout the morning, other western leaders came forward to remind us of Israel's rights, with little reference to the Israeli occupation, illegal settlements, or the Israeli regime’s persistent and brazen breaches of international law.

The Americans also made it clear they were willing to support Israel militarily. In a short statement, President Biden announced the US would provide whatever assistance Israel needed. This followed the comments of US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who vowed that the US ‘will ensure that Israel has everything it needs to defend itself.’ Obviously, the billions of dollars worth of military hardware that the Israeli regime has received from successive US governments hasn’t been enough.

But not to worry, there’s more on its way to help an apartheid state protect itself against an uprising of the oppressed.

This should be good news for the likes of Raytheon, one of the largest weapons makers in the world. Funnily enough, Secretary of Defence Austin was a former member of the Raytheon board of directors, and since his appointment to the post of Defence Secretary, Raytheon has received over $30 billion in government contracts - purely coincidental of course.

Meanwhile, the most experienced actor in the group, the Ukraine’s President Zelensky,  was allowed the opportunity to improvise and even embellish a little, declaring Israel’s right to self-defence as being ‘unquestionable’. Meanwhile, it has been reported that Zelensky’s office declared Hamas’ incursion to be ‘a consequence of Russia’s military operation in the Ukraine.’  Let’s face it, it was only a matter of time before someone blamed Russia.

To be fair, Zelensky’s unambiguous support for the Israeli apartheid regime demonstrates some consistency. After all, the Israeli government’s efforts to ethnically cleanse Palestinians is similar to what his regime has been doing to the people of the Donbass since 2014.

And then there was EU's chief diplomat, Josep Borrell. Lest we forget, it was Borrell who infamously described Europe as ‘a garden’, while the rest of the world was ‘a jungle’.  

After repeating the formula about ‘solidarity with Israel’, ‘terrorism’, and ‘the right to defend itself within international law’, Borrell described the taking of hostages as ‘appalling’.

‘This is against international law’, fulminated the Spanish official, who back in 2018 was fined 30,000 euros for insider trading corruption. Obviously, his commitment to abiding by an imaginary international law is greater than his commitment to abiding by actual Spanish law.

But Borrell wasn’t finished there. ‘Hostages must be released immediately,’ he demanded.

One would hope that Borrell’s commitment to protecting people's liberty will now see him calling for the release of all those Palestinians incarcerated under the Israeli regime’s unlawful use of its Administrative Detention system. Or is that wishing for too much?

As they spoke, one by one, repeating their talking points, the stench of hypocrisy was overpowering, matched only by the western leaders’ mendacity as they sought to rewrite history.

The constant regurgitation of Israel’s right to defend itself makes a mockery of the concept of the right to self defence. This legal entitlement does not exist to protect an oppressor by preventing its victim from fighting back, thereby allowing that oppressor to perpetuate its brutality. It exists to provide the oppressed with the right to throw off the shackels of tyranny by any means necessary. And in this conflict, it is evident that this right lies, not with Israel, but with the Palestinian people.

The right to defend oneself, by any means, is made clear in international law. The 1982 UN General Assembly resolution 37/43 , ‘reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples of independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.’ It doesn't get any more unambiguous than that.

But most importantly, despite what western politicians and its media acolytes assert, the latest Israeli bombing of Gaza and the slaughter of Palestinian civilians is not ‘retaliation’. The Hamas operation was the retaliation - retaliation against being confined to the largest open air prison on the planet, retaliation against the chains imposed by an apartheid state, retaliation against 75 years of occupation, brutalisation and murder.

And as long as the oppression of the Palestinian people continues, this retaliation will go on.