THE WAY THINGS ARE

In Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, under crime and punishment, I find ‘The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked.’ And, ‘Let he who would lash the offender look unto the spirit of the offended.’

In Germany, the legacy of the Holocaust shaped much of what democratic Germany has become within the European fold today, the mantra adopted – never again. Germany now, in its desire to be seen to be helping Israel’s fight against what in fact, was decades of self-induced terror, is once more granting a tyrant arms and license to murder innocents.

Germany’s leaders should perhaps listen to Marlene Dietrich’s version of Where have all the flowers gone? ‘When will they ever learn?’ Because when leaders, elected under the banner of democracy and equality for all, gather next January to pay homage to Holocaust victims, those skeletal images will be joined in the minds of many ordinary people worldwide with images of starving Palestinian children they deliberately ignored.

Netanyahu and his extremists have besmirched the memory of that bestial period of starvation ghettos, torture and death of innocents with the creation of a new horror show to be remembered by people who won’t let the world forget their crimes, and by honest Jews who know Israel went too far.

Skeletal hostages living in utter misery were never the reason for the IDF’s flattening of Gaza. Netanyahu, on Trump’s peace agreement: “I support your plan to end the war in Gaza, which achieves our war aims.” Perhaps removing the comma is closer to reality.

Gibran’s lines could apply to decades of Israeli abuse of Palestinians. Fairness and justice were never afforded them by Israel or its Western allies because of Holocaust inaction guilt, those who failed to stop Hitler when they should have, those who followed, who remained passive at the arrogant, inhumane treatment of a disadvantaged people as the roles of David and Goliath were reversed.

The UK arrests elderly, pro-Palestinian protesters, yet its Airforce spies on Hamas targets knowing the IDF is indifferent to innocents killed along with Hamas operatives without accountability. Keir Starmer, in an emotional speech on antisemitic behaviour in the UK, described as ‘despicable’ violence against British Jewry after one terrifying incident. Those innocents suffered for the multitude of murders and the destruction wrought by Israeli actions he did nothing to prevent. The difference in his language speaks for itself. Was he ever as passionate offering platitudes about multitudinous Palestinian deaths?

Where have all the flowers gone refers to lives lost as well as plucked blooms. We know where thousands of Palestinian children have gone, gone to graveyards every one, or buried alive under rubble. The Irish government has stood by Palestine, implanted settlers, famine and its resulting immigration figure largely in our history.

Much of Ireland’s wealth derives from American companies, and talk of sanctions on Israel opens disagreements, businesses worried about losses and unemployment, speculating what Trump could do to the Irish economy. When the most powerful, supposedly democratic country in the world, has the ability to threaten the lawful principles of a smaller nation over which it tries to enforce its own will, danger looms. No one man or country should have that power.

Those of us whose hearts break for suffering children everywhere, regardless of race or creed, make no distinction regarding protection. On children Gibran says, ‘For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.’ Tomorrow holds more suffering for the children of Gaza because even if peace comes, they will carry forever the nightmares of Netanyahu’s days, as Holocaust survivors carried theirs of Nazi persecution. If calm prevails, Netanyahu’s selfishness will make him the most reviled man in the memories of hostages and their families.