Firstly, there will never be an equivalent to Ronald Reagan. We can however look to the many examples of great leadership he embodied and pray for his example of strength and integrity.
One such example was in 1982 during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, President Reagan called the Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin, and, this is from his diary; “I told him I was calling P.M. Begin immediately. And I did — I was angry — I told him it had to stop or our entire future relationship was endangered. I used the word holocaust deliberately & said the symbol of war was becoming a picture of a 7-month-old baby with its arms blown off.”
The invasion ended soon after and Israel withdrew with both Begin and his minister of defense, Ariel Sharon, resigning over the Sabra and Shatila massacre they were indirectly responsible for that saw many Palestinian and Lebanese civilians killed.
By any conservative measure the death toll in Gaza is now reaching 50,000 and there are enough horrific visuals of babies with ‘arms blown off’ to fill social media screens and enrage people around the world for generations to come.
Sadly, there is no Ronald Reagan to stop this and the consequences that concerned him at that time, a decline in US influence around the world appears to be an unavoidable present reality. How exactly this ultimately pans out is unclear but with BRIC alliances growing and ongoing efforts for a petrodollar alternative, it feels counterproductive for the United States to not be actively working to stop Israel’s death spree, and according to a growing global opinion, be in fact participating in it.
With more people questioning the apparent symbiosis between the same big financial institutions that own defense contractors profiting from war and the mainstream media shamelessly spreading atrocity disinformation to stoke war or at least rationalize it, how will the US be able to retain its influence and hegemony around the world?
The world has changed considerably in these last 40 years but some things have not. The offspring of revisionist zionism and the Likud party which Menachem Begin founded and is now headed by Benjamin Netanyahu continue to dream of a greater Israel with a Jewish majority. While not officially Likud policy, the actions, such as the sprawling illegal settlements of the West Bank against International law, speak louder than words and they now appear to be in a much better position to achieve this vision as the World sits and watches the systematic annihilation of the Palestinian people.
The cost in supporting this dream may become too much as more people suspect corruption of Western values and morality. Amongst them are a growing number of Anti-Zionist Jewish Americans made aware of the reality through documentaries like ‘Israelism’ and who are the majority protesting on college campuses across the country.
Last month the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted for Israel to end its unlawful presence in occupied Palestinian territory within one year. 14 of the 181 member countries objected with 43 abstentions. 68.5 percent of the world seems to agree on allowing the Palestinians to have a homeland and identity of their own.
While polls paint a divided picture between demographics and support for the humanitarian cost of the Israeli offensives, one thing can be certain, the images of death and destruction will haunt the world far more than the images we now see in holocaust museums around the world.
Blaming Palestinian or Lebanese ‘terrorists’ convinced they are fighting for their lives and land against dreamers of a greater Israel will not be the only narrative. Western nations and specifically their leaders will have to explain their role in these humanitarian catastrophes because self defense simply doesn’t justify the devastation we are seeing in real time .
Ronald Reagan may not be around to put a moral stop to what is unfolding which will likely see US troops halfway around the world fighting another pointless unjustified war, but we can all dream and maybe insist on it from our elected leaders.
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