As the horrors in Gaza continue, owing to the lack of any plan to end the violence, it is necessary to ask what the costs will be, not just regionally but globally. The suffering inflicted upon innocent civilians in Gaza has become almost indescribable. Yet Israel has decided to redouble its military operation, opening another phase in its regional expansionist policy, with severe ramifications for international peace and security, as well as for Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.
Israel continues to kill civilians — including women, children, and journalists — with impunity, encountering virtually no resistance from the West. While the bombs rain down day and night, civilians have been subjected to starvation and dehydration. With more than 60,000 people confirmed dead, parents are seeking a morsel of bread and a drop of water for their children. We must not remain silent in the face of all this. Qui tacet consentire videtur (silence means consent).
One of the West’s greatest minds, Albert Einstein, saw the consequences of such silence during the Holocaust, which he had fled: “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” Inaction enables evil to thrive. It is worth remembering that the full extent of the genocide committed during the Holocaust was revealed only later. The West responded appropriately by bringing some of those responsible to justice at Nuremberg and in subsequent war crimes trials.
Today, however, people of all faiths and from all walks of life are bearing daily witness to the live broadcast of a relentless, murderous onslaught. This cruelty is poisoning the whole world. It is disrupting our collective psyche. The longer we stand by and watch such widespread savagery, the greater the damage done to our own sense of justice and faith in the rule of law. Worse, who can doubt that others, having witnessed Israel’s impunity, are plotting their own mass evils?
What started as a tragic war in Gaza eventually became a stream of Israeli war crimes and acts of genocide. Conscientious politicians and distinguished academics and experts have duly called attention to the gravity of the situation. For those watching around the world, it is inconceivable how Israel can continue its atrocities in Gaza. As the headline of a recent New York Times commentary by the Israeli-American historian Omer Bartov put it: “I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.” Citing the United Nations definition of “genocide”, which includes the intent to make it impossible for the group to reconstitute itself, Bartov concludes that, “This is precisely what Israel is trying to do.” Likewise, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, recently stated that Israel is “committing one of the cruelest genocides in modern history”.
Even former Israeli prime ministers and army chiefs of staff have described these atrocities as war crimes, calling for an immediate end to them and condemning their perpetrators.
Half a century after the signing of the Helsinki Final Act, it is truly saddening to see such a flagrant trampling of international rules and human rights. Understandably, democratic societies are in turmoil over the situation in Gaza. Citizens’ trust in their governments has been shaken, owing to glaring discrepancies between what is said and what is being done. Indeed, one of the greatest global costs of the war is that it has exposed so many countries’ hypocrisy.
The US, maintaining its unconditional support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is the most culpable. But it is not alone. While multiple European countries have recognised the State of Palestine, or are poised to do so, most arms sales to Israel continue, giving Mr Netanyahu a green light to continue his war on Gaza’s people.
Israel is no longer the nation that emerged from the horrors of the Holocaust. It is now visiting untold suffering on hundreds of thousands of innocent people, on a scale not seen in decades. The war will almost certainly prove to be self-destructive. Not only is Mr Netanyahu, who leads the most extreme right-wing government in Israel’s history, undermining the courts and other democratic institutions to try to maintain power and avoid accountability, but his government’s policies and rhetoric are fuelling anti-Semitism around the world.
Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza is continuing right before our eyes, and time is running out. The damage being done, not just in Gaza but to humanity and the world order, can hardly be overstated. All the shared values that Europe claims to defend — democracy, the rule of law, and human rights — are under threat. To end the war in Gaza, Europe must play a more active role in finding a lasting solution. Only then can it rebuild the trust and reputation it is losing.
We must remember Einstein’s words. Inaction in the face of such widespread suffering is complicity, not neutrality. The cost of this war is becoming too much for us or future generations to bear. Unless immediate action is taken to safeguard a democratic, rules-based, and human-centered international order, the whole world will pay the price. ©2025 Project Syndicate
