Warning: Cynicism
I am a part of a left org that has been putting efforts into showing support for Palestine. A lot of demos, speaking at city council meetings, pressuring agencies to support a ceasefire, etc.
I’m considering bringing it up to comrades that maybe this has run its course. The IDF has been moving South and is now in Rafah. The only thing the US has done is issue “concerns” that have been ignored; the US has not stopped funding the war. How much destruction is there left that we as American activists are even trying to prevent?
Tell me I’m wrong. I want to be wrong. I just see comrades putting their efforts into this for emotional and not practical reasons at this point.
Yes. You’re not protesting to convince Brandon and his gang of actual vampires, you’re protesting to convince onlookers. Even if it might not feel like it, the US government does depend on public opinion and while they aren’t breaking yet, they’re taking some heavy hits right now.
Public opinion has shifted massively against Israel and if public opinion didn’t matter, the US government wouldn’t bother with the insane propaganda, they wouldn’t bother with their twisting of words and outright lies. Most people, even in the US, aren’t psychopaths. They don’t like it when babies are killed and there’s only so much rationalizing and ignoring you can do when people are protesting and showing those graphic pictures around. A significant number of liberals are slowly reaching their breaking point.
The platitudes and performative expressions of “concerns” aren’t for you, they’re there to pacify liberals and you must not let them do that. Decades of propaganda are being undone right now. Propaganda outlets are experiencing internal turmoil because of dissenters, hell, the democrats themselves are having internal struggles over this.
Not to be rude, but do you think this ends with the destruction of Gaza? Do you think Israel “wins” once the last apartment block is bombed into rubble? No, the Palestinians are still there. Hamas is still there. Hezbollah is still there. AnsarAllah is still there. As long as the genocidal occupation exists, there will be a resistance. Israel knows full well that they’re doing nothing to destroy Hamas, their destruction of mosques and universities merely serves to project the aesthetic of victory and might, nothing more. October 7th exposed just how fragile they really are and now settlers are fleeing the country by the tens of thousands. Israel is a rabid dog and their demise is inevitable at this point, they’re already setting their sights onto Lebanon for crying out loud. The question is just how many innocents have to die before they finally meet their undignified end. And that is exactly the point of pro-palestinian activism. They’re fully dependent on the support of people in the West to extend their genocidal rampage as long as they possibly can, and it is on us to deny them that.