Response to the latest Israeli/US slaughter in Gaza shows the world’s citizens looking into a moral precipice. How will they act? Will they ponder the principles of humanitarian law let alone ideals of a common humanity?

Can there exist any citizens who support Israeli/US brutalities and the cowardly complicity of Western governments, including Australia’s? If so, will they please step forward.

Australian citizens approaching a general election are being bombarded by politicians and media claims that the cost of living will be the key election issue. By contrast, a simple touch of humanity would surely influence voters being asked, “have you considered that in a ravaged and savaged Palestine, immediate calculation has to be made about the costs of not living. The cost of living or the costs of not living? Your choice”.

Put another way, there is a choice between support for violence or advocacy of non-violence, between pretending that Israeli genocide — yes, use that word — is of no consequence or that a federal election presents an opportunity to identify candidates who unreservedly support universal human rights.

A moral depravity is alive. It is fed by Trump-like fascism, by decades of blindness to Israeli ethnic cleansing aided and abetted by Western governments’ deeply racist assumptions that certain human beings are of little consequence if they do not look like white, allegedly Christian, materially affluent, upstanding voters in a so-called democracy..

The moral precipice confronting the globe concerns apparent Israeli pride in killing as many Palestinian women and children as possible, wounding thousands without any available medical aid, murdering at random, promising more and expecting the world to sit and watch. Intervention from the West is limited to television news readers warning viewers that the following scenes of death and destruction may be somewhat frightening.

Somewhat? Western governments’ failure to condemn carnage, let alone fund a peace force to enter Gaza and the West Bank, is also frightening. By all means offer peace-keeping troops to Ukraine, so why not in occupied Palestine? Too frightened of the Zionist lobby if an effort is made to save the lives of powerless Palestinian children? Is that the price of humanity? Is that how this word is to be judged? Oh, great supporters of human rights, what do you contemplate when you go to bed?

Before we get to the specifics of a Vote for Humanity, consider the usual attempts to deflect attention from the moral precipice. Everything can be blamed on Hamas. Babies, children, pregnant women, the elderly and disabled, are all Hamas, their “terrorism” the easy justification for Israeli/US depravity.

Decades before Hamas appeared in 2006 as a political party, tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children were killed by Israeli terrorist gangs or by IDF units. The dominant Western narrative about Israel ignores that carnage and instead repeats the deceitful explanation that Hamas murders and taking of hostages in October 2023 started a war and simply provoked Israel into defending itself.

An avalanche of accusations of antisemitism will also be used to deflect attention from more slaughter in Gaza, more elimination of homes and people in the West Bank. How much more slaughter of innocents must occur for that depravity to be given as much political attention as supposed antisemitism?

A challenge to this moral precipice of depravity comes from our responses to genocide, a key election issue, hence the plea, “vote for humanity”, “vote for human rights”, “support candidates who uphold the rulings of the International Court of Justice that a plausible Israeli genocide exists and must cease”, “vote for candidates who defend Palestinians’ rights to self-determination, to a home of their own”.

We stare into this moral precipice. How to step back? How to change direction?

Australian voters cast their vote from many different perspectives. Some always vote the same way, loyally supporting the political party of their families while others are determined to vote differently. Some don’t care and number the boxes at random. Some write or draw abusive messages about compulsory voting. Some consider the key issues and vote for the person they trust to listen and act with integrity.

This federal election voters can vote for humanity by choosing the candidate who is not afraid to speak up to condemn the slaughter of innocent civilians. These are people of principle who understand their responsibility to work for human rights and international law. They will not be bullied or lobbied to ignore injustice and war crimes. They are guided by conscience.

Vote for the people you trust to always support humanity, thereby promoting visions that transcend pressure group and specific political interests.

Israeli impunity for war crimes cannot be allowed to continue. Australian silence is cowardly and achieves nothing. Reject those who ignore or support the current US/Israeli depravity and instead “Vote for Humanity”.

https://johnmenadue.com/a-moral-precipice-challenge-vote-for-humanity/

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