Pearls and Irritations

Few alliance nations would ponder how the cadence of Netanyahu’s speech inside Congress put them under the spell of denial. This is akin to the Khmer Rouge (government in exile) that was invited to hold a seat in the United Nations until 1993.

Biographies of regime leaders in genocide studies are mostly retrospective analyses. Throughout history, nations too timid to intervene, or hoodwinked into running weapons to war criminals (charged in the future) are under a spell of denial. Consider biographies on Pol Pot that map the mindset that justified mass murder, and how he artfully convinced others of his utopian aim (blinding them to his torturous means). In the case of Cambodia, masses were driven from one unknown place to another into poverty, which furthered psychological torture and impotence across the masses. Borders were closed to independent journalists and news broadcasters, and traditional rituals for the dead were desecrated. Democratic nations formed alliances. Mass murder and genocide prevailed. Sound familiar?

A current case study into a denial-induction leader is freshly recorded in Washington. Few questioned Netanyahu’s invitation to address America’s Congress in Washington, an act that denies the apocalypse level of pulverised ecosystems (flora, fauna, water, food chains, pets, gardens, sacred sites) where humans are forced to survive in Gaza. Few alliance nations would ponder how the cadence of Netanyahu’s speech in Congress put them under the spell of denial. This is akin to the Khmer Rouge (government in exile) that was invited to hold a seat in the United Nations until 1993. Even with the American bombing in Cambodia in 1969 and throughout the Pol Pot regime (’75-79), the United States alliance denied, again and again, that mass murder and genocide took place. It was only after the Pol Pot regime became a ‘retrospective mass murdering force” that the denial spell was broken – too late for the roaming dead whose rituals were destroyed.
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Throughout history, spell-casting leaders who advance massacres, torture, mass violence and genocide are well-worn. In the case of Israel, the art of denial is reinforced every time world leaders spotlight the Hamas massacre of 7^th October. (It’s now a ritual sequence). This announcement, in turn, softens their feelings of shame. They tie their conscience to an ideological belief. Herein, they reinterpret cruelty as entitled acts of retribution against the ‘evil’ enemy – regardless of sketchy evidence. Most alarming, however, is how world leaders deny the fact that retribution-based murder is still mass murder, which is an admission of ‘intent’. Your average Joe could never get their heads around that tautology. It’s too bloody streamlined.

And just like Pol Pot, the “cadence” by which Netanyahu delivered his message to Congress moved that classic beat and lilt to match an unyielding cruelty those under the spell do not deflect. The spell cast in Washington was faultlessly tied to the political ideology of American-branded democracy. And did you see that tiny American flag pinned to the left side of his lapel, which he wore throughout his visit? So artfully placed – the subtlety was impeccable!

It is only after a nation leaves the spell-bound alliance and braves it alone that denial and crimes against humanity are faced. Only after the split can a counter-acting alliance gain traction. Otherwise, humanity will just have to wait for the retrospective biography of Mr Netanyahu – some ten, twenty, thirty years from now. The next generation, in turn, will ponder the artful seduction of ‘past generation’ alliances. And yet, now is still now. The nation that breaks the denial spellbound alliance will simply have to go it alone. Does a nation really need ‘good’ friends who build their might on weapons of mass destruction? In the case of Australia, we need to change the terms of our own vulnerabilities and contemplate brave new alliances. Once the spell of denial is broken, integrity is reclaimed.

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