The West changes its tune on Gaza just in time?
Last week, consensus shifted within Canada’s opinion-makers (journalists, politicians, pundits). Like the wind changing direction when a storm is about to hit, all of a sudden, Canada’s elites pretended to care about Gaza.
Of course, it was in lock-step with other Western Nations (as Canada hasn’t been able to do anything on its own in thirty years). A Washington Post front page that names all the children who have been confirmed murdered by Israel’s campaign. Trump claiming to be concerned by images of starving children. A cascade of Western nations saying that suddenly now is the time to recognize Palestinian statehood.
And then yesterday, a surprise Canadian Armed Forces food drop into Gaza alongside Germany, Belgium, France and the UK, launched from Jordan. Not apparently through NATO or any of the Canadian Armed Forces current missions — just, I guess, because.
What triggered this change of heart? How did Canada go from being steadfast in its opposition to supporting Palestinian statehood (voting 150 times against it in the past decade) to supporting it?
Did Israel finally cross Canada’s red line?
No, but what has happened is that Israel is clearly in a new phase of its genocide. We are used to seeing images of houses destroyed and people murdered. But images of starving people, especially children, signals a new phase in this horrendous affair.
And whether Netenyahu reacted to this shift or not, the Jerusalem Post is now reporting that he intends to conquer Gaza.
I suspect that we are also about to enter a moment where the death toll rapidly rises. It’s impossible that only 62,700 people have died, when at the start of 2025, that number was 45,000, given the conditions on the ground. I am guessing that the West wants to be out ahead of this number, before the flood gates open of higher and higher casualties and probable domestic blowback. 62,700 is a rock-bottom number, one that will absolutely not be contradicted with a lower official count, making it safe for The West to accept, for now. (Read more about how to compile a death count in my May 2025 feature for The Walrus here).
Remember: as the ICJ ruled, the conditions have been present for more than a year that could become a genocide. A genocide isn’t an event, it’s thousands of events that lead to the destruction of a people. And in that process, many things happen. Israel’s goal is the full occupation of Gaza. They don’t seem too interested in ethnic cleansing, as if they were, they wouldn’t have made it so hard for Gazans to flee. And so, we’re left with what is plainly obvious (and has been plainly obvious): Israel is in a new phase of its genocide and are hoping to murder as many Gazans as possible through starvation so they can take more control of Gaza and keep the West Bank as far away from Gaza as they can.
This phase comes with photos of starving children. These photos have given Western powers something to hide behind when condemning Israel. No longer needing to talk about aerial campaigns or shooting people as they get aid, images of starving children indicate that there is a famine. Something that, more often than not, is caused by The Hand of God.
Except that isn’t true in Gaza, of course. Fewer than a few kilometres away from starving Gaza is sated Isreal. The famine here is entirely Israel-made. Israel destroyed civil infrastructure, destroyed homes, services, mosques, churches, schools, hospitals, clean drinking water, commerce, farms, food, livestock, and with the help of drones and other technology, surgically wiped out thousands of families. The result is complete chaos and social collapse. People in Gaza are afraid of their neighbours now, as people have been driven to a desperation that is unimaginable. And every day more of this horror, the deeper the scars go, the harder it will be for Gaza to re-build, and so on.
This is the context in which the Western powers have shifted their narrative about Gaza. Suddenly, the Globe and Mail cares about Gaza. Suddenly, the Toronto Star cares about Gaza (with this incredible line: “The impulse to rid the world of Hamas, which since its inception has been dedicated to the destruction of Israel, is entirely understandable.” Yes, Toronto Star, we need to rid Brazil, Australia and Sudan of … Hamas). Suddenly, the CBC, which has been up to its eyeballs in censoring stories about Gaza since Octmber 7, 2023, wants to feature Gaza. They even had a journalist in Jordan ready to accompany the Canadian air drop (this was denied by Israel, so Susan Ormistan joined Jordanian pilots).
Netenyahu’s grasp over the Knesset remains tenuous. He could be out the second his coalition collapses and continuing this genocide helps to keep him in power. At the same time, Israel is inextricably tied to the United States, which is rapidly losing its grasp over global hegemony. Israel’s genocide will be Israel’s undoing, as most reasonable people have been saying for years, while at the same time, the undoing of US hegemony opens up far more risks to the West than anything else the West has faced since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The future of Israel isn’t just wrapped up in the future of the US. The future of the UK and Canada is wrapped up in there too. For worse and for worse, our countries are all in this together.
And so, after nearly two years of torturing Gaza, the global Western braintrust had a moment last week and decided that they had to change course in its rhetoric to ultimately, save ourselves.
The timing was bad for Canada, as at the same time, several Palestinian solidarity groups demonstrated beyond any doubt that Canada is still sending arms to Israel to commit genocide. The feds tried to bury the story by ignoring it, and then denying the undeniable. That might be enough for it to go away given our sea cucumber media, but as we change our rhetoric, it’s impossible to forget what is, again, plainly obvious:
Whether a child or a teen or a father or an uncle or a grandfather or a cousin is murdered by a munition that was made possible thanks to the work of Canadian union members at General Dynamic, or they were murdered by being hit by falling aid from the sky pushed out by members of the Canadian Armed Forces, no amount of sanitization will wash the blood out of our collective hands. Narrative change or not.
Great article 🙏
Cut and dried as needed, comrade. Thank you.