Western narcissism and support for genocidal Israel go hand in hand

Delusional beliefs of civilisational superiority help the West claim it is on the right side of history while supporting genocide in Gaza. “There is a horrific irony in Israel, of all countries being accused of genocide,” Sunak said, labelling South Africa’s case against Israel “completely unjustified”. “But the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice!” one student yelped, while a calmer student, with a raised hand, said, “It’s unfortunate that atrocities happened to the natives, but it’s insulting to compare what the Spanish did to what happened to Rome.” That was the strong pushback I received from a few students in one of my world history courses a few years back when I spoke of the barbarity of the Spanish conquests of the Aztecs and the Inca in the 16th century and the similarities between those invasions and the Vandal and Visigoth tribes who helped end the Western Roman Empire. As the late post-colonial scholar Edward Said wrote in Orientalism, “It can be argued that the major component in European culture is precisely what made hegemonic both in and outside Europe: the idea of European identity as a superior one in comparison with all the non-European peoples and cultures.” This belief in Western superiority means always being on the right side of history, even though there are plenty of examples of Western irrationality, barbarism, and brutality in its interventions in the Middle East and the rest of the world. That roughly half of Americans ages 18-29 believe that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is encouraging, but by itself not enough to end US and Western complicity in Israel’s crimes.