We Are Sleepwalking Into Dystopia

Pager-exploding terror attacks must mark the final wake-up call: Israel is turning our world into unbridled savagery.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller.

For decades, the Israeli regime has waged a campaign of terror across West Asia, undeterred by international law or human rights. Its latest atrocity - a massive terrorist attack on thousands of innocent Lebanese civilians using explosives planted in pagers - underscores just how brazen and dangerous this rogue state is to our world.

Ringing Before Detonating

On Tuesday, thousands of remotely detonated explosives distributed in pagers ripped through crowded Lebanese neighborhoods, injuring over 3,000 people and killing 9, among whom a 10-year-old girl. As journalist Rania Khalek outlined, these were indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas like grocery stores and hospitals - clear acts of terrorism. Israel deliberately rigged the devices to ring before detonating, ensuring maximum harm to whoever answered the call.

This behavior is unsurprising from a regime responsible for the ongoing genocide in occupied Palestine, where most likely 10% of the Palestinian population has been exterminated, injured or kidnapped since October 2023 alone. Yet the West has been sheepishly silent, with the U.S. State Department outrageously suggesting that the murdered victims are "legitimate targets." Western corporate media also celebrated the act of terror as an attack on "Hezbollah pagers.”

As human rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber explains, Israel's global killing spree constitutes "grave breaches of international humanitarian law" on multiple fronts: Targeting populated civilian areas is an indiscriminate attack prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. Using civilian devices like pagers as booby-traps is also banned to prevent risk to non-combatants. Moreover, the act of terror wounded Iran's ambassador to Lebanon - an internationally protected diplomatic official.

Descent into Utter Lawlessness

Mokhiber is right to conclude that the Israeli regime, enabled by its Western backers, operates with complete impunity. We are watching the rapid descent of our world into utter lawlessness. In just 11 months, Israel has obliterated the international order through its unrestrained violence, from Gaza's genocide to assassinating Iranian and Syrian officials, to bombing Yemen, Lebanon and Syria. It commits these atrocities secure in the knowledge that pliable institutions like the UN Security Council and International Criminal Court are paralyzed by American vetoes and intimidation campaigns.

This Israeli trail of unchecked depravity has effectively given a green light to other state and non-state actors to employ similar terror tactics worldwide. If genocide, rape, torture, assassinations, and pager bombings are acceptable for Israel, they become acceptable for anyone.

Mafia Empire

It does not end there, Israel's destructive influence extends far into domestic Western politics through its army of lobbyists and insidious operatives like Jeffrey Epstein, who notoriously weaponized sexual blackmail against prominent figures in the West, many of whom displayed a disturbing appetite for exploiting underage children. Additionally, emboldened by their benefactors' impunity, Zionist street thugs have taken to violently assaulting peaceful protesters denouncing the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The media propaganda machine is arguably the most insidious element, perpetually dehumanizing Palestinians and Arabs while whitewashing Israeli criminality. Major Western outlets provide a platform for Israeli officials to spew hateful rhetoric uninterrupted, yet Palestinian officials face constant disdain and mockery. Israeli killings are discussed passively, as if Palestinians randomly perish, while Israeli casualties are portrayed as being "murdered" or "slaughtered" by Hamas. After Lebanese children were bombed, there were no solemn condemnations from the media. In fact, anyone questioning Israel's actions faces barrages of antisemitism smears.

Ruling Classes Prefer Lack of Consequences for Israel’s Atrocities

In allowing this uninterrupted path of destruction to continue, the world is abandoning the minimal ethical foundations required for a functioning and just society. Israel's campaign of land theft, displacement, siege, and slaughter against Palestinians, and anyone it deems an enemy, is permanently destroying any notion of sanctity of human life, territorial sovereignty, or self-determination.

The global response has been toothless with major powers like China and Russia standing idly by. Despite the International Court ruling that all states must sever ties that aid and enable the occupation, most nations continue arming, funding, diplomatically shielding, and trading with Israel as it commits more brazen atrocities.

Be under no illusion, the ruling classes worldwide may prefer the lack of consequences for Israel's atrocities because it is a prime opportunity to wield authoritarian control over their own populations with impunity in the future. Now that Israel has demonstrated the ability to commit such acts without facing significant repercussions, why would they risk curtailing the very actions they may one day wish to emulate in order to tighten their grip on power?

The Dark Ages

We are heading towards a dark age where the powerful trample legal and moral boundaries with impunity. A dystopian reality takes shape, where torture, rape, genocide and terrorism are no longer extreme abuses - but accepted tactics openly employed to subjugate dissent in our very own communities. Brute force dictates the new rules of conflict, morality be damned. No society will be spared this descent into sanctioned depravity unless we shatter the malicious grip of those who believe might makes right.

Israel's unrelenting terrorism against its neighbors, its decades-old genocidal project in Gaza, its attacks on Iranian and Syrian officials, its chokehold on our political class, its media stranglehold, its blackmail projects, its vast network of torture and rape facilities, its weapons industries, its spy programs, and an endless stream of more depravities - these are all opening salvos ushering in a bleak reality. They insidiously tear down the edifice of human rights and humanitarian laws so painstakingly built after the unimaginable horrors of World War II.

It is crucial we heed the prophetic words Nelson Mandela uttered almost three decades ago:

"We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians."

Today shows how truthful and prophetic his words were. As we fail to fight for Palestine's freedom, their fate of subjugation and ethnic cleansing at the hands of the depraved Israeli regime is now becoming ours.

- Karim