Member-only story
If the Palestinians were White and Blue-Eyed
We would give more of a fuck.
I remember the overwhelming support for Ukraine pouring in from all over the world when Russia invaded in February of 2022. I was in Berlin at the time and the message was clear: innocent people were killed and continue to be killed, and we won’t stand for it. This message rang true across most of Europe and the West. Multinational corporations added temporary statements of support to the front pages of their website. Skyscrapers shone the colors of the Ukrainian flag. The International Chess Federation (FIDE) censored the Russian flag from all FIDE events. Major applications changed their logos to blue and yellow. Traditionally neutral organizations took a stance on the invasion. Universities which prided themselves on being a haven for critics and never being instruments of dissent themselves changed tunes and released lengthy condemnations.
It seemed like a prime and beautiful example of the international community coming together in recognizing an objectively and verifiably unjust invasion by a belligerent nation.
Upon a deeper examination, there is nothing particularly unique about the Russian invasion of Ukraine in terms intensity or brutality when considering just the last two decades of modern warfare. There were significant and brutal deaths in the Iraq War of 2003 and the War…
