In 2019 my life was changed by an act of terrorism perpetrated by Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch, New Zealand which claimed the lives of 51 civilians, including my close friend Atta Elayyan. Tarrant drew inspiration from Anders Breivik, who carried out a terrorist attack in Oslo, Norway eight years prior. Breivik, a self-styled Christian crusader, justified his heinous deeds by citing an “existential conflict” between the West and Islam. 

The apocalyptic narrative of a “clash of civilizations” is, unfortunately, not limited to white supremacist extremists. This divisive paradigm has been perpetuated openly since the turn of the century by a faction of bellicose ideologues: the neoconservatives. The illegal invasion of Iraq, which took place exactly 21 years ago this month, stands as a stark testament to their sway.

In the lead-up to the Iraq war, Patrick Buchanan delivered a meticulous critique of neoconservative agenda.

In “Whose War?” Buchanan highlights the pivotal role of Israel in shaping neoconservative policy. “We charge that a cabal of polemicists seek to ensnare our country in a series of wars that are not in America’s interests. We charge them with colluding with Israel to ignite those wars.” Buchanan drew attention to Benjamin Netanyahu, “ubiquitous on American television, calling for us to “crush the ‘Empire of Terror’,” including “the Palestinian enclave.”  

In voting for the Iraq war, then Senator Biden baselessly claimed that Saddam Hussein “possesses chemical and biological weapons and is seeking nuclear weapons.” Anthony Blinken, then Democratic staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was also an ardent champion of the war. Colin Powell falsely claimed ties between Iraq and al Qaeda at the UN based on information coerced through torture.

“This Crusade, this war on terrorism,” a battle between good and an “axis of evil” according to President George W. Bush, resulted in the most disastrous American foreign policy adventure since Vietnam. The neoconservatives legacy, marred by exploitation of tragedies and dissemination of falsehoods, stands among the most thoroughly discredited political movements in American history. In the words of James Fallows, “they have earned the right not to be listened to.” 

Steered by the same neoconservative influences, the genocide in Gaza has once again entangled the U.S. in a web of self-defeating strategies. Netanyahu’s proclamation in October 2023, asserting, “We are in a battle of civilization against barbarism,” epitomizes the ideological fervor driving the narrative. Israeli President Isaac Herzog further emphasized Israel’s actions as a fight to safeguard Western civilization. 

Since October 7th, a barrage of falsehoods have emerged to justify Israel’s actions. On October 11, at a Jewish gathering, Biden stated, “I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.” The Washington Post, however, reported that the president had not seen such images. The White House was forced to walk back the president’s remarks. 

Assertions of children executed en masse and baked in ovens, pregnant women having babies cut out of their wombs and mass rapes, initially propagated by the New York Times, have crumbled on closer inspection.

Revelations from the Washington Post shed light on Biden’s awareness, grounded in U.S. intelligence, of the falsity of his claims linking Hamas to Al Shifa hospital, and his early understanding that Israeli targets lacked credible intelligence to justify them as military objectives.

After oral arguments concluded at the International Court of Justice, Netanyahu declared, “No one will stop us, not The Hague, not the axis of evil, and not anyone else.” In the wake of the ICJ ruling, Israel accused UNRWA staff of involvement in the October 7th attack. The US subsequently suspended funding to the vital aid agency. Reports have now emerged that false evidence against UNRWA staff was extracted through torture.

Biden’s repetition of the debunked beheaded babies claim in December was accompanied by the dehumanizing declaration, “They’re animals.” These sensational narratives have not only inflamed anger and thirst for vengeance but have also led to dire consequences. The highest number of individuals ever recorded now face a man-made famine, accompanied by mass killings of civilians, creating conditions that erode the very fabric of humanity. There is no valid defense for engineering such a famine. Starving individuals—especially children—to death can never be justified. Biden’s reinforcement of such propaganda serves to amplify the charge of genocide.

“White supremacists in Europe and the U.S. find Israeli state practices of Jewish supremacy inspiring” explains Israeli genocide scholar Raz Segal. Where white supremacy and Jewish supremacy converge, the Palestinian ‘colour issue’ according to George Orwell, is where both Brevik and Tarrant found their pro-Israel views. 

“Hate never goes away,” President Biden declared condemning white supremacy in May of 2023, “It only hides under the rocks. And when it’s given oxygen it comes out from under that rock. And that’s why we know this truth as well: silence is complicity.”

Published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Posted here with hyperlink citations.

Aly Mohamed, MD is affiliated with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Sutter Health in Santa Cruz.