The Liberal Response

This strange inability to respond appropriately to Israeli aggression is about more than Gaza. Events there have exposed the flaws in an entire model of politics and the assumptions that underpin it. If liberalism cannot offer a moral and stabilising form of governance, then what is it for? In the midst of such a historically bloody and disruptive conflict, if liberalism shows no ability or desire to protect civilian life, regional security and its own electoral prospects, then its mission-defining claims of principle and competence collapse.

The liberal response should be that the war in Gaza is indefensible. By defending it, liberals undercut themselves.

Israel’s assault on Gaza is exposing the holes in everything liberal politicians claim to believe