We’ve reached a sort of tipping point in the way political leaders in the West are reacting to Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza. It’s maddening for two reasons: that it took this long to get an official response from Western capitals; and that, once the magnitude of the tragedy became clear, the responses have been so decidedly ineffectual.

The nightmare in Gaza has been unfolding for 22 months and during this entire time Israel’s savage use of violence and its punishment of innocent Palestinians has been unrelenting. Early on, Israel’s genocidal intent became clear as they demolished hospitals, universities, and entire neighborhoods using 2000-pound bombs; forced hundreds of thousands to flee their neighborhoods and homes; and ordered electricity and water cut off and blocked the entry of food and medical supplies.

At this point, what is required to end the genocide, save lives, and restore respect for international law and some level of sanity to the region, is for Western nations to take concrete steps to punish Israel, demanding changes in policy.

All this was known in 2023, and yet no action was taken. Back then, when we called for a ceasefire, the US Secretary of State told me that a ceasefire would be deplorable and the US would not support such a move. In mid-2024, when the United Nations Security Council twice voted on a ceasefire resolution, only the US opposed. A third attempt at a ceasefire resolution introduced by the US passed, but it was never acted upon, because despite President Biden disingenuously saying Israel had agreed to this resolution, he knew they had not. The entire effort was nothing more than a public relations stunt.

The bottom line is that the world has long known that this war on Gaza’s people had to end and yet other than voting on dead-end UN resolutions, they did nothing. Worse still, they continued to do business with and sell weapons to Israel. So what has changed now?

The pictures of devastation and eyewitness testimonies, a staple for those who have been following the news on social media, are now featured in mainstream media. As a result, it has become more difficult for the manufacturers of Israeli hasbara to convince the public that the devastation is exaggerated and the stories of human suffering are fabricated. In most European countries, the percentage of those who support Israel’s actions in Gaza has fallen to less than one-third. Despite the effort of Israeli propagandists, the reason behind this sharp decline in support for Israel isn’t the large number of Muslim immigrants in Western Europe, nor is it antisemitism. What has changed is that European and American........

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