The suffering in Gaza has forced many people to question whether human rights are truly universal, or whether some lives and some grief are still treated as more politically urgent than others.

I know that many people are trying to understand how so much suffering can occur in full view of the world and why that visibility hasn’t been enough to stop it. We once believed moral courage could reshape the world. I certainly did.

For much of our history, many of us were raised with a certain story about the world.

We were taught that international law was important and that human rights were universal.

We grew up listening to the words of Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela and believed that, however slowly, justice bent towards those willing to demand it.

We were also assured that “never again” meant we would never again endure the atrocities of the wars and genocides we had experienced and studied in history books; that if enough people witnessed injustice, governments would eventually act; and that countries and our leaders, no matter how imperfect, would........

© Pearls and Irritations