Ukraine and Gaza wars have put the West in the dock of public opinion

The West’s unqualified support for Ukraine and Israel has lost it the support of the rest of the world and arguably hurt its moral standing

Andrew Sheng

Published: 8:30pm, 3 Nov 2023

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The images and news coming out of Gaza are so horrific I cannot think of anything hopeful or constructive that can come of this cataclysm. It feels like a balance has been lost between the West and rest.

What is the West? It is a world that essentially comprises the US-led North America, Europe and Australasia, including Japan. It accounts for 63 per cent of the world economy, three-quarters of world trade, over half of global energy consumption and 18 per cent of the world population, if we use the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as a crude proxy.

The Western world sees itself as a paragon of civilisational progress and modernity, whereas the rest, namely, the East and the Global South, are much more diverse in culture, ethnicity and civilisational identity.

Last year, the Ukraine war sharply divided world opinion. The Nato-led Western world united behind Ukraine. The March 2022 UN resolution demanding that Russia immediately end its invasion of Ukraine was supported by 141 countries.

Only five countries voted against it, with 35 abstaining and 12 not voting at all. But in terms of population, nearly 60 per cent of people in the world lived in countries that did not vote for the resolution.

The Gaza conflict that started on October 7 also showed up a stark line of difference. A UN resolution calling for the protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip and the upholding of legal and humanitarian obligations was overwhelmingly passed by 120 countries, with 45 abstentions, and 14 not voting at all. Led by the US and Israel, which objected to the lack of condemnation of Hamas’ terrorist attacks and hostage-taking, a further 14 countries voted against the resolution.

In this case, over 60 per cent of the world population support the resolution calling for a humanitarian truce and reaffirming that “a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be achieved through peaceful means”.

Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war and the emergence of a lack of objective reporting on what is really going on, or which side is winning, I discern a thought pattern that differentiates the contemporary West from the rest.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the rise of the West has been attributed to advances in science and technology. It was also made possible because the associated ideals of openness and equality were finely balanced. As former Economist editor Bill Emmott theorises in his book, The Fate of the West, “we are in our current trouble because too many of us have lost that balance”.

Perhaps it’s the emergence of the cancel culture, where those who disagree with “politically correct” views are excommunicated, ostracised or “cancelled”, and support for the person or the work is withdrawn. We are losing the right to open debate and to disagree.

Debates over Ukraine and Gaza are painted in highly emotive terms of good vs evil; events are judged immediately, with little consideration of context. This pseudo-religious streak creates such a feeling of righteousness that anyone with an alternative interpretation is damned as an enemy of the good, a supporter of the devil.

Earlier this week, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak reportedly said he expected Israel “might lose [the] support of many of the governments in the free world” in a matter of weeks. The real geopolitical question is whether the United States is willing to pay the same price for its staunch support for Israel. It is one thing to have might and power, and another to lose moral leadership.

This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on November 2 shows Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip, amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas. Photo: AFP

Has the West lost its way? Professor Michael Brenner, a historian of Jewish culture, argues that the West is going through a mass hysteria, where non-believers are to be contained or expurgated. Those with non-West views are to be rejected, and since they are evil or wrong, they are no longer seen as equals.

But, as Emmott saw it, “without openness, the West cannot thrive, but without equality, the West cannot last”.

The moral collapse of Western leaders over Palestine

Austrian philosopher Karl Polanyi argued that market liberalism would eventually lead us back towards the need for social protection and justice. Democracy and capitalism are not on the same side if there is gross injustice and inequality. “The West”, he wrote, “is held responsible for the industrial, scientific and economic road on which our world has embarked. We are in the dock.”

He continued: “Western universalism – this is the Jewish–Christian inheritance – was the claim to a way of life of universal validity. This received a massive topical content when the West became the bearer of an industrial civilisation which, whether capitalist or socialist, soon comprised almost half of the planet.

“We were somehow thinking about and for the rest. It was not a conversation, rather a spirited monologue. Since no answer came, we carried on in our train of thought – unsustained, but also uncontradicted. No one was overruled, bossed around, or made to listen. It was just that we were without a partner.”

Events in Gaza and Ukraine have put the West in the dock. The rest are now thinking for themselves because the West is longer thinking for everyone. Without its moral standing, the West is no better than any other barbarian at the gate. At best, the West becomes just another barbarian claiming to be civilised; at worst, it would seek only to hold onto its golden past of colonialism and mental superiority.

Andrew Sheng is a former central banker who writes on global issues from an Asian perspective