Over the past weeks, the world has seen a widespread wave of pro-Palestine protests in revulsion against the Israeli attacks against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank in the form of an Israeli invasion and bombing campaign that, in disproportionate response to the initial attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7 2023, has thus far killed nearly 20,000 and wounded 55,000, the majority being women and children. A key question now is whether the perpetration of this atrocity by Israel in the spurious name of ‘selfdefence’ will actually result in any change of attitude in the Western democracies that are presently standing ‘unflinchingly’ behind Israel’s flagrant violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

While this of course will depend on the particular country concerned, the answer, generally speaking, will be in the negative. And this applies most clearly to the countries that have the greatest influence over Israel’s position. In the United States, lawmakers are deliberately avoiding appeals from their constituents who call for a ceasefire, and President Joe Biden, when asked by reporters if there was any possibility of a halt to Israel’s violence, replied that there was none.

This should be a cause for worry because in a democracy, at least in principle, politicians are supposed to respond to the wishes of their constituents and conform to the popular will, given that their electoral futures depend on the opinions of the voters. Arab-Americans, including in key swing American states, are especially frustrated with the Biden administration’s policies in general – but also now specifically with its dealings with Israel. Support for Biden among them stands at a scant 17 per cent, while 40 per cent, according to a poll conducted by the Arab-American Institute, are now inclined to vote for the likely Republican nominee former President Donald Trump in the presidential election in 2024 – despite Trump’s known proclivity favouring Israel.

Massive pro-Palestine protests and the possibility that Biden’s position on Israel could add to his many disadvantages in the upcoming election have strangely not prompted any change in the administration’s support for Israel’s deplorable actions in Gaza and the West Bank against the Palestinians. Joe Biden has resisted all efforts to alter his pro-Israel leanings. To quote the then-Senator Biden, a selfdescribed pro-Zionist, from 1986, “There’s no apology to be made [for supporting Israel]. None. It is the best three-billion-dollar investment we make. Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.”

Now as the nation’s president, it could be supposed that Biden has a responsibility to abandon his personal predilections in order to preserve national unity – especially when it is under assault by the Republicans, an opposition party that casts doubt on the legitimacy of elections and seeks to impeach the president himself. But the fact remains that Biden is standing firm on his position of support for Israel, despite protests from his own bureaucracy and appeals from among his traditional electoral support base.

The situation in Europe is somewhat more nuanced. Countries, like Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary are steadfast in their unwavering support for Israel despite some limited opposition, and the Czechs have even outlawed pro-Palestine demonstrations. French President Emmanuel Macron recently urged Israel to stop bombing Gaza, but he is facing open criticism from his own diplomatic service for his support for Israel. France has also outlawed pro-Palestine protests. But other countries, like Ireland, Spain and Belgium, are openly critical of Israel.

This lack of uniformity demonstrates the fragility of a common EU foreign policy on this issue. This is especially the case given the fact that Ursula von der Leyen, the German president of the European Commission, has shown herself to be a strident supporter of Israel’s actions despite public contradiction from her colleague, the Commission’s high representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy and his staff.

What stands out in the current situation in the Middle East is that each day that the Israeli attack on Gaza continues, the more difficult it becomes to morally and logically justify the common Western position, as evidenced primarily by the USA and UK in the UN Security Council, of supporting Israel despite immense and unprecedented public pressure in support of the beleaguered Palestinians.

The rest of the world is justified in regarding this attitude as racially motivated and anti-Islam. Conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, as the pro-Israel lobby is quick to do, is both unjustified and prejudicial. (The writer is a former Indian foreign secretary.)