Selective morality

Israel currently faces an international firestorm of conscious hypocrisy and moral blindness wrapped in a veneer of mass myopia.

The oldest virus known to humanity has been recycled and regurgitated in a modern package of anti-Zionism and anti-Israel accusations.

In the Middle Ages, accused individuals were put in “stocks” while their accusers pelted them with objects and subjected them to torture until they confessed their alleged sins. The Roman Catholic Inquisition refined this even further in its crusade against Jews. It wasn’t enough apparently to punish Jews for their mortal sins, but it was also necessary to break them to the point of death. They copied the Roman technique of burning bodies at the stake.

Obviously, the Germans and their willing partners learnt a thing or two from the rituals of the Roman pagans and the Roman Church.

Today’s practitioners have refined these ancient forms of torture.

Poisoning wells and killing babies are recycled as Israel is accused of the same heinous sins. This, in turn, leads to ancillary libels, and before one knows it, the list of “crimes” expands. Thanks to modern media, Israel and Jews generally are now branded with the mark of Cain and condemned to perpetual pillory.

One needs only to cast a critical eye on all those promoting the latest poisonous pus in order to discern a familiar pattern of selective morality.

One of the easiest signs is identifying those who flock together as they collectively writhe in self-righteous wrath.

Take, for example, the disgraceful spectacle of two former New Zealand Prime Ministers, along with a former Australian Foreign Minister and a former Premier of Victoria, making a recent pilgrimage to China.

All four individuals protested that their presence did not signify acquiescence to China’s abuse of human rights or its occupation of Tibet and intended occupation of Taiwan. These attempts at distancing from inconvenient truths merely highlight their selective morality. It reminds me of all those from the Olympic movement and democratic countries who attended the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. The attendees at that spectacle closed their eyes and their mouths to the Nazi persecution of the Jews and preferred to kowtow to the German Government of the day.

Likewise, Helen Clark loses no opportunity to pillory Israel at every opportunity. She kowtowed to President Xi Jinping, watched the military show of force and had her photo taken in the company of the worst despots and abusers of human rights on the planet. Not a peep was heard about China’s policies. No finger wagging and condemnation of China’s persecutions of the Uyghur and their incarceration in “re-education camps.”

John Key, another former NZ PM and a fervent promoter of trade with China, also remained mute about his hosts’ abysmal human rights record. Why mention the obvious when silence can be the preferred option?

Bob Carr’s obsessions with Israel’s supposed “crimes” are a contrast with his silence about China’s record. He tried to excuse his absence from the actual military parade as some “moral” act. This pathetic pandering to political correctness fooled nobody.

Daniel Andrews, the former Premier of Victoria, attempted to excuse his presence by claiming that he was a friend of the Victorian Jewish Community and sympathetic towards Israel. This is as hollow as attendees at the Berlin Olympics claiming that they loved Jews, but nothing should interfere with sport. In this case, nothing must interfere with business and trade, no matter how tainted the trade partner might actually be.

All these participants at the Communist Chinese spectacular claimed that they were there as private citizens and that it would have been “rude” to turn down the invitation. When questioned as to the propriety of hobnobbing with the world’s worst despots, they offered the lame excuse that they had not actually dialogued with them.

As private citizens, they should have declined the opportunity of being tainted by association. That, of course, would have taken a certain amount of moral courage, which certainly eluded them.

The hallmark of today’s crop of political and former political leaders is to pick on Israel for selective outrage and to prioritise business interests over standing up against real violations of international law.

This shameful farce is merely a prelude to the main menu, which will be served up in New York at the United Nations General Assembly circus.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, horrific crimes are actually taking place.

During the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Russians have kidnapped tens of thousands of Ukrainian children and taken them to Russia.

The Chinese have thrown one million Muslims into re-education camps.

In Africa, one thousand Christians per month are being slain by Muslim jihadists.

A report from the Centre for Human Rights has exposed a horrific scenario taking place in Iran:

“More than one million Afghan migrants have been deported from Iran since the beginning of 2025, with nearly 600,000 since 1 June.

Children make up approximately 25% of those deported.

For most Afghans, deportation is not a return home – it is a descent into crisis, into a country ravaged by war and repression. For Afghan women and girls, it’s even worse. They are being sent back to a regime that has erased them from public life. This is not just a deportation – this is a death sentence for their freedom, their education and their futures.”

In Mozambique, ISIS jihadists have beheaded Christians and burnt Churches and homes.

There is an ongoing silent genocide in Congo where Christians are being beheaded.

Last month, in the space of eight days, 46,000 people in Congo were displaced.

The response to these and other real genocidal events has been a deafening silence.

Has anyone, by some remote chance, heard any denunciations of outrage from all those who condemn Israel on an almost daily basis?

Have Clark, Key, Carr and Daniels expressed their dismay and disgust? Have they demanded sanctions and accountability against the perpetrators?

Has the UN Security Council met in emergency session and voted to censure those responsible for the ongoing massacres of Christians in Africa?

Has the Pope met the leaders of Iran, Afghanistan and those African nations whose Christian citizens are being murdered and demanded that these pogroms cease?

Will the forthcoming UN General Assembly meeting raise the subject?

The words “jihad and jihadists” are not and will not be uttered. The vast majority of speakers will instead concentrate their venom on Israel, and the media will obediently follow with tendentious reporting.

Rewarding jihadists and intifada by recognising a fake Palestine will be the order of the day.

Welcome to mass moral collapse and hypocrisy as part of the new world order.

Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.

 

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