“These lessons can be very useful” – Kommersant FM

Europe and the United States saw some of the largest rallies over the weekend due to the situation in the Middle East. Thus, tens of thousands of people came out in support of Palestine on October 22 in Paris, Barcelona, ​​Belgrade, Stockholm and New York. Pro-Israel demonstrations took place in Berlin and Geneva. Kommersant FM columnist Mikhail Gurevich wondered how attitudes towards the conflict are changing around the world.

The phrase “Lessons of War” is associated in our memory with something difficult. It usually concerns those battles in which Russia or the Soviet Union participated. However, there are many events happening in the world, including wars, which, fortunately, have nothing to do with us. The lessons from these conflicts, on the contrary, can be very useful for observations and conclusions. For example, Israel’s clash with Hamas, which has not yet even ended, offers at least three aspects that are worth studying and keeping in mind in the future.

The first and most obvious: world politicians often say one thing, do another, and mean a third. From the very beginning of the bombing of the Gaza Strip, all countries in the region strongly condemned Israel. Hamas called on the population of these countries to go to the borders of the Jewish state and… And nothing supernatural happened. Even Iran, which promised any help, is so far limited to loud statements. But behind the scenes there is an active negotiation process, in which, according to experts, completely different intonations are heard. And these dialogues involve not only Arab or Western countries, but also Israel itself.

The next and very important point: it is never too late to prove your allied obligations. Before the war, relations between Israel and the United States were in deep crisis. Almost a year has passed since Benjamin Netanyahu came to power, and only in September he met Biden for the first time, but not in the White House, but in New York and on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

There was a debate in the Holy Land about who is more hostile: the current president or Barack Obama? And suddenly, after the tragedy of October 7, Israel saw a new Biden, who makes the most pro-Israeli speeches in the history of bilateral relations and comes on a solidarity visit, despite the regular shelling of Tel Aviv. On one of the streets there is now a huge poster “Thank you Mr. President”, and residents argue who is the greater patriot of their country: Biden or Netanyahu?

And the third unexpected point: the opinion of the world media can be changed. Before the start of the current escalation, it was believed that liberal American media conveyed less, and European media more, broadcast a generally pro-Palestinian position: showing suffering children, recording heartbreaking stories of life under occupation, but often not a word about what led to the events covered. Why do Israelis themselves spend several hours a day in bomb shelters? And by the way, why do both sides have missiles, but only one has air defense?

Now the opinion of journalists has changed noticeably. Of course, Israel paid a huge price for this in dead, wounded and captured citizens. True, Hamas itself also helped by launching a story about the allegedly destroyed Al-Ahli hospital. But something else is important: it turns out that you can somehow influence the seemingly unshakable approaches of liberal journalists. Even the British Broadcasting Corporation apologized for the faulty coverage and pledged to continue calling Hamas terrorists.

Israel calls itself a “startup nation.” We can assume that the above observations are a kind of innovation, which, I am sure, would be useful for many countries to use, including Russia.

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