Paddy Cosgrave, the chief executive of Web Summit, stepped down Saturday after several Big Tech companies withdrew from the company’s upcoming annual technology conference over his comments on the Israel-Hamas war.
I’m shocked at the rhetoric and actions of so many Western leaders & governments, with the exception in particular of Ireland’s government, who for once are doing the right thing. War crimes are war crimes even when committed by allies, and should be called out for what they are.
(The unsuccessful action of Ireland's government to temper the UN statement of support for Israel.
In negotiations that bounced between capitals on Saturday, Ireland was joined by Denmark and Luxembourg in pushing for a statement to include an appeal to avoid escalation, according to diplomatic sources.
Ireland ultimately backed the unnuanced statement.)
Google, Amazon, and Facebook, of all people, pulled out of the conference immediately.
Being pro human rights has always been dangerous in countries like China or Iran. It would seem that it is getting dangerous in some western countries now too.
This is not new, but for the most part it is only professionally dangerous. The west are the good guys, so saying they are doing something not good breaks people’s brains. It is only in hindsight a decade later that they’ll maybe admit something was a mistake or should have been handled differently, more likely they just won’t think about it or even know. That’s how the US can maintain smug moral superiority while supporting Pinochet or Saddam Hussein, or call Hussein’s use of white phosphorus a crime and then deploy it in Fallujah (or Gaza).
They’ve done it to the extreme in this case. If you are against the actions of the state of Israel you support the deaths of Jews so you’re an antisemite. The Jews who are also against the actions of Israel are self-hating Jews that resemble capos. It’s unfortunate because they are watering down the meaning of that term, and plenty of people lack nuance to see the difference between the state of Israel and Jewish people so it will bolster actual antisemitism. The powerful need an enemy, so that isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you’re them.
Israel is actively making more people support the Palestinian cause because of their overcensorship and heavy-handed tactics to control what people think and say.