From the Flotilla to Trump

The flotilla has reached the end of its journey without anything foreseeable happening so far. It goes without saying that for me, any action that contributes to raising public awareness of the terrible reality of the genocide that Israel is committing in Gaza is worthy of consideration. However, I have viewed an episode like the flotilla with skepticism: a gesture more for show than for effect, by people who, to put it in the words of Najat El Hachmi, "they never stop focusing on themselves." No surprise there, the Flotilla ended up being stopped by Israel: the actors were arrested and sent home. But it's true that it has had a positive effect in the form of mobilizations that demonstrate public outrage. And it served to expose the right, uniquely in the Spanish case, with the PP under pressure from Vox and obscene behavior orchestrated by Ayuso, who mocked the genocide. The stupidity of the right often serves as a cover for the levity of others.

At a time when democratic benchmarks are shaking everywhere, it is more necessary than ever to expose powers like the one Netanyahu leads, willing to do whatever it takes to destroy a people, with a disturbing international following, led by Donald Trump, a figure without limits. Any of his initiatives are cultivated in narcissism. And this explains, for example, why he is just as quick to act as an incorruptible supporter of Netanyahu's crimes as he is to use him as a woman of credibility in his final blow on the table, with a photo in the White House in which the American president holds the phone with which the Israeli leader must transmit the modulations of Trump's speech to him. Everything has the fragility of the arrogance of something that plays with a tragic situation out of pure vanity.

The need to end the genocide is so profound that Trump's proposal has received support from all quarters, and especially from Europe. This is despite the fact that nothing is solidified, as Netanyahu demonstrated immediately after meeting with the US president, when he began to water down the agreed-upon promises. Only the desire to stop the tragedy at all costs can explain why even leaders critical of the Trump-Netanyahu tandem from the outset, like Pedro Sánchez, are signing up. We're giving ourselves leeway, some say, assuming that Trump's proposal might be the only possible option. Keeping the denunciation of the genocide alive is an obligation when Trump's plan gives reason to suspect that it's not about making peace but about obscuring reality, about once again imposing silence. Some call it possibilism.