Gaza and the end of history
The end of history is a term we associate with Fukuyama, although it dates back to Hegel, who believed that the end of history is contained in every moment of history, without this meaning reaching any final point. For his part, Fukuyama understood the end of history as the end of the hegemony of liberal democracy: with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, this conservative thinker no longer saw any obstacles to liberalism and democracy becoming the roadmap for the global economy and politics. Communist countries would evolve, and war would have no place in a system based on free trade, civil rights, civil liberties, and the values of so-called welfare societies. The memory of the Holocaust had fostered a new world order and should guarantee the maintenance of that order: it should act as an ethical mandate that would block the impulse toward mass murder. The emblem of humanity's capacity to destroy itself was, and is, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Gaza now becomes a new symbol. Since its creation, Israel has established itself as the state that represents liberal democracy in an area of the planet where none exists. In the eyes of the West, Israel has been the democratic standard-bearer surrounded by theocratic dictatorships that desired its destruction; hence, the strength of the idea of Israel's right to defend itself. The Holocaust, in this context, served as a historical precedent that reinforced this argument. The dark history and criminal actions of Hamas, as well as the double and triple roles played by Egypt, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, reinforced the official and hegemonic narrative about Israel that the West has assumed and sustained for more than seventy years.
The narrative has been blown to bits by the war of ethnic cleansing unleashed on Palestine by the Netanyahu government. It is true that conflicts as bloody or even bloodier than this one rage around the world: Yemen, Sudan, Congo, Syria. But in Gaza, the idea of democracy as a higher good is also dying. They have murdered nearly 70,000 people, and they have also insulted and perverted the name of democracy and also that of the Holocaust, which in their hands have been degraded and corrupted, like everything the far right and religious fanaticism touch. They have revealed the true colors of victimhood, and Trump's obscene acquiescence, coupled with the impotent paralysis of the European Union and the United Nations, has finally exhausted the patience of many.
Fukuyama's predictions have been proven right, and from Gaza to the north and south, from east to west, we live in a world plagued by war. Should we call it genocide? The members of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry say yes, and they also say that states that fail to act to stop it may face legal consequences. Meanwhile, those of us who deplore the invasion of Gaza and the massacre perpetrated so far should also be able to distinguish Judaism from Zionism and from the current Israeli government.