How compassion became performance, history got replaced by hashtags, and complexity was the first casualty.

Author: David Pugh. Date: 08 May 2025

There’s something oddly comforting about a simple villain. No need for messy history, no conflicting narratives, no uncomfortable truths. Just one bad guy to boo and hiss at, and a whole lot of moral clarity. And so, in the minds of many Western intellectuals, activists, and students, Israel has been cast—again and again—as the sole culprit for everything that’s wrong in the Middle East.

It’s a trend that raises more than a few eyebrows. Why is it that trainee doctors, future lawyers, and aspiring teachers—many of whom pride themselves on critical thinking—can chant “From the river to the sea” without pausing to consider what that actually means? And why does the proposition that Israel is fighting to survive, not waging a war of choice, seem so unthinkable to so many?

Maybe it’s because moral outrage has become a kind of social currency. Compassion is in vogue—but with limits. It must be simple, it must be loud, and it must never complicate your worldview. Enter what I call the “picaninny syndrome,” a holdover from colonial times where Western elites expressed pity for “poor natives” without ever listening to them. Today, it’s the same melody, just remixed for the Instagram age. We weep for Palestinians, but strip them of political agency. We blame Israel, not because it’s always wrong, but because it’s easier that way.

This kind of pseudo-humanitarianism isn’t about solving anything—it’s about being seen to care. The protest becomes the point. The keffiyeh becomes a costume. And history? That’s just background noise.

This is how scapegoating works. It offers moral clarity without moral responsibility. Israel becomes the symbolic vessel for Western guilt—about colonialism, war, inequality. Never mind that Israel is a democracy with a diverse population and real security threats. In this story, Israel is the villain, and any effort to say otherwise gets you labeled as suspect, reactionary, or worse.

So what now? We need to bring back the lost art of thinking. Thinking before chanting. Thinking before tweeting. Thinking before we turn incredibly complex issues into moral cartoons. Supporting justice for Palestinians should never require denying Israel’s right to exist. And supporting Israel shouldn’t mean ignoring Palestinian suffering. We can, and must, do both.

Because if we don’t, the only thing we’re really supporting is our own ignorance—wrapped in a flag, shouted through a megaphone, and posted for likes.