War in the Age of Magic Realism
The Theatre of Moral Masquerade. How the World Demands Israel’s Surrender, Calls It Peace, and Applauds Its Delusion
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How the world demands Israel surrender to ghosts, phantoms, and fairytales of casualty counts—while ignoring the hostages beneath Gaza.
Irwin Cotler1 is a good man. I say that not as an idle compliment, but because in an age when “human rights” is trotted out like a stage prop by lobbyists and grandstanders, Cotler still keeps it tethered to something resembling its original meaning. He approaches the table in good faith, genuinely seeking to lessen human suffering. That is precisely why, when he calls for the Israelis to offer up an unconditional ceasefire, I begin with the assumption that his motives are sincere.
But sincerity does not guarantee accuracy. And in the present war between Israel and Hamas, the dominant framing—that there exists a neutral, universal moral standard to which Israel is being measured and found wanting—is not just flawed, it is false.
The capacity for humans to delude others is vast; the capacity to delude themselves is infinite. And I am not interested in whether people will scream that criticism of Israel is not driven by antisemitism but “because we care about children.”
People do not want to admit they are antisemitic. They prefer to imagine themselves pure-hearted, driven only by humanitarian concern. But the lies people tell themselves are not often self-evident. Evidence comes from observing behaviour and applying logic.
“At the heart of it, the engine is antisemitism — driving the axles of confirmation bias without a hint of friction.”
So it is not merely a double standard. The hostility comes first; the evidence is manufactured afterwards. Israel is the only state on Earth for which the moral verdict is issued before the case is even heard.
Selective Outrage: The Numbers They Ignore
If civilian body counts triggered the world’s supposed moral awakening, Gaza wouldn’t make the list. The variable is not the death toll—it is that Jews are involved. And when Jews are involved, every principle of warfare, proportionality, and state survival is thrown aside.
The Magic Realism of ‘Ceasefire Now’
In none of the wars listed above—none—did the world demand an unconditional ceasefire in the middle of fighting while the enemy still held hostages. Yet that is exactly what’s urged on Israel: stop now, return captives later, maybe, if the phantoms are in a generous mood.
The pretence is that a ceasefire is an act of pure moral virtue—“Why can’t we all just have peace, man?”—as if group hugs and hashtags end wars. In reality, such a demand is militarily suicidal.
And let’s be clear: when the “international community” says “ceasefire,” they mean permanent ceasefire—or a “pause” long enough for Hamas to rearm via Rafah, to move fighters under their famous ambulance-taxi service, and to restock for the next massacre.
No nation in history has unilaterally declared a permanent ceasefire under equivalent conditions. Not the United States, had it lost the equivalent of 45,000 citizens in a single day, with 5,000 taken hostage. Not Britain in the Blitz. Not anyone.
Yet everybody has somehow forgotten the hostages—teenagers, women, old people, even a 10-month-old baby.
Gaza’s street mobs had to be physically restrained from tearing those infants’ bodies apart after strangling them. These same “civilians” will hide hostages in their apartments when Hamas asks. And on October 7th, 600–1,000 “non-Hamas” Gazans joined the slaughter, because in the magic realism of Hamas PR, there are no Hamas fighters, only civilians who occasionally pick up Kalashnikovs before reverting to “child” status upon death.
We take Hamas’s word for the ages and professions of the dead, and the “world community” nods along, though Hamas has never met a truth it wouldn’t throttle. And the reason the world swallows it is the starting point: Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred first; evidence collection later.
How Real Wars Handle Ceasefires
In the real world, ceasefires are strategic tools—not moral charity.
Afghanistan: NATO’s pauses were tied to prisoner exchanges or tactical goals. No one suggested stopping mid-war without conditions.
Iraq (Mosul): Ceasefire only after ISIS control collapsed; 9,000–11,000 civilians died in that fight.
Vietnam: The Paris Accords gave the North time to prepare its final offensive.
Balkans (Kosovo): Only after Serbian withdrawal and NATO enforcement.
Israel’s war is unlike any of these—surrounded by sworn enemies, forced to fight in the world’s most densely packed urban battlefield, against a military that wears no uniforms and whose propaganda machine can turn a fighter into a “journalist” before sunset.
What an Unconditional Ceasefire Means
Hamas retains full power.
Hostages remain in captivity.
Foreign aid is weaponised for tunnels and rockets.
Operational pauses become rearming windows.
Hezbollah, Houthis, and Iran are emboldened.
It is not peace—only a break before the next war.
No governance plan means immediate collapse.
Conclusion: Logic, Not Liturgy
Cotler is right to want the killing to stop; any moral person would.
But morality without strategy is sentimentality, and sentimentality kills. What’s being demanded of Israel is not “peace,” but surrender dressed up as virtue—a morality play whose ending is pre-written.
Israel is not fighting in a fairy tale. It is fighting in a theatre of magic realism, where its enemy has no soldiers, every casualty is a saint, and the hostages underground are politely forgotten.
The rest of us should at least be honest about which story we’re reading—and whether, in that story, they care if Israel still exists when the curtain falls.
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Irwin Cotler is a distinguished Canadian human rights advocate—former Justice Minister and Attorney General, international lawyer, law professor, and founder and Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights . His career spans defending prisoners of conscience like Nelson Mandela and Natan Sharansky, challenging apartheid, fighting genocide, and shaping global human rights law .
More recently, Cotler has become the target of a credible assassination plot by Iranian agents—a plot foiled by Canadian security services. Since late 2023, he has been under continuous, around-the-clock protection, including armed guards and armored vehicles, even for routine tasks like getting a haircut or medical treatment
True—“Israel is not fighting in a fairy tale. It is fighting in a theatre of magic realism, where its enemy has no soldiers, every casualty is a saint, and the hostages underground are politely forgotten.”
If you want a nightmare, dream honestly as to what a Palestinian state would look like. For one, what would happen to dissidents who criticize bad authority? Dismemberment. Dragged to death. Decapitation.