Why were Western Elites so slow to realize the Madness of Netanyahu

Among the general populations of Western countries there has been a strong skepticism towards the actions of Israel under Netanyahu in Gaza for at least a year now. Many people have taken to the streets to manifest their discontent.

This is hardly surprising when the scale and severity of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza is taken into consideration. The civilian population of Gaza has been continuously bombed around from one place to another for more than a year and a half.

But maybe there is also something else at play here.

Many, many "ordinary" people can recognize a desperate lunatic for what he is. By looking at the actions of the lunatic and the kind of company the lunatic keeps.

So the people take account of the specific real world situation. They do not really consider whether Netanyahu is one of their own kind, because "ordinary" people are not part of the political elite anyway.

That distance from people to elite becomes an advantage in seeing things clearly for what they are.

The Western elites have a different perspective.

Instead of looking at what a person does or who he surrounds himself with, the elites seem to simply ask themselves whether a person is "one of us". Whether a person belongs to the Western democratic elite.

And the elite seems to think this is the case for Netanyahu in spite of everything he has done that contradicts a democratic mentality and all the actions he has taken that run counter to values the West otherwise likes to pride itself on.

So in spite of all Netanyahu is responsible for and despite the company he keeps in the form of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, until recently the elites of the West most have still considered him one of their elite own.

But lately the images of starving children in Gaza have become harder to ignore for the elites of Western countries. It has also become more apparent to the elites that the release of hostages is not a top priority for Netanyahu - something that has been obvious to ordinary people for a long time.

In short, it has become clear to both the public and now also the elites that Netanyahu is trying to ethnically cleanse Gaza with every means at his disposal - including the deliberate starvation of children.

So the elites have come to realize that they have aligned themselves with courses of action that are harmful also to the perception of the elites themselves as well as to their own self image.

Of course, the elites are also human, so on top of these considerations surely there is also some genuine empathy with the horrible plight of palestinians to factor in.

But it took them too long.

By allying themselves with extremists like Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, Western elites fundamentally betrayed many of the so-called democratic and Western values they claim to lead by.

If Western values are what we see in Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, then Western values are worthless.

I would be very surprised of the likes of Smotrich, Ben-Gvir and even Netanyahu gave anything for Western values or the Christian ideals they used to reflect.

So why did the Western elites support this trio of extremists for so long?