Netanyahu's claim that Israel is fighting 'barbarians' is a ploy to legitimise genocidal murder

Binyamin Netanyahu: his appeal to Christians is aimed particularly at the far-right populist and Trumpian project. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA Wire "We're facing monsters, monsters who murdered children in front of their parents … This is a battle not only of Israel against these barbarians, it's a battle of civilisation against barbarism." So said Binyamin Netanyahu in a message to world Christians on December 24th, 2023. He uses this framing rhetoric to say Israel is fighting on behalf of the civilised West against its barbarian enemy Hamas. Such messages seek indispensable support from Europe and the US, where a reactionary western…