Why is anyone surprised by the US and Israel’s latest war? It’s only what the world allowed them to do in Gaza | Owen Jones

The price of silence from western politicians and media outlets over Israel’s actions in Palestine is now being paid by Iranian and Lebanese civilians

The president of the United States threatened this week https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/07/israel-warns-iran-lives-at-risk-if-they-use-trains-trump-deadline">to commit genocide against Iran.

As Israel engages in continued bombing in Lebanon, https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/apr/09/iran-war-ceasefire-live-strait-of-hormuz-israel-strikes-middle-east-crisis-latest-news">killing more than 200 people in a single day, that fact must never be scrubbed away, not least because there is no guarantee the threat will not be revived.

But as we descend towards the abyss, we need to understand where our fall began.

“A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Donald Trump wrote on Tuesday.

Just over a year ago, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-prior-meeting-with-king-abdullah-ii-jordan-and-exchange-with-reporters-1">he announced: “A civilisation has been wiped out in Gaza.” The connection is not hard to trace.

Trump knew Gaza had been razed by Israel, insisting it was “https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/04/trump-netanyahu-gaza">not a place for people to be living”.

When he joined forces with the perpetrator of that genocide in an illegal war on Iran, the apocalyptic rubble of Gaza became a template.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist