Why I Am a Realist

Celebrating at the DNC in a Time of Genocide

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march past Kamala Harris merchandise during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago on Thursday 22 August 2024. Photo credit: Bing Guan

This article about the DNC and Israel’s genocide in Gaza reminds me of why I am a realist.

Realism emphasizes that there is no higher authority in the international system that can come to your rescue if you are in serious trouble and that you cannot depend on other states to come to your aid in the crunch. Indeed, those other states might someday put their gunsights on you. After all, who can know the future intentions of another state? In those circumstances, there is no chance that international law or just war theory will save you.

In such a world, the best way to survive is to have a state of your own and make sure that state has a lot of military power. This is what we realists call a self-help world.

Turning to the Palestinians in Gaza, there is no question Israel is threatening their survival. There is obviously no higher authority that can rescue them. The Israelis thumb their noses at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), not to mention the United Nations.

One might expect “liberal” America to come to the Palestinians’ rescue, especially since it is governed by the Democratic Party, which is filled with people who constantly preach about the rule of law, human rights, and morality in foreign policy.

In fact, the Biden administration is complicit in Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza. And, as the above article in The Nation makes clear, the Democrats at the top of the party did everything possible to keep the Palestinian issue off the DNC’s agenda while celebrating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who are playing an important role in making Israel’s genocide happen.

To take this one step further, Jews have suffered enormously over time, in good part because they did not have their own state. Zionism, which is all about creating and maintaining a powerful Jewish state, was aimed at fixing this problem. One might think that a people who see themselves as “eternal victims” would have some measure of introspection and sympathy for the Palestinians—and given the Holocaust, be horrified by the mere possibility of genocide being committed in their name. But that is not happening.

Given the horrors that have befallen the Palestinians, it seems to me—thinking like a realist—that their only hope is to get a viable state of their own and make it as powerful as possible.

Whether they can succeed is another matter.