Afrasianet - Robin Anderson - The mainstream media seems to be waking up from a 21-month pro-Israel slumber, and many examples of this can be seen in the Western press, including CNN and MSNBC.

In the United States, criticism of Israel is growing among lawmakers and political commentators alike.

Even the right-wing British newspaper Daily Express ran a headline that read: "For mercy, stop this now," alongside a photo of a starving Palestinian child on the brink of death. The newspaper added that those who "cling to life in the hell of Gaza are revering us all with shame." Journalist Matt Kennard wrote on the X platform: "The Zionist Holocaust regime has lost the support of the Daily Express."

Cracks have always appeared in the rigid media frameworks that have justified Israel's extermination of Palestinians during these months, whenever it escalates killings and ethnic cleansing.

But for weeks on end, the world has been seeing images of children as skeletons starving without a glimmer of hope. As 24-year-old Palestinian journalist Heba al-Muqadmeh, who still lives in Gaza City, said: "In Gaza, hunger has become Israel's toughest weapon, surpassing even bombs." There is no more childhood in Gaza.

What is the secret of this hunger pain?

Actor, writer and humanist Stanley Tucci has provided some answers to this question in his book Taste, a biography of his long love of food, its attractiveness, its preparation, and its representation.

Tucci says he learned early on that "audiences like to watch people eat or drink" on screen, adding, "There's something very appealing about watching people do these basic acts."

He attributes this to the fact that these actions "make them more humane, and allow us to communicate with them."

People love to watch food-centric movies, and they love cooking shows, because they make us all feel like we're part of one human family.

It is precisely for this reason that the impact of hunger on oneself is so severe when we see human beings like us deprived of this simple act. 

Seeing someone else starving is unbearable, especially if they are a child. For most of us, it is a punch that goes deep into our hearts, and strikes at the utmost of our humanity. Unlike an air strike or an assassination that we don't see until after it has happened, and it has been destroyed, hunger, when we see it, is still there, and its owner is not dead yet. As UNRWA said:  "People in Gaza are walking bodies."

A doctor from Gaza posted a photo of a emaciated child with barely any skin covering his bones, and wrote simply: "We are starving." They are still in pain.

These images force us to gasp for a solution. They push us to demand that food get to them immediately, because it's the only way to get rid of the pain of watching humanity destroyed, and destroyed us with it, slowly and deliberately.

But this public response is very different from the reactions of perpetrators who deliberately starve, and of governments and the people who help them.

It is not rhetoric, nor personal attack, nor cruelty, nor even anti-Semitism, to say that Israel's leaders, who are carrying out the crime of forced starvation, have lost their humanity.

These are the ones who told us from the beginning, with enthusiasm, what they were going to do, and they have been doing it unceasingly ever since.

Recently, they have doubled down on their statements revealing a deep psychological turmoil fueled by years of hatred, intensified by the encouragement of world leaders who have granted Israel immunity.

Take, for example, the most recent hate speech by Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, in which he said: "We will not allow a single gram of aid to enter Gaza until its people kneel and beg. Gaza must be leveled to the ground. There are no so-called innocent people."

Watching the likes of Ben-Gvir and others utter such outrageous hatred and commit unimaginable crimes is another attack on our feelings and on our humanity.

So is the shameful act of Israelis rushing to the border to help prevent aid from entering Gaza.

On the other hand, the global conscience, big and small, is rising up to attract the world's attention and demand that this catastrophe be stopped.

People take to the streets; in London, they raise the Palestinian flag at the Royal Opera House, and the Palestinian flag hangs on the statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro, and on the trucks of transport drivers in Chicago.

Others continue to demonstrate in the streets of New York, in front of the United Nations headquarters. Anti-genocide demonstrators prevent cruise ships carrying Israeli tourists from docking on the Greek islands. In Belgium, two soldiers of the occupation army were arrested on charges of war crimes.

Activists aboard the "Freedom Flotilla – Hanzala" ship carrying supplies to Gaza, were arrested by the Israeli occupation army, and the American labor organizer and human rights defender Chris Smalls was assaulted.

Code Pink activists stand in unwavering solidarity with their fellow humanitarians, and Francesca Albanese continues to tell the truth. U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib calls for a complete ban on weapons sent to Israel and calls for the release of Dr. Abu Safieh. 

Even human rights organizations that have so far refrained from passing judgment on the genocide are beginning to wake up and regain their humanity. The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem  released a report and video titled "Our Genocide Happens Now."

In a long-awaited announcement, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel  declared for the first time that what is happening in Gaza is genocide, joining a long list of organizations such as Amnesty International and Physicians Against Genocide.

There are those who have traced the scandalous deterioration in mainstream media coverage of Israel's genocide. A response to a headline that appeared on CNN: "Palestinians starving or being killed by Israeli soldiers while trying to get aid, on an almost daily basis, how did we get to this point?"

Why did the BBC's coverage suddenly turn to headlines such as: "More than 100 aid agencies say mass famine is spreading in Gaza"?

Because everyone knows, as journalist Owen Jones puts it, "the complete catastrophe that is devouring Gaza cannot be hidden."

Jones is furious, and never tire of condemnation: "To the guilty men in the media: You had plenty of warnings for 21 months! You are the ones who did this! Everything that happens now is on you."

The statements that some Western leaders have begun to make criticizing Israel are legitimately questionable. Why did they wait until the last minute?

The likes of Keir Starmer knew from the beginning what Israel was doing, and the UK even helped it. So why are they talking now?

While expressions of disgust are important, their motives are likely not a genuine humanitarian response or moral outrage, but rather selfish calculations, and do not lead to any effective steps to stop Israel.

As Max Blumenthal said of the concern of these late American Democratic leaders, such as Obama and Clinton, "It's a reputation-washing after years of silence." These seemingly dissenting statements are nothing more than attempts to avoid accusations of complicity in genocide.

As Omar Akkad titled his book: "One day, everyone will say that they were against this from the beginning."

But even as they try to get away with it, they are still responsible.

As they express their "sincere concern," Heba al-Muqadma said, "We don't need pity. We need to put pressure on those who are withholding food, on those who have the power to stop this famine, but they choose not to."

This genocide of starvation is not only an intolerable assault on the Palestinians, but an attack on all of us, on our very humanity. 

American writer and professor at Fordham University