Brendan O’Neill wonders — or rather, he doesn’t wonder (a very pretty epanorthosis) — that the Western world has paid almost no attention to the real ethnic cleansing that is now in full swing in Sudan, with well-armed Arabs murdering largely defenseless black Africans because all eyes everywhere must remain fixed on Gaza, where the most evil people in the world, the Israelis, are mass-murdering the most innocent and peace-loving of peoples, the Muslim Arabs.
More of O’Neill’s savagely Swiftian indignation can be found here: “Sudan’s ‘forgotten war’ exposes the inhumanity of Israelophobia,” by Brendan O’Neill, Spiked, April 6, 2025:
They’re actually calling it ‘the forgotten war’. Following the fall of Khartoum to the Sudanese army last week, the global commentariat has been wringing its hands over this ‘overlooked’ tragedy. They’re inviting us, finally, to ponder Sudan’s ‘forgotten crisis’, to reflect on what some refer to as the world’s worst humanitarian calamity. Our reporters found ‘fear, loss and hope in Sudan’s ruined capital’, said the BBC this week. To which the only reasonable reply is: what kept them? This war’s been raging for years and only now do you deign to cover it?
It is an act of incalculable gall for the media elites to call Sudan’s suffering ‘the forgotten war’. For this war wasn’t forgotten, it was erased – by them. It was ruthlessly relegated down the hierarchy of human suffering by a media class so drunk on its obsession and animus with Israel’s war in Gaza that it became blind to every other horror on Earth. It wasn’t forgetfulness that led the West’s cultural establishments to so pitilessly neglect the suffering of the Sudanese people – it was Israelophobia.
Sudan has been ravaged by war since 15 April 2023. Yes, we will shortly arrive at the second anniversary of this brutal conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and yet which so few people in the West are aware of. The war pitted the army of Sudan against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary force that has its origins in the Janjaweed militia that carried out unspeakable atrocities during the ‘Darfur crisis’ of 2003 to 2020. The Sudanese army and the RSF were allies once. They ruled Sudan on a joint military council following the populist ousting of Sudan’s dictatorial president, Omar al-Bashir, in 2019. But tensions between them grew and a merciless war for sole power exploded in 2023.
The consequences for the people of Sudan have been horrendous. It is thought that 150,000 people have perished. Twelve million have been forced to flee their homes – the worst episode of human displacement of the 21st century so far. More than half of the population – 30million souls – now require humanitarian assistance to survive. As Germany’s Deutsche Welle put it last month, the dimensions of Sudan’s tragedy surpass ‘those in Ukraine, Gaza and Somalia combined’. And yet it barely registers on the global conscience. The people of Sudan die in darkness.
Humanity’s ignorance of Sudan’s suffering is unforgivable. A YouGov poll in October 2023 found that 75 per cent of Americans felt they had little or no understanding of events in Sudan. Last year, a YouGov / CAFOD poll found that just five per cent of Brits believed Sudan was experiencing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Guess where they thought the worst humanitarian crisis was really unfolding? Gaza. Forty-two per cent said Gaza was humanity’s grimmest catastrophe, despite the fact its death toll, its levels of hunger and its crisis of displacement are all smaller than Sudan’s….
Animus for Israel is such a powerful drug among our cultural establishments that it now has real, material consequences in global affairs. For good or ill, we live in a world where media attention can lead to action. As London for Sudan says, media focus on Sudan’s troubles might have generated greater ‘humanitarian efforts’ and ‘government action’. We also know that dictators like Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad, then ruler of Syria, ‘capitalis[ed] on the world’s focus on Gaza’ to intensify their assaults on Ukraine and Syrian dissidents respectively. The Israel myopia of the influential of the West has proved a boon for the world’s warmongers, and a disaster for the world’s oppressed. Israelophobia is more than a moral irritation – it kills.
No comment, I think, is necessary. But do be sure to read the whole thing.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Only the lives of Black criminals in America matter, like a George Floyd or a Jordan Neely. The lives of actual innocent Blacks, be it in the south side of Chicago, or the Bronx, or St Louis, does not matter, particularly if taken by other Blacks, or muslims. The massacre of Blacks in Sudan matters even less, since that’s being done by muslims, who Black race-hustlers regard as “allies”
James Lincoln says
Otherwise known as “selective outrage”, Infidel.
OLD GUY says
You left out the daily massacre of Christians in Nigeria, that the media and the left fails to talk about yet alone try and stop. The murder and rape of black Christians around the world is unbelievable yet the left sides with a few criminals. Even the corruption of Black Lives Matter gets swept under the rug by the media.
PacosMojo says
Repeat After Me: NOT OUR PROBLEM! We need to keep our nose out of all international conflicts unless said conflict constitutes a LEGITIMATE threat to US national security interests. Period! Providing Israel with weapons to eliminate bad actors that do threaten the US and our citizens is as far as we should extend ourselves into wars that take place outside our borders.
Blougeoisie says
Khartoum was no no no to Israel. And now the world is saying no no no to Khartoum.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Actually, in 2019 or 2020, Sudan was the 4th Arab country to sign a treaty recognizing Israel, and starting to normalize relations. Although not sure of what became of that once their civil war started
Alkflaeda says
It’s a reiteration of the “Four legs good, two legs bad” mantra of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, except that, in today’s media, the first clause is always “Islam good”.
gravenimage says
For the Left, Black Lives Don’t Really Matter — Only the ‘Genocide in Gaza’ Does
………………………………………
Only lying about this matters…