No power lasts forever

When Tucker Carlson, once a prominent defender of Israel, stands to criticize unconditional American support for Israel and to condemn the war of annihilation in Gaza; when Piers Morgan, who vehemently opposed describing what is happening in Gaza as a war of annihilation, becomes a voice opposing Israel’s policies of annihilation and settlement expansion; when Pink Floyd, one of the most prominent Western artists, protests and attacks Israeli policies, calling on artists not to perform there and comparing the current cultural boycott of Israel to the boycott waged against the apartheid regime in South Africa— when the positions of such media figures and artists shift from supporting the Israeli narrative and the victimhood claims adopted by the Zionist entity for eight decades to opposing and rejecting the entity and its policies, the question arises: Is military force alone sufficient? Which decides matters on the battlefield, or do soft power and media theory of justice have a power that is absolutely no less than the power of the military machine, or financial and economic superiority?

In 2011, Roger Waters wrote in The Guardian appealing to the world to impose a cultural boycott on Israel, stressing that refraining from performing any artistic activity in Israel could lead to peaceful and soft pressure that serves Palestinian rights. He then repeated the same speech in 2013, considering at that time that the boycott that was practiced against the apartheid regime in South Africa was one of the most effective means of pressure. Military force is not always what decides matters.

There are many historical transformations that were decided by changes in human consciousness and the shift in the direction of global public opinion. What happened in South Africa, with the accumulation of such consciousness, was an important factor in bringing down the oppressive apartheid regime. Today, with Gaza, the repercussions of the change in the moral positions of prominent media figures, artists, and pioneers of theater, art, and music are accumulating every day, along with sports and academic boycotts, economic sanctions, withdrawal of investments, and boycotts of companies and brands, after the world witnessed, through live broadcasts, Israel’s crimes against children, the elderly, the land, rights, freedoms, and everything else.

Such pressure alone may not have been what led to the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa, but it was a symbolic and direct cause that contributed to its downfall, when the regime felt isolated and ostracized from the circles of sports, art and culture in general, before it was politically isolated. Today, something similar is happening with regard to the media, cultural, and literary stance of prominent figures in these fields who found in Israel’s practices a direct violation of the human right to dignity, life, and freedom. These people called things by their names and described Israel’s crimes in Gaza as genocide, not the legitimate right to self-defense that Israel has been promoting for eight decades.

The decisive moment in South Africa was the one that took place at the Sun City resort, when artists launched a campaign to stand up against apartheid. This happened in 1985, leading to the decisive political dismantling of this system in 1990, culminating in a symbolic date in April 1994. The scene was repeated today when thousands of film workers signed a pledge in September 2025 not to cooperate with Israeli film institutions that they consider complicit in the war of extermination in Gaza. Indeed, “We alternate these days among people,” so no power lasts forever, especially if people’s awareness and conscience awaken to its unjust practices.