To make such a declaration when the deaths of millions were being solemnly remembered signalled either a disconnection with, or total indifference to, the international community.
It will undoubtedly result in more mass killing and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians whose lives are already a living hell.
To deliberately decide to go down a path which can only make an already-dire humanitarian crisis worse seems unconscionable. Tel Aviv has drawn widespread condemnation, even from its allies. Rights groups have warned it could be a war crime under international law. The UN said it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies. As the war dead were mourned around the world, Israel was calling up thousands more reservists to expand and intensify its offensive.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the anniversary of the end of the 1939-45 conflagration was causing leaders to think seriously about new threats to their security today.
Recognition that traditional friendly links with the US can no longer be guaranteed poses key defence challenges. President Donald Trump’s trade war, and his administration’s overtly expressed contempt for the bloc, have emboldened Russian leader Vladimir Putin. He has doubled down in his defiance of the international order. Putin, a revanchist leader, has expressed a clear intent to take back some of the territory lost after 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Tens of thousands of young Russian soldiers are once again being killed in the war he declared on Ukraine. The appalling loss of life is all the more indefensible given that the Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people in what Russians call the “Great Patriotic War”. Despite Mr Trump reaching out to him and offering practically everything he could ask for in terms of ending the Ukraine war, the Russian president still shows no interest in coming to the table.
Russia will mark its own “Victory Day” this Friday.
Moscow will use the moment to put on display its massive military might. Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk seized the moment in a visit to issue an appeal for unity at a time of global insecurity. “Genuine solidarity between people and nations that will prevent the evil from shaping our present and future,” he said.
“The time of Europe’s carefree comfort, joyous unconcern is over. Today is the time of European mobilisation around our fundamental values and our security,” he warned. “The experience gained 80 years ago tells us that only when [we] stand together can we overcome,” he said. Or as D-day veteran Bernard Morgan (101) said in London: “It’s so important that we make the most of these opportunities to remember what happened, not just to celebrate the achievement, but also to ensure such horrors never happen again.” That is a responsibility that must be met.
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