Trump, Epstein, and the Netanyahu endorsement: The strange standards of Western shame

There is something magnificently obscene about a civilization that treats association with a sex trafficker as a moral scandal but endorsement of a leader accused of genocide as statesmanship. Donald Trump’s enthusiastic endorsement of Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s October 27 elections exposes a truth Western imperial power has long concealed beneath its civilizational pretensions: barbarism is supposedly what the darker nations do. Mass killing, when perpetrated by favored allies, becomes foreign policy. Jeffrey Epstein is a scandal. Benjamin Netanyahu is celebrated. One association invites repudiation; the other earns presidential endorsement. Behold the moral double standard of empire: depravity is condemned when it embarrasses power and defended when it serves it. Trump’s association with Epstein has become politically radioactive, prompting […]