Days to go for the most high-profile election in the universe. As the two candidates enter the final lap of campaigning, the messaging has decidedly gone off-colour. The Kamala Harris campaign recently ran a commercial on Snapchat and Instagram, scripted around the love life of black voters. In the commercial, depicting a speed dating scenario, a man is seen approaching a group of women holding balloons. The young ladies enquire about the man’s job, his finances, and his height. They react positively to all his answers. Then they ask him the crucial question: does he plan to vote? He responds, “Nah, not my thing”! The ladies are not impressed and they all pop their balloons, indicating it is a deal-breaker. The commercial generated backlash, with commentators saying it dehumanised and belittled the black community.  

The Donald Trump campaign also ran into a controversy because of sexually implicit messaging used in a speech. Shocker. The former US president, now seeking a second term, talked about legendary golfer Arnold Palmer. Nothing wrong with that, you would say. Except that, of all things, he was discussing the size of Palmer’s genitalia. This could have been a part of what is being called Trump’s ‘bro whispering campaign’; a swaggering, alpha-male, no-holds-barred style to reach out to men between the ages of 18-30 years. In 2018, he called a former key White House aide of his a “dog” and a “crazed, crying lowlife”. In this campaign, he referred to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, as “mentally impaired”.  

Crude messaging and the erosion of decent political discourse has now become a global trend. Ad hominem attacks, targeting the person instead of ideas or policies, is becoming the norm. Racist remarks and misogynistic statements are rampant.  

“We Do Not Want To Become A Mixed Race”

In 2022, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s comment was straight out of the Nazi playbook when he said, “We are not a mixed race… and we do not want to become a mixed race”. Former President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, on hearing about a journalist’s death in 2016, blurted, “Just because you’re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if you’re a son of a bitch”. In 2017, Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, crossed the line, “I’ve got five kids but on the fifth I had a moment of weakness and it came out a woman”.

President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, has called LGBTQ rights an ideology more destructive than communism. Former United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, in one of his columns, wrote that women wearing the burqa looked like letter boxes or bank robbers. In 2021, former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said, “If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on men unless they’re robots. It’s common sense.”  

There are countless examples in India. Last year, an MP from the ruling dispensation used communal slurs on the floor of Parliament. The Home Minister, in 2018, termed illegal immigrants as ‘termites’. And we remember Prime Minister Modi, with his catcalls of “Didi, O Didi” aimed at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, during the 2021 assembly elections. Misogyny lost.  

Social Media Has Made Us Less Empathetic

One of the significant factors contributing to the lowering of political discourse has been the rise of social media. While it has provided a convenient outlet for people to share their thoughts, these platforms can also foster echo chambers, where individuals are primarily exposed to ideas that align with their own. This can lead to a lack, or limited understanding, of alternative viewpoints. It leads to a decline in empathy and ‘otherisation’ of opponents, as well as an increased willingness to engage in personal attacks and harassment. Legacy media has also played a part, by prioritising sensationalism and opinion, instead of fact-based reporting.  

Would it be fair to say that this is a recent phenomenon in politics? Not by a long shot. In 1931, Winston Churchill described Mahatma Gandhi as a “seditious, half-naked fakir”. In the nineteenth century, an American President was vilified as a “liar”, “despot”, “usurper”, “thief”, “ignoramus”, “swindler”, “fiend”, “buffoon”, “butcher”, and a “devil”. Even Abraham Lincoln was not spared.  

(Additional research: Ayashman Dey)

(Derek O’Brien, MP, leads the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

The death of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar on Thursday, October 17, by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), is a watershed moment in the Israel-Hamas war that has raged on since October 7 last year. 

A senior member of Hamas, Sinwar had taken over its leadership following the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh earlier this year in Tehran. Committed to Israel’s destruction, he was the mastermind of the brutal Hamas attacks in October last year, which claimed the lives of over 1,200 Israelis, with more than 200 people taken hostage by the Hamas. Since then, Israeli reprisals have killed almost 42,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Meanwhile, Iran’s proxy and ally on Israel’s northern borders, the Hezbollah, began launching rocket attacks on Israel. In retaliation, since October 1 this year, Israel has been involved in full-scale military operations in Southern Lebanon and Beirut in a bid to create a buffer zone free of the Hezbollah’s presence between Israel and Lebanon.

Following Sinwar’s death, US President Joe Biden and European leaders have renewed calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Biden said Sinwar’s death was “an opportunity to seek a path to peace” in Gaza. 

The Two Aspects To Sinwar’s Death

However, a ceasefire has proved elusive since Israel’s operations in Gaza. All that has been made possible is a few “humanitarian pauses” to let aid reach the besieged people in Gaza. Israel has resisted all calls for a ceasefire, alleging that any such step would be exploited by the Hamas to regroup and remobilise. Shortly after Sinwar’s death, Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations wrote on X: “Yesterday at the UN Security Council, many asked why we are still in Gaza a year after the October 7th atrocities. Today they got the answer. No terrorist is immune to the long arm of the IDF. We will not stop until we bring home all of our hostages and eliminate the Hamas monsters.”

There are two aspects to Sinwar’s death. On the one hand, defence experts have pointed out that the pictures of the last moments leading to Sinwar’s death show him sitting alone in a room above ground. The scene points to significant damage inflicted by the IDF on the numerous underground tunnels that the Hamas used. With the death of numerous high-profile leaders of both the Hamas and the Hezbollah, the organisations are in disarray. The former, especially, has been heavily dismantled. This factor alone may push its other members to surrender and release the 100-odd Israeli hostages still being held captive in the Strip. 

Discussions between the US, Israel, the European Union, and Arab states have also revolved around a plan whereby post-war Gaza would see joint-Arab force.

The Question Of Hostages

Israel has turned Gaza into rubble. Even with 42,000 dead in the strip, even after a year of war, it has not been able to achieve one of its major objectives —the release of all hostages. While about 120-odd hostages have been freed—thanks to major back-channel efforts by Qatar, Egypt, and the US—a number of them died in captivity, while about 100-odd hostages are still with the Hamas.

On the other hand, the fact remains that high-profile assassinations like Sinwar’s are not something new for the Hamas. Israel has a long history of carrying out such operations, and, if anything, the Hamas has only emerged militarily stronger, inflicting increasingly more brutal attacks on Israelis. The October 7 attacks were a culmination of this history, when Hamas launched multi-pronged strikes on Israel from land, sea, and air, carefully dodging all surveillance and air defence systems.  launched multi-pronged strikes on Israel from land, sea, and air, carefully dodging all surveillance and air defence systems. , carefully dodging all surveillance and air defence systems. Many, including those inside Israel, have pointed out that the unprecedented destruction wrought by Israel in Gaza may just be what incentivises others to join the ranks of Hamas and continue its work.

Of course, Hamas has kept up the bravado up too. Sinwar’s long-time deputy, Khalil al-Hayya, has said that Sinwar’s death “will only increase the strength and resolve of Hamas and our resistance”. What is also interesting is that Fatah, the Hamas’s arch-rival and which together with the rest of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation had promised to eschew any violence against Israel, has also officially released a statement mourning the death of “martyr Yahya Sinwar “. Hence, while the world would want nothing more for the hostages to be released and a ceasefire reached, whether it will actually happen remains anyone’s guess.

Netanyahu’s Quandary

Tellingly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also not committed to any ceasefire. “The war … is not over yet. And it is difficult, and it exacts heavy prices from us,” Netanyahu said in a video statement after Sinwar’s death. He also had a message for the Hamas: “Whoever lays down his weapon and returns our hostages—we will allow him to go on living.” 

Indeed, Netanyahu would hope for this to happen. His war on Gaza has not exactly provided him the domestic support he had hoped for, with many in his own country opposing it. As long as the hostages from October 7 remain captive in Gaza, it would be seen as a failure. Besides, with hundreds of IDF soldiers dead and the economy taking an unprecedented hit, the war has taken a great toll on the Israeli people themselves. The conflict has significantly escalated with Israel’s air and ground operations in Lebanon, which have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced many Lebanese civilians. After the death of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, Iran launched a barrage of missiles directly at Israel, the second time it has done so this year. Israel has vowed to avenge this. And in another symbolic escalation, none other than Netanyahu’s house was targeted in a Hezbollah drone strike.

Harris Or Trump, US Support May Continue

There is little incentive for Netanyahu’s government to agree to a ceasefire now, when the IDF’s successes in Lebanon and the deaths of those like Nasrallah and Sinwar are being hailed by the Israeli people as achievements after a year of opposition, which even saw calls for the government to resign.

More importantly, with US elections just weeks away, Netanyahu understands that he would likely get a free pass. No matter what US Vice President and Democrat Presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s domestic compulsions may be, overall, there is unlikely to be any major opposition to Israel’s wars. And in case Donald Trump and the Republicans form the next government, they are only expected to take a harsher stance against Iran. Marwan al-Muasher, Jordan’s former foreign minister and now Vice-President for Studies at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, sums it up: “There is no reason for Netanyahu to stop his wars before the American elections.”

Increasingly, it seems both Israel and Hamas, led by some unknown-to-us, apocalyptic vision, are fighting to the finish.

(Aditi Bhaduri is a journalist and political analyst. She has translated the works of Nicholas Roerich from Russian to English)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author