Politics

The Gaza war has damaged the West

The West's response to Israel's war on Gaza exposed its weakness and damaged its collective reputation, while also eroding civil liberties at home

SPENCER PLATT / AFP

Activists hold a demonstration in lower Manhattan against the arrest by ICE of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University, on 20 March 2025 in New York City.

The Gaza war has damaged the West

Christopher Phillips

last update on 01 Nov 2025

The Gaza Peace Summit, held in Sharm El-Sheikh on 13 October, appears to be a moment of Western triumph. Leaders from 26 states, and representatives from an additional five, gathered to support the Gaza ceasefire deal and pay tribute to Donald Trump for securing its passage. Although Egypt co-hosted it, the US president held court, as prime ministers and presidents from most Middle Eastern and European governments lined up to offer praise.

Yet while this might be Donald Trump's moment—and all gathered were pleased that the Gaza war appears to be over finally—other Western leaders might reflect that they emerge two years on from the October 7 attacks in a weaker position. Despite the success of Donald Trump, the Gaza war and its fallout at home and abroad have damaged the West as a whole.

"I know a lot of people don't agree with me, but I am the only one that matters," stated Trump at the Peace Summit, perhaps underlining the extent of his seeming dominance of the world stage after securing October's ceasefire deal.

Ostensibly, he has reasons to feel confident. Unlike his predecessor, Joe Biden, who laboured for months to push Israel and Hamas into a lasting ceasefire, with his one success broken by Benjamin Netanyahu in March, Trump appears to have leaned sufficiently on all parties. As has been widely reported, Trump hopes his efforts will result in the Nobel Peace Prize he covets next year.

REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett — US President Donald Trump poses for a photo at a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025.

But beyond Trump's personal glory, the ceasefire brings other seeming Western gains. Ending the conflict will save lives, stabilise the Middle East, and reduce pressure on Western leaders from their publics to do more.

Secondly, geostrategically, the exclusion of Russia and China from Sinai appeared to point to a renewed effort by Washington to lead in the Middle East, at Moscow and Beijing's expense. Indeed, Russian President Vladimir Putin had the humiliating experience of cancelling his plans to host a Russia-Arab World summit that was scheduled at the same time as the Sinai gathering.

Moreover, the ceasefire is a strategic victory for Trump's ally, Israel. While Netanyahu has not achieved his stated goal of destroying Hamas, he has secured the release of all the remaining hostages. Though his right-wing coalition allies' radical dreams of resettling Gaza appear not to have been realised, the long-term Israeli security goal of the territory being Hamas-free is a core component of the peace plan.

What's more, the creation of an International Stabilisation Force (ISF) to administer Gaza outsources for Israel the security for the strip to a friendly external player—a marked improvement on the past 18 years.

Netanyahu's reluctance to agree to a ceasefire exposed Western weakness when it comes to reigning Israel in, leading many to question the West's reliability as an ally

Western weakness exposed

However, though Trump and Israel are among the Western winners, the broader picture is less rosy for the West as a whole. Even if Trump appears strong, the US and the West in general have proven unable or unwilling to halt the conflict in the two years preceding this.

It is not as if they haven't tried. Biden made several unsuccessful attempts to broker a lasting truce. European leaders tried to sanction Israeli ministers, limit arms licenses and recognise Palestine to pressure Tel Aviv.

Yet Netanyahu's reluctance to agree to a ceasefire underlined Western weakness when it comes to reigning Israel in. This led many in the Middle East and Global South to question both the power of the West and its reliability as an ally. This builds on the charges of hypocrisy levelled at Western governments that wanted the world to condemn Moscow for attacking Ukraine, yet were comparatively muted on Israel in Gaza.

While China and Russia may have been excluded from the Sinai summit, both could benefit from a long-term re-evaluation of the West in the broader world that the Gaza war has helped bring about.

At home, too, the Gaza war has been damaging. For one, Western societies have become more divided. Incidents of both antisemitism and Islamophobia have risen since October 7. In the UK, for example, the Community Security Trust reported that antisemitic incidents more than doubled between 2023 and 2024, while, at the same time, the number of British Jews feeling unsafe leapt from 9% to over a third.

Meanwhile, Tell Mama, an organisation tracking Islamophobia, found that anti-Islam incidents doubled between 2023 and 2025. The rise of hate crimes has come amid visible political divisions, with large-scale pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrations taking place regularly across Western countries, underlining the divisive nature of the conflict.

Attack on liberties

Another consequence has been the harsh crackdowns by Western governments, which have been prompted by activism against Israel's war. In the US, pro-Palestinian encampments at universities such as Columbia were violently broken up by police, while some students involved in the protests were expelled.

Brandon Bell/AFP — A student is arrested during a pro-Palestine demonstration at the University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024, in Austin, Texas.

In the UK, the designation of one activist group, 'Palestine Action', as a terrorist group despite its alleged lack of violent activity has prompted widespread civil disobedience protests that have led to thousands being arrested. Not only has this eroded some long-held freedoms, but, once again, it damages the global image of Western states when governments arrest peaceful protestors opposing war in the developing world.

Pivot to Asia delayed

While these are long-term concerns, there are also more pressing worries about the conflict's outcome. Since Barack Obama's 'pivot to Asia', US leaders have been trying to reduce the US's footprint and involvement in the Middle East, focusing more on confronting China and, more recently, Russia.

But for all his hostility to Obama, Trump has continued this broad approach, especially keen to check China's rise. The ceasefire deal in Gaza returns Washington to the guarantor role of Arab-Israeli peace that it played in the past. If things don't go smoothly, and history would suggest this is the most likely outcome, the US now 'owns' the peace process, including overseeing the ISF, potentially sucking up attention and resources and distracting it from other priorities. Moreover, if things go really badly and the truce collapses, the US will once again appear weak and ineffectual.

The Gaza war has been challenging for the West from its very beginning. It has exposed the West's shortcomings internationally and damaged its collective reputation, while contributing to divisions and the erosion of freedoms at home.

While the current ceasefire looks like a Western win—most notably for Donald Trump and Israel—it carries risks, not least dragging Washington back into a region it has tried to extricate itself from for years. While it is nothing compared to the devastating losses incurred by Palestinians and Israelis in the past two years, the West has also been damaged by the Gaza war.

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