Irish Examiner view: Netanyahu has no incentive to stop waging war on innocent Palestinians

Realists feel that the Israeli leader is being emboldened by US reluctance to condemn him more forcefully

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies have stigmatised Israel internationally and left it open to accusations — which it strongly denies — that it is pursuing a policy of genocide against the Palestinians. Picture: Abir Sultan/AP

Israel’s war in Gaza — having already cost an estimated 32,000 lives and wreaked havoc and starvation on a largely innocent population — is dragging on. So too is the tenure of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

His dwindling number of supporters maintain Israel has to cripple Hamas to ensure there is no repeat of the October 7 massacres, hence his unwillingness to thus far accept a ceasefire. His growing number of critics say he is only prosecuting the war to save his political hide.

In trying to prevent the collapse of his fragile right-wing coalition, Netanyahu has increasingly ignored the growing worldwide anger about the ongoing carnage and the increasingly hostile protests organised by the families of hostages still held by Hamas.

His announcement on Sunday that Israel is withdrawing all but one brigade from southern Gaza might seem a sop to US president Joe Biden’s increasingly plaintive demands that civilians have to be protected before military aims are met.

But, having thus far ignored the pleas of his biggest ally, the US, to desist militarily, Netanyahu’s policies have only stigmatised Israel internationally and left it open to accusations — strongly denied — that it is pursuing a policy of genocide against the Palestinians.

His domestic situation is little better as a growing protest movement is demanding a hostage deal and a ceasefire.

Cynics might suggest that Netanyahu’s seemingly entrenched view that the war has to continue is simply so his government can remain in power, but realists feel the Israeli leader has been emboldened by US reluctance to condemn him more forcefully.

Sadly, with no accountability and no consequences, there appears to be no incentive for the Israeli leader to stop doing what he has been doing.

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Deepfakes could threaten electoral integrity

The prospect for female candidates in forthcoming elections that deepfake images or videos, most likely of a pornographic or sexualised nature, of them being generated and circulated, is truly chilling.

Alarming warnings about the use of artificial intelligence (AI)  to produce such material in order to demean, discredit and vilify females standing in the elections to the European Parliament, need to be acted upon by the main social media players. Worse again, we now appear to be in a situation where time is running out on our ability to avoid a future of undetectable deepfakes.

Certainly, in the last week Meta, the owner of Facebook (among others), announced it would expand labelling of AI-generated content amid concerns that a rise in deepfake posts will continue to mislead social media users.

The tech giant has said it will apply ‘made-with-AI’ labels to a range of video, audio and images. Its previous policy with regard to manipulation only applied to video posts, but that was because it was written in 2020, before the tech industry’s AI boom.

That change of heart, welcome as it is, illustrates how quickly industry norms are being shattered by the evolution of AI, but also how the world needs to adapt quickly to the rapidly shifting sands of technology and how tech companies need to act with alacrity to the threats posed.

Those sands have a particular relevance this year, one of the busiest electoral years in recent memory, and especially when we now know so much more about what people are capable of doing with such advanced technologies.

Meta’s oversight board (an outside body funded by Meta) as recently as February described the company’s existing policies as ‘incoherent’ after an altered video of US president Biden remained on Facebook because it did not violate company policy.

However, with the live threat of female candidates being sexualised or otherwise discredited in June’s European elections, others now need to follow Meta’s lead in explicitly labelling content that has been generated by AI.

There are few depths to which people will not descend when seeking to gain any sort of electoral advantage.

Blame game over important Irish college

Given the cultural significance of the ‘Irish college’ in our social fabric and its centrality as a uniquely Irish rite of passage — as well as the mere matter of propagating and popularising our native language — the thought that one of the country’s oldest and most successful such schools will not open this summer is almost beyond credibility.

Coláiste na Mumhan in the Co Cork Gaeltacht town of Béal Átha’n Ghaorhaidh is one of the country’s most historic and popular Irish colleges and its name will resonate with thousands of people who attended courses there down the years.

But its doors will remain closed this summer, losing vital income for the area and closing off to students the ability to learn Irish in one of the few places where it is still the native tongue. That this is happening at a time when demand for Gaeltacht learning is surging seems profoundly wrong.

It appears a decision by the trustees of the college has sealed its fate for the coming summer and, understandably, local community organisations are unhappy about it, not just because of the potential loss of earnings locally, but also because of the historical and cultural importance of the college.

Calls have been made for ministerial intervention to ensure Coláiste na Mumhan is open once more in 2005, but surely there is enough common sense going around to find an acceptable solution to what appears to be a readily solvable problem.

This unwelcome situation is one that should never have been allowed to reach the point it has. 

How it has evolved into an embarrassing blame game is to nobody’s credit.