2023 in review: Israel-Hamas war puts human rights in focus as pattern of double standards persists

As millions of Christians dug into their Turkey dinners and exchanged gifts on Christmas Day, Turkey carried out 71 airstrikes against purported terrorist targets in Kurdish-run northeast Syria — among them a US-government-funded medical clinic, a publishing house, a grain silo and a petrol pump. Eight civilians have perished so far in the latest wave of Turkish attacks aimed at degrading the Kurdish-led entity, which is notionally under US military protection. As of the time of this writing, beyond airing "dismay" about the airstrikes to an Iraqi Kurdish outlet without mentioning Turkey, Washington has not uttered a peep.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains among Israel’s loudest critics as Israeli forces rain death and destruction on civilians in Gaza. Erdogan's championing of the Palestinian cause has won Turkey praise from Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu’s domestic critics. Take Gideon Levy. The prominent Israeli journalist declared at a recent conference funded by state-run news channel TRT that Turkey was “a very good example” of the need for regional and global players “who could help stop” the war in Gaza. Is Levy unaware that Turkish drones are killing Kurdish women and children and dozens of fellow journalists are languishing in Turkish jails?

Never have global hypocrisy and selective outrage been quite as blatantly on display as it has since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants and their supporters butchered more than 1,100 Israelis in a single day. The ferocity of Israel’s response, with more than 20,000 Palestinians — most of them women and children — killed so far and the Biden administration’s continued military backing of Israel even as it urges restraint, has spurred many to ask whether Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli lives. The Kurds may well ask whether their lives matter at all.