Exclusive Altruism 2.0

The quote from Animal Farm, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others," captures the irony of organizations that end up betraying their own ideals. 

NGOs and UN-related institutions, for example, have historically displayed virulent anti-Israel rhetoric and bias in their actions. From Day One of the October 7 war, however, hypocrisy has become the norm, with extreme global outrage regarding treatment of the Palestinians unmatched in earlier and even larger conflicts. 

These humanitarians have stopped heeding their main principle, “Do no harm.” Where Effective Altruists try to do the largest amount of good for the many, modern humanitarians have frequently become “Exclusive Altruists” – only portraying concern for some. It appears that during this conflict, humanitarians the world over have undeniably shown little or no concern for Israelis or Jews.

Israel is a young country that operates within a complex arena. Still, Israel has imperfectly tried to further peace. Israel also tries to stay ethical in war, even with a barbaric opponent with stated genocidal intentions. The intense criticism Israel receives has left many Israelis and Jews across the world feeling isolated, baffled and betrayed. 

Why does Israel, the most liberal country in the Middle East, get such disproportionate rebuke? Is this due to antisemitism or other factors? Below are seven thoughts, which represent a combination of rational and irrational factors, that seem to influence this new phenomenon: care for the oppressed cloaked in carelessness for some: Zionists/Israelis (A/K/A Jews).

Caveat: This writing in no way seeks to minimize the deaths of innocent people in this conflict.

News and Information

Journalistic Overexposure

Garbage in, garbage out. The media’s overexposure of Israel blurs the picture for outside observers. Israel’s constant presence in the news is due to its historic nature and influenced by geopolitical and religious interests. The extensive coverage of Israel often brushes over the complexities and challenges Israel faces, which are primarily fueled by Iranian terror funding and radical Islam. Sometimes it comes from lack of information and/or lack of context.

Reliable Disinformation - Third Party “Independent” Verification

Humanitarians primarily rely on data from entities that have long proven unreliable at best. This creates a snowball of disinformation for Exclusive Altruists to use as a reputable sounding source (e.g., Gaza Health ministry/UNWRA “teachers.") Similarly with regard to donor aid, there is a tendency among aid organizations to rely on others to perform the "dirty work," where proper oversight is often lacking. 

Donations frequently pass through intermediaries that pledge not to support terrorism. The effectiveness of such pledges is questionable, as the lack of rigorous cross-checks ensures that terrorists can easily exploit foreign donations. 

The Subconscious/Psychology

Underdog Perception and Scapegoating Israel

The "underdog perception" also plays a significant role. Many individuals blindly support the underdog and avoid answering pertinent questions. This sympathy from NGOs and well-meaning individuals has led to long-term dependency on aid, as seen in Gaza, where the population has become reliant on international assistance. 

While the suffering of innocent Palestinians is undeniable, blaming Israel for their hardships ignores the role of their own (elected!) leaders in ignoring an Egyptian border, Gazan territory, and the UN-confirmed Israel's right to exist and right of self defense.

Mental Biases – Empty Vessels Sound the Loudest

Pro-Hamas protestors frequently exhibit a lack of historic and factual knowledge of the conflict. The combination of politics, disinformation, language barriers and our mental biases makes the conflict complicated to understand. 

The Dunning-Kruger effect describes the psychological phenomenon where people with limited knowledge tend to overestimate their understanding. In the age of the internet, where everyone has access to information but not necessarily the skills to interpret it correctly, it is easy to believe one has attained sufficient knowledge of the subject.

Philosophical Pragmatism

Calculated Choice of Victims

In moral philosophy, the “trolley problem” describes conflicting choices – for instance, when steering a train-trolley into one of two groups of people. Similarly, in the Israeli-Hamas conflict, aid organizations may rationalize supporting Palestinians living in dire conditions, even when this support might indirectly harm Israelis, as in the case of the UNWRA-funded educators who turned out to be terrorists. 

Ten thousand poor Gazan deaths by bombs is surely worse than a few thousand Israelis/Zionists/Jews that have an army?  This recalls similar outrage about German civilian deaths in WWII that was never publicized, for an undefined reason.

Economic Pragmatism

Humanitarian Aid “Spray and Pray”

Humanitarian aid organizations, too, are not immune to these biases. In some cases, the sheer scale of their operations leads to a "size effect," where thorough due diligence is sacrificed for efficiency. Aid is often distributed without robust assessments, especially in complex regions like Gaza, where intermediary companies handle the distribution. This approach, sometimes dubbed "spray and pray," can result in aid inadvertently supporting corrupt governments or terrorist organizations like Hamas, which controls much of Gaza and actively promotes violence against Israel.

Aid Justifies the Means

Machiavelli’s principle "the end justifies the means" also seems to be applied by the humanitarian sector during this war. Aid organizations will sometimes simplify their messaging to rally support and secure donations, therefore portray conflicts in black-and-white terms. 

This oversimplification leads to biased actions that prioritize the organization’s relevance over accurately assessing the damage that aid causes. Israel is thus careless about civilians' lives, whereas Hamas’ continued rockets directly aimed at exclusive civilian areas for years are not mentioned, or scarcely condemned.

NGOs and UN (-related) Institutions need to be Reformed

For some Exclusive Altruists, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. For the majority, cynical Exclusive Altruists, lofty sounding terms like Human Rights, aid and International Law simply provide cover for antisemitism. Their singular focus and simplified version of the conflict is unique, their lack of interest in discerning the required questions in the face of real consequences to Israelis and Jews cannot be explained. In effect, it becomes appeasement of radical Islam/terrorism. The result is to the detriment of Israelis and innocent Palestinians alike.

At a national level, Western nations try to retain cohesion in their own society and geopolitics by feigning even-handedness. Other, small, often-autocratic nations have hijacked global NGOs to cover up their own internal failings.

To truly adhere to humanitarian principles, aid organizations must move beyond simplistic virtue signalling. This finger-pointing at Israel – often in a forced effort to show even-handedness - ultimately prolongs the conflict and harms the Palestinians that Exclusive Altruists claim to care about.