Silence over jihadi butchery in Syria tells you all you need to know about the West’s distorted view of the Middle East

John Kirby, then the US National Security Council spokesman, added: “We don’t want to see any actor… move themselves in such a way that makes it harder for the Syrian people to get at legitimate governance.”

And in an ultimate expression of irony, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the man who for years has occupied northern Syria and waged war on the Kurds, and who is the principal sponsor of the country’s new jihadi rulers, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), tutted: “Security cannot be achieved by spilling more blood, by dropping more bombs on innocent civilians.” Ha!

There followed a carnival of fawning over the jihadi warlord Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who in exchanging his turban and combat fatigues for a suit and tie and trimming his beard had managed to convince the world that he was a jolly good chap.

There was Jeremy Bowen, exhilarated to have secured an interview with the former Islamic State and Al Qaeda leader, scurrying after him through Assad’s cavernous presidential palace like a little boy eager for approval from his older brother. There were António Guterres and the International Criminal Court’s distinguished prosecutor Karim Khan — the very man behind those shameful arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant — posing with Jolani and shaking him manfully by the hand. Last but not least, there were Britain’s favourite centrist dads, Rory Stewart and Alistair Campbell, bravely travelling to Syria for a special edition of their luxury podcast featuring an interview with the jihadi of the hour.

Well. Over the last few days, HTS has unleashed a wave of butchery across the country, particularly towards the south, targeting Alawites — the sect to which the Assads belong — as well as the Christians and Druze. The media has been strangely silent about the matter, with even the behemoths like the aforementioned CNN treating the story gingerly. “Syria clashes have killed more than 300 people since Thursday, monitoring group says,” the broadcaster reported this morning, notably avoiding crass stylistic embellishments like “trepidation and glee”.

Looking at some of the appalling footage online, however, the word “glee” is sadly spot on. While some reports claim Alawite forces loyal to former dictator Assad started the violence, the videos showing what appears to be government forces murdering unarmed people suggests the jihadis are not quite as reformed as hoped. These savages humiliated, tortured and massacred civilians en masse, filming it on their mobile phones for posterity. They forced people to crawl on all fours and bark like dogs while beating them with sticks. They carried out summary executions of men and boys. They murdered a Christian winemaker and submerged his body in piles of grape-pulp before jumping up and down on it. The sickening scenes are hard to watch.

From these grim days, certain conclusions suggest themselves. First, that Western elites tend to view the world through a lens that casts Israel in a relentlessly dim light yet goes remarkably easy on Muslim extremists, from whatever brand of fanaticism they happen to hail. For them, the point is to make themselves look and feel good in the company of other liberals, you see, not to take a stance that truly acknowledges the reality of the region. After all, it’s not the lives of their children that are on the line. Second, that when these people are — predictably enough — proven wrong, they prefer to ignore the matter and hope it goes away, speaking about it only sotto voce.

Thirdly and most importantly, Israel did the right thing. Can you imagine if it had not taken control of the buffer zone and destroyed Assad’s chemical weapons? Israel’s main fear is that Syria will become a magnet for Sunni jihadis from all over the world who all want to sweep down to Jerusalem. Hence the establishment of an autonomous zone for the Druze along the Syrian border, defended by the IDF; this has a humanitarian dimension, too, as Alawites and Christians have poured into the area in recent days seeking protection from the Sunni mob.

So we have the clearest example yet of the narcissistic morality of Western elites coming up against the morality of reality, as practised by Israel. In taking preemptive action in Syria, the IDF did more to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe — indeed, it did more to further the cause of regional non-proliferation — than the UN has ever accomplished. Never has the finger-wagging of the world looked so unforgivably idiotic.