/ world today news/ In recent years, American diplomacy has faced a number of challenges. Here we also have Russia with the Ukrainian case, and the increasingly active behavior of China, and Iran, which rejects the latest restrictions from the nuclear deal. The most serious challenge, however, was the military conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Not because it could lead to a world war (most likely a US-Iranian one). And not because the US ally is in a difficult situation – Israel has every chance to inflict a military defeat on the Hamas group. But as this conflict robs American diplomacy of its freedom of maneuver – and brings the end of Pax Americana sharply closer.
No alternative
It is no secret that the US has taken a completely and absolutely pro-Israel position in this conflict. They supply Tel Aviv with weapons. They defend it in the UN Security Council – for example by blocking a resolution on the need for an immediate ceasefire (and being the only country to vote against it, because even the loyal British decided to abstain). “In a situation where Hamas is alive, not defeated, and not giving up its intentions to repeat the events of October 7 again and again, a cease-fire will only lead to the continuation of the problem,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken explained the decision .
And such protection seems quite logical. First, because the population of the United States as a whole is pro-Israel (especially those Americans who vote for the Republican Party). Second, the Jewish community in the US is extremely influential (not only because it controls entire segments of the economy, but also because it funds the Democratic Party). Third, Israel is the only full ally of the US in the Middle East. An ally that will not defect (as, for example, China-looking Saudi Arabia might), that lacks the ability to pursue an independent foreign policy and challenge American leadership in the region (as Turkey already does), and that has a relationship with the Americans as only existential enemy in the face of Iran.
The problem is that a completely pro-Israel position neutralizes years of American diplomacy to improve relations with Arab society. It trivializes the many sacrifices (both financial and human – for example, the surrender of a staunch US ally, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, to the Islamists) that were made to make America more attractive in the eyes of ordinary Arabs. And it turns to dust all the efforts that Washington is making now to bring to its side not even the Arab, but the Muslim world in global problems (for example, in containing China and Russia).
They won’t convince
By fully and unconditionally supporting Tel Aviv, Washington has effectively become complicit in everything Israel does in Gaza. Yes, Anthony Blinken says arms are being handed over to the Israelis subject to compliance with international humanitarian law – but he’d better not say that. After all, everyone can see how the Israeli army is abiding by humanitarian law by bombing the Strip and shooting Palestinians in the streets.
Yes, purely theoretically the Americans could hold explanatory talks with Tel Aviv. To explain that in an attempt to eliminate Hamas it is impossible to kill Palestinians according to the principle “kill them all, Allah will recognize his own”. You cannot bomb peaceful areas. You cannot commit atrocities in the age of mobile internet and high technology, when every destroyed house allows Palestinian propagandists to make dozens of videos about the suffering of civilians.
However, everyone understands that Israel will not behave differently. Because he can’t and doesn’t want to.
Fighting in urban agglomerations means bringing in a huge amount of infantry, which Israel is not prepared to do. So instead, he methodically clears territory where he believes Hamas infrastructure or fighters are located. Meanwhile, the entire strip is only 360 square meters. km of territory where more than 2.2 million people live (or rather used to live). That is, more than six thousand people per square kilometer of the entire area, or more than 13 thousand if we specifically take the city of Gaza itself before the start of the war. This is why Israeli bombing (especially carpet bombing) results in the deaths of so many civilians and cannot be carried out within international humanitarian law in the first place.
Purely in theory, the Israeli leadership could come up with something to somehow take care of the civilians – but it doesn’t want to. First, because the level of mutual hatred between Jews and Palestinian Arabs is so out of bounds that footage of indiscriminate executions of the same Arabs in Gaza by the Israeli military regularly appears on the Internet. Second, the Israeli leadership apparently wants to teach the Arabs a lesson about the events of October 7 – to show that such attacks on Israel will be punished as severely as possible, even with the help of the principle of collective responsibility.
It would be better if they kept quiet
This is how a diplomatic stalemate turns out for Washington. America has become something of a hostage to Israeli politics. Forced to take massive damage due to the actions of her ally that she can’t deny and that she can’t fully control.
But it seems that the US administration can at least adapt to the current situation. To lower the level of diplomatic pathos, to be a little quieter (while helping Tel Aviv by pointing out to the Iranians the risks of an attack on Israel and to the Saudis the consequences of some sanctions action). American diplomats, however, as it turns out, even in this situation, cannot turn off their hypocritical pathos.
As a result, Washington opposes bringing the Gaza issue to the UN Security Council on the grounds that … they want to protect Palestinian civilians. “We continue to focus our efforts on the complex and delicate diplomatic work of freeing more hostages, providing more aid to Gaza and better protecting civilians,” said US Deputy UN Representative Robert Wood.
Most cynical was a recent statement by White House spokesman John Kirby. “Name me one country – any country – that is doing as much to reduce the pain and suffering of the people of Gaza as the US is doing. You can’t – you just can’t. The United States, through President Biden, is responsible for delivering trucks, food, water, medicine and fuel to the people of Gaza,” the official told reporters. A representative of a country that is helping to “reduce the pain and suffering” of the residents of Gaza by providing ammunition to the Israelis to kill those residents.
Unsurprisingly, such a position, which is the height of not only cynicism but also the politics of double standards, is causing wild irritation in the Muslim world. Which, against the background of the growing economic and political sovereignty of the Arab countries, deals a serious blow to the remnants of American leadership in the world. And Washington is turning from a once important security guarantor and stabilizing force into a toxic player and an elephant in a glass shop. Or a donkey, considering who is currently in power in Washington.
Experts assure that when the “elephants” (i.e. Republicans) return to the shop, the situation will change. America will continue to help Israel openly, but honestly and without pathos that destroys its reputation (as it did under President Donald Trump). However, this return is still a year away. For which the current US administration, with its behavior in the Arab-Israeli case, will finally finish the Pax Americana.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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