One year after the ill-conceived attack by Hamas on Israel taking about 250 people hostage and killing nearly 1200, the situation in the region has only worsened with the Jewish state refusing to heed international calls for a ceasefire and an end to hostilities. Israel’s bloody revenge saw the displacement of thousands in Gaza and the killing of nearly 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women, children and the elderly. The Jewish state’s disproportionate response was not adequately condemned by the international community. Now Israel has extended its operations to Lebanon, where thousands more have been displaced, and Iran, targeting the Hezbollah and assassinating its leader Hassan Nasrallah. In the year since the Hamas attack, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who was battling fraud and corruption charges and was hugely unpopular in his country, has managed to turn things around with his unrelenting attack on the ‘enemies’ of the Jewish state. By taking the fight to Iran, Netanyahu has widened the zone of conflict. West Asia is now a tinderbox waiting to explode as more and more countries are being roped into the conflict. Even the United States, always seen as pro-Israel, has advocated a ceasefire but Netanyahu is too far gone to listen to any advice. Lame duck President Joe Biden’s call for restraint has gone unheeded.
The West, which has always been blamed for going soft on Israel, has finally woken up to the humanitarian catastrophe that is Gaza. French President Emmanuel Macron at a conference of the Francophone countries called for an immediate ceasefire. He backed the two-state solution as have three other European countries, Norway, Ireland and Spain which have accorded recognition to the Palestinian state. Iran’s missile attack on Israel in response to the assassination of Nasrallah will no doubt be responded to. Israel has already threatened to attack Iran’s oil installations. It is only a matter of time before the Sunni Arab states are roped into the conflict. Worldwide there is immense condemnation of Israel’s assault on the Palestinians which has been likened to genocide but in the wake of the United Nations being unable to enforce the rule of law there is little that can be done. If there is ever a time for UN reforms and widening of the Security Council it is now. India has remained neutral abstaining from all UN resolutions on the conflict. As a good friend of Netanyahu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi should prevail upon Israel to tone down the rhetoric and wind down the conflict that is bound to take its toll on the global economy. It is time for this debilitating war to come to an end. In both West Asia and Ukraine the conflicts are being dragged on because of the arrogance of leaders and their complete apathy to the suffering of innocent citizens.
