The following was originally published in Liberation, and was written by Jamshid Ahmadi
The relevant issue of Liberation can be found here
The genocidal campaign currently being waged against the Palestinian people in Gaza by the Israeli state, with the complicity of the US and British governments, poses a serious danger not only to the Middle East, but the whole world.
The US military-industrial complex has lost all control of the Israeli war machine as well as its influence over the far-right Netanyahu regime at its helm, underlined by Secretary Blinken’s frantic and failed shuttle diplomacy to various Arab capitals. By openly opposing UN resolutions, standing in contempt of International Court of Justice, and denouncing the Secretary General of the UN, Netanyahu’s government now finds itself in among the league of rogue regimes it had hitherto claimed to stand above.
As predicted, the policy of appeasement of the Israeli government by the US, UK, and EU has completely failed to keep it under even a semblance of control. Concerned for his own political future, Netanyahu rigidly sticks to a line the cogency and wisdom of which some of Israel’s key allies now openly question.
Since the very start of the war, there has been a danger of war spilling over Israel’s borders. Attacks on a number of targets in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq with drones and other sophisticated weaponry have only agitated various forces based in these countries to seek revenge. There are growing rumours that Israel seeks a regional war in which it can directly engage the theocratic regime in Iran. Such a situation would mean the US and UK, as well as other countries, would be obliged to enter even further into the fray.
However, despite the tragedy in Gaza and the West Bank, new poles are clearly emerging in the international balance of economic and political power, portending well for an alternative to the woeful state of affairs that has hitherto dominated for the last 30 years.
A growing number of countries, especially in the Global South, are rejecting US hegemony. The emergence of the BRICS+ alliance, the continued economic and social progress of China, and divisions among Western European states, are laying the basis for a new world order. The petition brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice on account of Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people serves to expose the corrupt amalgam of interests destabilising the Middle East.
However, the region remains the eye of the storm. The attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023 must be condemned not only for their brutality, but for providing a pretext for Israel to launch its horrific onslaught. One also cannot deny that the very existence of the various militant factions owes to over 80 years of vile anti-Arab policies as encapsulated in the apartheid constitution of Israel.
The old unipolar world order, in which the UK hangs desperately to the coattails of the US, offers no solution – only more escalation and destabilisation internationally. Yet, even in Western Europe, different approaches are emerging. Spain and Belgium have led the way by suspending arms and military supplies to Israel. Such small steps could serve to pave the way towards creating the conditions for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza and a new alignment in the Middle East, including the facilitation of a viable independent and sovereign Palestinian state.
The adopting of a non-aligned foreign policy by Britain, one that no longer kowtows to US mal-designs, would surely represent a step in the right direction.
Calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza have the widespread international support of people around the world, both in the Global North and South. Therefore, is it not high time that Britain liberated itself from the chains shackling its foreign policy to that of the US, to warmongering and destruction?