These are difficult times globally. There is the ongoing brutality of the Russo-Ukrainian war leading to the death and displacement of millions of people who probably do not care where the borders between the two sisterly countries are drawn. The people there and their ancestors have lived in that place from time immemorial. The attempt by President Vladimir Putin to recreate a new Russian empire after the collapse of the USSR has led to his intervention not only in Ukraine but also in Moldova and in the Caucasus dismembering Georgia leading to the emergence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The genocidal conflict in the Sudan between the armed forces of the country (SAF) led by General Abdel Fattah al Burhan and the irregular forces of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under the leadership of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeddti), the man who was also the leader of the Janjaweed terrorist group responsible for killing millions of black Sudanese previously, has been going on for years and has led to the murder of millions of hapless Africans. The country has been destroyed and nobody seems to care that much. Not the Arabs, not the Africans and not the rest of the world except the puerile effusions from the United Nations’ Secretary General. War has been going on in the so-called Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where the western communications and other companies particularly the EV carmakers are busy mining minerals needed for their new innovations and batteries and paying starvation wages for the poor Africans including children digging with their hands for rare minerals.

All across the Sahel region of Africa, wars and insurgencies against rulers working for western interests have been going on for decades while military rulers come and go and the lives of Africans are deemed expendable. There is raging insurgency war against the brutal military regime in Burma (Myanmar) which has led to millions of ethnic Rohingya expelled and millions of rebels killed in the country.

In the Middle East, Yemenis are divided between the Houthis and the previously recognized legitimate government. Iraq has not recovered from American destruction of the country following the war to remove Saddam Hussein and its aftermath and a land of ancient civilisation has been handed over to sectarian chaotic leadership.  Syria under what is left of it under Bashar al Assad has been reduced to a shadow of its old self and the second largest city Aleppo has been bombed into Stone Age  and a glorious Arab civilisation has been brought down to a level of clannishness where a sense of nationalism is totally lost at least for now.

Pakistan and Afghanistan do not know peace and Lebanon is virtually partitioned into two between the Christian and conservative Arab regime on one hand and militant and armed Shi’ite Hisbollah- the so-called “party of God”. It is necessary to highlight these conflicts in order not to give an impression that all other parts of the world is peaceful except Gaza where the self-inflicted conflict with Israel has been going for the past seven months with apparent Israeli determination to wipe out the Palestinians as a “final solution “to the Palestinian question. It is ironic that this kind of extermination of a people was faced by the ancestors of the Israeli people some 75 years ago.

The breach of Israeli security by the Gaza Hamas rebels on October 7, 2023 during which about 1400 people were killed and kidnapped precipitated the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Everyone has said Israel is justified in fighting back and Israel has done this almost immediately after the surprise attack. Almost all the major powers backed Israel initially and those like Russia and China demurred, only to support on ideological basis, the Palestinians as a people fighting against colonial oppression. Even their support was tepid. 

The Americans led by President Joe Biden virtually moved key American ministries like Defence and Foreign Affairs and the CIA to Israel to facilitate easy delivery of weapons to Israel and full deployment of American diplomacy at the service of Israel. The G7 was mobilised to support Israel and NATO’s intelligence was put at service of Israel. Even countries in Africa and Latin America at the prodding of the United States toed the American line. The Arab countries especially the big ones like Egypt and Saudi Arabia lay prostrate at Israeli feet at the behest of the United States. India and Pakistan perhaps reluctantly supported Israel. With this massive support for Israel, the Jewish state feels it could not do any wrong. It unleashed its own and cutting edge and American weapons on the Gaza Strip and sometimes the Western Palestinian territory on the Western bank of the river Jordan. By the second month of the war on Gaza, about 20 thousand Palestinians had been wiped off the face of the earth through artillery fire and aerial bombing using American weapons. By the fifth month, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered. As of today, who is counting? A figure of 36, 000 souls have been lost.

The Israeli government of Bilyalminu Netanyahu says he wants to kill all the Hamas militants but even America says more than three quarters of those killed are children, women and the elderly. The Democratic Party in America especially its left wing is in open rebellion against President Joe Biden and the universities in America are also in uproar against American involvement with Israel in committing open murders in the glare of the whole world. President Joe Biden is definitely embarrassed and his constant hypocritical pleas with Netanyahu to spare the civilian population of Palestine have been ignored. He is now threatening to cut off the Israeli government from some type of weapons that may be used in Gaza. This is laughed off by the IDF which says it has all the weapons it needs to prosecute the war to the bitter end.

America has completely lost all influence with the Arab and non-Arab world. Whatever it says in the future would be completely ignored by most countries. Its recent request for military facilities in Africa has been virtually ignored by every country including our own at least openly. America apart from Gaza and the Palestinians would end up as the main victims of the Israeli war on Gaza. The American renewed efforts to reconcile Israel with Saudi Arabia, if it had gotten Israeli support through its humane policies in Gaza, would have altered the course of history possibly for good in the Middle East. An Israeli – Saudi Arabian rapprochement would have facilitated Israeli opening not only to the Arabs but to the Islamic countries like Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia.

As things stand, Israel is going to make Biden lose the presidential election in November and earn Israel the hostility of the Democratic Party for years to come. The second coming of Donald J. Trump is too ghastly for many to imagine. The critical elements in global intelligentsia seem opposed to Israel probably because of the human tendency to support the underdog in this case the Palestinians, but more likely because of the ferocity of the inhumanity of Israeli attacks. The thinking is why beat up a Palestine that is down and prostrate? This is why countries like the Republics of South Africa and Ireland with their history of colonial resistance are in open arms against Israel and they are not alone; the vast majority of countries in the developing world in Asia, Africa and Latin America share the same feelings with countries openly opposed to Israel.

The vote against Israel in the United Nations General Assembly to admit Palestine to full membership of the UN is an illustration of the support for Palestine and opposition to the bullying and oppression of the Israeli government. This is really sad because since the 1948 creation of Israel despite its complex and controversial moral foundation, Israel had always been favoured by virtually the whole world. If only for Israel to go back to some semblance of acceptability, someone should help Israel to stop the war because it has made the point that the Jewish state would rather fight to the death than surrender to any form of attack designed to destroy it. This point needs not be made at expense of the Palestinians who now face a genocidal onslaught as Israel moves to finish them off in Rafa.