ON 7 October, it will be the completion of one year of Israel’s violence and coercion led- genocidal war— in the Gaza Strip —still indicating no sign of an end to the Israeli committed atrocities honeycombed with awful stories of Palestinian plight and tragedies. After two months of a tragic targeted death of Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, Israel has ferociously targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon. These Israeli actions lead to some meaningful and consequential consequences—devastating the fabric of the Middle East peace and international law—dragging the volatile Middle East region on the brink.
After making strikes across the Blue Line in Lebanon, Israel has recently conducted large-scale air strikes on Yemen, targeting what it describes as military installations of the Houthi regime. The Yemeni infrastructure in Hodeidah was crucially targeted, including the Ras Isa seaport and power stations. Israel has intensified its airstrikes in Lebanon, targeting both Hezbollah assets and other positions. Lebanon is undergone food crisis .Reports indicate that these strikes have resulted in significant casualties, with over 550 people killed in total, including numerous children, during the ongoing conflict. Israel claims to have hit around 1,600 Hezbollah targets across the region as part of their military operations.
Netanyahu in his speech at the UNGA (27 September) while rejecting the Gaza ceasefire plan emphasized a choice between aligning with Israel for prosperity or facing destruction. Netanyahu’s Greater Middle East plan reflects on the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, placing the neighbouring Arab areas under Israeli military control, and emphasizes alliances with Western interests and regional allies to achieve geopolitical dominance. The American journalists Max Blumenthal and Anya Parampil anatomized his vision for the “Greater Israel” project—doctrinally linked to U.S. neoconservative policies—calling for the defeat of Palestinian resistance and the reshaping of the region with Israel-US perceived geopolitical beltway in the Middle East.
Notably, in a January 2024 recording, Israeli politician Avi Lipkin was stating: “… eventually, our borders will extend from Lebanon to the Great Desert, which is Saudi Arabia, and then from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. And who is on the other side of the Euphrates? The Kurds! And the Kurds are friends. So we have Mediterranean behind us, the Kurds in front of us, Lebanon, which really needs the umbrella of protection of Israel, and then we’re gonna take, I believe we’re gonna take Mecca, Medina and Mount Sinai, and to purify those places”.
This fascist Israeli plan of seeking geopolitical supremacy in the Mideast region (an eye opener for the Muslim Ummah (OIC) is based on a divisive fallacy, aiming to kill the idea of an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital. Nonetheless, with Netanyahu’s aggressive designs in the region, the US-GCC states’ brokered Abraham Accords have lost their ideological moorings. True, for the last six decades, the US-Israel relationship has often been characterized by policies of aggression and coercion, particularly in the context of Middle Eastern geopolitics. Undeniably, the Middle East has undergone to see the curse of US-dominated geopolitics in the region, particularly in terms of military intervention and aggression in Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Yemen, and Libya. Clearly, be it the Cold War era, the post-Cold War era or the post 9/11 era, Washington has prioritized coercive tactics over diplomatic approaches, while supporting Israel militarily and politically.
Profoundly, the lessons largely learnt from Netanyahu’s disdain for the UNSC ceasefire Gaza plan suggests that in the pretext of Israel’s ongoing genocidal war in Gaza, US seems to tacitly endorse Netanyahu’s war expansion plan in the Middle East. Undeniably, both Washington and Tel Aviv are displeased with China’s peace diplomacy, particularly, the Iranian-Saudi reconciliation deal brokered by Beijing in March 2023. Moreover, the US and Israel are irritated with Russia-China-Iran nexus.
As the US Middle East influence is evaporating, the US has given a green single to Israel to do whatever it wants in the region (currently endorsed by EU’s Josep Borrell statement). Yet mistakenly, by killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Netanyahu aims at changing the balance of power in Middle East. In their wishful pursuit of waging a large-scale war in the Middle East, the US, Israel invite a big Middle East gamble.
Nevertheless, the devious forces of political Zionism backed by Christian evangelism do support Netanyahu’s evil agenda of terminating Mideast resistance forces which gradually emerged— in the aftermath of Arab- Israel Six Day war in 1967—against the very agendaof political Zionism-cum-western imperialism in the region. This axis of resistance includes the Gaza -based Hamas, the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance brigades, Iranian-backed Al-Quds force in Palestine, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Iraq-based popular mobilization force (PMF), the Yemen -based Houthis, and the Syria -based resistance group.
And it is Netanyahu’s big illusion that by targeting Qasem Soleimani, Ismail Haniyeh, and Hassan Nasrallah, Israel can demolish the axis of resistance. To support Israel, the US has recently increased its military presence in the region. In his war-hysteria, Netanyahu has condemned the International Criminal Court (ICC) for seeking arrest warrants against him and other Israeli officials. And yet, Netanyahu’s maniac audacity of resistance against the writ of international law is not possible without the US backing. Make no mistake the US- Israel strategy —to establish a geopolitical writ by dint of force—is highly delusional.
As usually the 17-18 September UNSC meeting failed to agree on a draft because of the backing of Israel’s western partners. Premier Shehbaz Sharif highlighted the issues of Kashmir and Palestine in his UN speech (September 27) and emphasized for the resolution of these conflicts by drawing parallels between the struggles for self-determination of both regions. The Iranian missile attack on Israel (October 2) has upped the ante in the region. Thus, de-escalation of the hostilities in the Middle East is the order of the day. Should Netanyahu’s barbaric legacy be given any further extension by the US, it will be a recipe for the devastation of global peace and stability.
—The writer, an independent ‘IR’ researcher-cum-international law analyst based in Pakistan, is member of European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on IR, Critical Peace & Conflict Studies, also a member of Washington Foreign Law Society and European Society of International Law. He deals with the strategic and nuclear issues.
(rizvipeaceresearcher@gmail.com)
