We are once again witnessing the abysmal failure of international democratic politics and diplomacy in the Middle East. 

It is carnage in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and in Israel itself. To say that it is yet another utterly shameful catalogue of wilful failure with horrific human consequences is a major understatement. 

The warmongers, the militarists and the hawks on all sides are having a field day. They are being aided and abetted by a rampant, uncontrolled arms industry and a cynical coterie of politicians led chiefly by the United States with effective support from the majority of the EU’s current leaders. 

The wanton killing and injuring of tens of thousands of children, women and men (estimated to be at least 45,000 dead and over 100,000 injured) is happening in broad daylight and in full public gaze worldwide. Our oft-repeated default defence – ‘we did not know’ - has no substance.  Fleeing populations are now being instructed in advance to stay out of the way of the war machine or suffer the consequences. 

Planned killing and maiming, with surgical precision and not a little hatred. 

We are drowning in a nihilism that ignores all ethical, moral or faith-based principles while tacitly and tactically accepting that ‘their’ lives (the ‘enemy’ and its ‘supporters’) are deemed meaningless to us.  This nihilism will eventually come back to haunt us.  We are heavily investing in an insecure and revengeful future with many cheering at the same time.

Entirely innocent civilians of all ages, hospitals, schools, homes, shelters, markets, medical centres, aid convoys, journalists and ‘the street’ are deemed fair game all in the name of ‘rooting out’ or ‘annihilating’ the enemy.  ‘Victory’ will be ours, but yet each of us knows there will be no victors, just potentially hundreds of thousands of losers across the region and beyond.

The most recent decision by Benjamin Netanyahu and his ‘war’ cabinet to initiate a ‘new phase’ in the conflict by targeting what they claim are Hezbollah’s rank-and-file in Lebanon has pushed the button on the lethal slippery slope into region-wide conflict. This new phase cannot be described as a response to recent events as the use of booby-trap pagers and walkie-talkies had to be planned long in advance.

The response of Hezbollah leadership is to vow ‘painful retribution’, as the rockets rain down on Israelis. Iran continues to pursue its own regional and international agenda and shows little capacity or interest in reining in Hamas or Hezbollah. Effectively, it is failing to help end the slaughter of the Palestinian people whose cause it claims to support.

Similarly, the leaders of the US, Britain and many European countries, have failed to exert any real pressure on Israel to halt its blatant and cynical flouting of international law and its rampant killing spree. The message is clear – having given Israel carte blanche after the terror attacks of October 7 and despite much recent finger-wagging and expressions of ‘horror’ over the inevitable slaughter, political and military support for Israel will continue, right or wrong. 

The West continues to refuse to ban or even restrict the sale of offensive weapons, impose sanctions or endorse the indictments handed out by the International Criminal Court despite the clear evidence of war crimes.

Israel is fully justified in wanting to secure its neighbourhoods and communities from attacks by Hamas or Hezbollah. By the same principle, so too are Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.  There can be no two weights and two measures in this regard. While vigorously defending the rights of Israelis, the West seems content on wilfully ignoring and trampling those same rights for Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the appalling Gaza crisis continues and shows clear signs of dangerous escalation.  The need to agree on a real and meaningful ceasefire accompanied by a hostage deal is blindingly obvious. And now we face the unconscionable situation where instead of engineering that urgent ceasefire, we are confronted by the likelihood that it and the beginnings of a new and just peace (for it will inevitably arise) are unlikely in the context of November’s US election. 

As so often the case when might and militarism are deemed an appropriate response, we find ourselves scrambling to contain what should never have been unleashed in the first place. 

Meanwhile, thousands and thousands continue to die.  How utterly shameful and criminal.