From Izvestia, Oct. 10, 2023, p. 3. Complete text:)
The most recent act in the Israeli-Palestinian drama, which has broken the lives of many generations of Middle East residents, is an extremely tragic and predictable reminder of the precariousness of the American-centric world order, which is crumbling before our very eyes. After all, it was Washington that assumed the role of arbitrator at the end of the cold war in an attempt to settle the most complex conflicts and crises from the position of hegemon. As we see years later, the legacy of the 1990s, when American leaders, basking in the spotlight, declared a new, unipolar reality that would bring peoples and faiths together, has now begun to bear its bitter fruit.
This is happening not only in the Middle East, but in many other places throughout the world. Several decades after the hot phase of the Balkan wars, the situation in Bosnia and Kosovo remains explosive. Countries like Haiti and Somalia, once the targets of US interventions, are plagued by ongoing violence. The Karabakh conflict, whose resolution was largely hindered by the cynical West – which was not interested in peace, but in undermining Moscow – ended with armed clashes and the exodus of the Armenians [see Vol. 75, No. 38, pp. 3‑6, and pp. 7‑9]. The list goes on
The so-called Oslo Accords, which the Israeli and Palestinian leaders signed 30 years ago not in the Norwegian capital, but in the District of Columbia under the patronage of [then-US president] Bill Clinton, were intended to create a foundation for the peaceful coexistence of two states. But the arrogance of American administrations, which have always put domestic policy considerations and the wishes of lobbying groups ahead of universal interests, has time and again made it impossible to fix the rifts between the two peoples that have been accumulating for years. Instead of an objective intermediary genuinely committed to ending the bloodshed, the US has transformed into a highly unstable and constantly wavering actor that has changed its priorities and strategic alignments along the way, losing the parties’ trust.
One of Washington’s key decisions that led to the current turmoil was its refusal to recognize the democratic choice of the Palestinian people after Hamas won parliamentary elections. Instead of trying to integrate this organization, which had earned a major vote of trust from its fellow citizens, into the negotiation process, the US did everything within its power to isolate the Gaza Strip diplomatically, thus supporting its transformation into a piece of land cut off from the outside world and existing in abject poverty.
Not surprisingly, the seeds sown when the neoconservatives were obsessed with the reign of liberalism in the so-called Greater Middle East are sprouting today as the Palestinians, who have never known a life without want and violence, are embroiled in brutal fighting. That said, American diplomats are the ones who have recently done everything they can to form an anti-Iranian coalition and mend relations between Israel and the Arab monarchies by ignoring the Palestinian issue and removing it from the equation. It was unlikely that Gaza residents would calmly accept the marginalization of their own fate. The opportunism and carelessness of the apologists for the “end of history,” which never took place, have culminated in yet another bloodbath.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict can and must be settled, but the US’s destructive role in the negotiation process must be minimized to achieve this. The time has come for new mediators who have not been compromised by the mistakes of the past to take the stage.