The military high jinks between Israel and Hezbollah on August 25 thankfully ended in a short time, but those few hours showed the precarious situation in West Asia as Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza continues without let. Hezbollah's rockets and drones are said to have targeted military and intelligence sites in Israel, reportedly retaliation for the killings of its military commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon and of the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran last month. Tel Aviv claimed it had launched pre-emptive air strikes against the militant group, which is based in Lebanon. While the feared escalation did not take place, the danger remains of a wider conflagration that will pull in the United States, other western countries and Iran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains adamant about keeping the fires burning, despite his own military commanders declaring publicly that the war against Hamas was unwinnable. He has had to dissolve the war cabinet due to open differences within. And he has rejected all demands on him to reach a ceasefire agreement. Qatar, Egypt and the US are trying to hammer out yet another truce plan after Netanyahu walked out of an earlier one in July. But Hamas has rejected the new plan in the making as granting too many concessions to Israel. More than 10 months into this war, which began after Hamas launched an attack killing more than 1,200 Israelis and taking hundreds hostage and Netanyahu counter-attacked Gaza to “finish off Hamas”, the Israeli military has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. The horrific death toll has been judged by the International Court of Justice as having all the hallmarks of genocide. Yet, Netanyahu, clearly driven by reasons of his own political survival, refuses to stop.
One man's obduracy has not just endangered the whole region with the prospect of an all-out war, its continuation is also making the resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict even more difficult than previously. Meanwhile, Iran and its proxies too seem to be moving slowly towards a war by a combination of pretension and indecision. Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential hopeful, declared at the Democratic National Convention last week that she stands for the defence of Israel as well as for the self-determination of the Palestinians and the two-State solution. But the US is caught up in an election campaign and finds itself unable to take a decisive stand and see it through, especially with Netanyahu. As a result, the Middle East seems to be sleepwalking into a war that no one wants.