If any firm conclusions can be drawn from the horrific events surrounding the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, it is confirmation of the deep chasm that now exists among the world’s major powers over how to deal with major security issues.
It was not that long ago that when confronted by challenges that posed a major threat to global security, bodies such as the United Nations were at least able to reach some form of agreement over how to deal with the crisis.
Back in 2011, for example, when Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was threatening to inflict untold bloodshed against the civilian population of Benghazi, the UN Security Council was able to reach a broad agreement on the need to prevent a humanitarian disaster.
It was a similar story at the start of the Syrian civil war, when the UN condemned the murderous tactics employed by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad against his own people, even if the eventual international response failed miserably to prevent the al-Assad regime from committing war crimes on an industrial scale.
The prospect of any such international consensus emerging on the deepening crisis over Gaza, though, is almost inconceivable given the deep divisions that have already emerged in the wake of Hamas’s murderous assault against Israel earlier this month, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,400 Israelis, with more than 200 Israelis taken captive by Hamas.
The uncompromising response to the attack by the Israeli military has so far resulted in large swathes of Gaza being flattened, causing the deaths of an estimated 5,000 Palestinians, as the Israeli government pursues its declared goal of wiping Hamas off the face of the earth.
