Politics in the face of terror
The Hamas atrocity in Israel on 7 October has placed the United States at the epicentre of the international order. The White House and the Pentagon have reacted swiftly to offer political support to Israel and security guarantees to the region by sending two aircraft carriers and other support measures.
Joe Biden has responded consistently to the traditional US alliance with Israel and has also conveyed, personally to Benjamin Netanyahu and through Secretary of State Antony Blinken to other allies and regional leaders, a commitment to the legitimacy of the response, urging maximum restraint and minimisation of the effects on the population and the opening of humanitarian aid channels in Gaza.
The only power that has been able to promote a more stabilised regional order in the Middle East and to build such decisive negotiation channels as the 1979 Camp David Accords, as well as to promote processes such as Oslo in the 1990s that led to the creation of the Palestinian National Authority, has once again assumed the responsibility of exercising an active foreign policy, befitting a country that has led the liberal order for decades and is now leading the transformation of that order in the new environment of competition between powers.
The Russian and Chinese leaders, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, recently held their 42nd meeting in Beijing, well away from the Middle East. They discussed the Silk Road project and other bilateral issues, although they naturally took the opportunity to issue communiqués in favour of reducing violence in Israel and Gaza. Similar in distance and vacuity to that of other countries, equally concerned by the facts according to their communiqués, but inactive in the face of their decisions. Europe has reacted swiftly to condemn Hamas's action and some of the leaders of its main powers, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, have travelled to Israel and the region to show a line that coincides with that of the United States. The EU participated institutionally in the Cairo summit alongside Arab countries and the United Nations, although the results of the meeting were very weak. Pedro Sánchez attended as the rotating president of the Council.
The countries bordering Israel remain tense about the possibility of a regional escalation of the conflict and, among them, Egypt has assumed a significant share of responsibility for border issues and aid to Palestinian civilians in southern Gaza. Iran, by contrast, has once again positioned itself on the highest and loudest rung of immorality in its support for terrorist action.
In today's order of powers, large and small, foreign policy and its link to the complex international dynamic requires action in addition to sophistry and other even indecent messages from very minor leaders. Solidarity in the face of conflict is not just a gesture or an outburst, but requires resources and coordinated action. On the basis of principles and values that allow the aggressor to be identified and differentiated from the aggressed, as happened in Ukraine just over two years ago. The United States' decision to stand at the forefront of democracies and at Israel's side in the fight against terrorism is a guarantee for the international order that certain criminal groups and crazed leaders want to subvert and subvert.
Faced with the devastating war in Israel, the vast majority of citizens in the vast majority of countries are appalled by the suffering of civilians and the deaths of innocents. Just as appalled as the thousands of demonstrators expressing their demands for Palestinian rights. Just as we are appalled at the deaths of innocent children. Just as we have watched with bewilderment and anguish the images of a murderous terrorist guerrilla, raping, killing and abducting civilians and children on 7 October, when, for that appalling reason, this war began.
Joe Biden's support for Israel does not mean a carte blanche for a hard and final military response. It means support for firm action against terror while continuing to make progress in building a stable Middle East capable of coexisting in peace. Israel will have to be an essential political player in that future reconstruction of coexistence. Hamas terrorism can never be.