Could the war in Gaza escalate into a regional — or even global — war?
Could the war in Gaza escalate into a regional — or even global — war?
All major global powers are amassing troops in the Middle East
I’ve written for UnHerd about the hugely complex (and very dangerous) geopolitics of the war in Gaza, and how the latter could easily escalate into a regional — or even global — war.
Over the past weeks, the US and NATO have been assembling the biggest fleet seen in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf for decades, encompassing no fewer than 73 ships from a dozen countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The US alone has deployed two nuclear-powered carriers, as well as aircraft, cruisers, destroyers and submarines equipped with Tomahawk missiles.
Unsurprisingly, Vladimir Putin responded by announcing that, over the waters of the Black Sea, Russia has commenced around-the-clock rotations of MiG-31 interceptors armed with Kinzhal hypersonic anti-ship missiles, whose operational range extends to 2,000 km. “This is not a threat, but we will exercise visual control — control with weapons — over what is happening in the Mediterranean Sea”, Putin told reporters. China is also following events in the region very closely, with up to six Chinese warships present in the Middle East over the past weeks.
It’s not hard to see how all this might end.
Read the rest here.
Best regards,
Thomas Fazi
Website: thomasfazi.net
Twitter: @battleforeurope
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I don't know if the war will expand beyond Gaza. But I was struck yesterday by the truth of this title of a Steve Marriott's piece in The Times: "You Don't Need to Share Your Views on Gaza".
The bald fact is that Israel has been fighting for its existence for 70+ years. And the Arabs have never at any time accepted its existence. Weeks - in fact decades - of commentary about negotiated 'solutions' etc etc is (and has always been) just politico and media blah blah. Yes, the Israelis have handled some things better than other things but whatever they did (or did not) do - nor whoever was in government or not - would have altered that fundamental (and intractable) impasse.
The awful truth is that, for Western publics and commentariats who don't have to actually fight them, wars have long since become another grim part of the media entertainment industry....like gripping horror movies and with the same insatiable audience appetite.
That there's estimated to be approximately $500bn of gas under the seabed within Palestinian and Israeli territorial waters is an important consideration when examining the build up of US-NATO naval assets in the Mediterranean, particularly when the same coalition of countries is actively seeking alternatives to Russian sources of fossil fuels.