Had the Soviet Union been around, chances are the US would not have been left unchallenged to do what its interests dictate
For those who were under the illusion that the modern world is different and much more woke compared to earlier, two years of “genocidal” Israeli strikes on Gaza have shown not much has changed. The world continues to be medieval in its outlook while the so-called international order is anything but orderly.
When Rwanda was convulsed by a 100-day genocidal bloodletting in 1994, with the ruling Hutu community killing 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, the UN and the big powers at the time claimed they were not aware of the extent of the genocidal civil war, as information flow was sparse. Else, they would have intervened to stop it.
This was a time before the expansion of the Internet as we know today. Communication was still through traditional means, and the UN and the more powerful among its members got away with their excuse.
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The Five-Nation mafia
But now, in the 21st century, in the era of social media, when the attack on Gaza is being watched unvarnished in real time across the world, there is no excuse. The United Nations is shackled by the Five-Nation mafia in the Security Council. The remaining 188 nations in the General Assembly, besides empty resolutions asking for the Israeli assault to stop, have twiddled their thumbs, doing almost nothing.
Two US allies, also permanent nations in the Security Council, the United Kingdom and France, have continued to back Israel for the most part. To cover their backs, they recognised the Palestinian state, which for all practical purposes means nothing now. The US, of course, is brazenly complicit with Israel. A report by the US’s Brown University “Cost of War” project states that the US has provided Israel $21.7 billion since its assault on Gaza two years ago.
The response of the world is sobering as it lays bare the harsh reality behind the sugar-coated notion of “noblesse oblige”, where the powerful are expected to come to the aid of the weak.
The Palestinians, especially in Gaza, have repeatedly lamented that the world has forgotten them. Understandable, since little has been done by anyone to stop the Israeli assault. The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel was undoubtedly brutal. Along with Israeli soldiers, civilians were targeted in the terror attack that killed around 1,200 people. Over 200 Israelis were taken hostage by the Hamas.
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Disproportionate Israeli response
The Israeli response was natural. But, as a nation that claims to be civilized and democratic, the reaction should have been restricted to capturing and punishing the perpetrators of the attack. Not militarily steamroll the entire population that had nothing to do with the attack.
At last count, around 66,000 people have been killed in the Israeli assault, thousands more injured, and almost the remaining of entire Gaza population of around two million have lost their homes and internally displaced. To cap it, Israel’s food blockade has triggered a man-made famine in the besieged territory, affecting all there.
Given the long history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Benjamin Netanyahu government and his right-wing conservative allies in government viewed the Hamas attack as a great historical opportunity to bombard Gaza and recreate the Nakba (or, catastrophe) which saw the forced displacement of around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in 1948 by armed Jewish groups and the newly-created Israeli state.
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Arab nations’ inaction
Seven decades ago, fellow Arab neighbours of Palestine – Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and others in the region – attempted to beat back the Jewish occupation. They were not successful. But now, in 2025, the very same Arabs have done little. Except for attempts at mediation, none of the Arab nations has shown any initiative - either through diplomatic pressure or military strategy – to somehow halt Israel’s assault.
The Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, backed by Iran, expressed their displeasure by firing missiles into Israel and targeting its freight in international waters. But that was largely symbolic and easily rebuffed by Israel. The Hezbollah has almost been decimated while Iran’s nuclear infrastructure was severely damaged in joint Israeli-US strikes.
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Utter lack of Arab unity
Israel’s assault, described by many as genocide, seven decades since its self-declaration as a nation, has exposed the utter lack of unity among the Arabs. Prior to the October 7 Hamas attack, under US pressure, even a nation like Saudi Arabia, considered the leader of the Sunni Muslims, was toying with establishing a formal diplomatic relationship with Israel under the Abraham accords. The Saudis saw Iran as more of a threat than Israel. Paradoxically, Riyadh’s opposition to a nuclear Iran matches that of Israel’s in intensity.
Gulf countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Oman had already signed formal relationships with Israel. Qatar was among the first to establish informal ties with Israel nearly three decades ago – only to be humiliated by an Israeli missile attack on Doha recently. So much for its diplomacy.
Ironically, in the turbulent 1940s, when the colonial British was actively engaged in helping the Jews create an independent state, the region’s Arab leadership promised the Palestinians they would stand by them and restore their homeland.
Prominent leaders like Abdul Nasser, Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, King Abdullah I, and Saddam Hussein in various Arab nations actively intervened in Palestinian decision-making. But, instead of resolving the dispute, they effectively ended up complicating the conflict - that eventually proved beneficial for Israel.
After having been so articulate on Palestine, today the very same Arab countries are either close allies of the US or in a relationship with Israel – effectively leaving the Palestinians to fend for themselves.
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Unipolar, unstable world
Israel, in the meantime, has gone from strength to strength holding on to the coat-tails of the US, particularly since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in 1990. Since then, the world has been largely unipolar, and none to counter-balance US power.
The Netanyahu government has been able to disregard the outrage across the world by encashing the political blank cheque issued to it by Washington – giving credence to the view that the world has become a much more dangerous and unstable place since the end of the Soviet Union.
The US has been unstoppable – invading Iraq for reasons that were proven to be fake, dictating the way the world economy is structured and how politics is run, and triggering the Russia-Ukraine war with provocative rhetoric.
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Though it is anybody’s guess whether these would have been possible had the Soviet Union been around, chances are the US would not have been left unchallenged to do what its interests dictate. A look at the four decades from 1950 to 1990 will show that though there were conflicts and tensions in various parts of the world, none matched the intensity like now.
It's probably wishful thinking, but surely the Ukraine war would not have occurred (as it was part of the larger Soviet Union) and Moscow would have had the clout to prevent the US and Israel from destroying Gaza, unlike now when a diminished Russia is fighting to safeguard whatever remains of its own security and sovereignty.
