'Touch and Go’ has really defined the efforts by the US, Qatar, and Egypt to bring about some kind of ceasefire and cessation of hostilities and some hope for besieged and beleaguered Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, and above all for the hapless Israeli hostages waiting to be released for the last 15 months in the Israel-Hamas war that started with Hamas’ terror attacks on Israeli civilians on October 7.
Four years into the Abraham Accords, the devastating conflict in Gaza reveals a painful truth: Ignoring the Palestinian issue doesn’t eliminate it, it makes it explode. A course correction is urgently needed.
If Rafah, which Netanyahu calls the last bastion of Hamas, is fully invaded amid large-scale casualties, then the region may not see peace for years to come.
In the interest of the Palestinian people, and in the interest of all developing countries, whose economies are stunted by higher oil prices caused by the Gaza war, Iran should repress the urge to retaliate.
The West is urging Tehran to hold its hand and not strike back against Israel for its fatal attack, albeit unacknowledged, on an Iranian embassy building in Damascus, Syria, on April 2. Not just Iran’s traditional enemies but also its traditional friends should also ask Tehran not to open another front in the ongoing deadly conflict in the Middle East. Such an attack would precisely deliver the response Israel’s beleaguered prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying to provoke.
In a globalising world, where alternative power centres emerge and grow, US cannot continue to turn a blind eye to humanitarian crisis created by Israel in Gaza.
The only way to stop the killing in Gaza is for Netanyahu to be replaced as prime minister by some other leader. The sooner the United States, Israel’s principal backer and funder, realises this, and works towards this end, the better off both Palestinians and the rest of the world would be
While efforts are being made to ensure freedom of navigation, the hotspots in the region, including in Gaza and Yemen and the civilian and humanitarian strife which can spiral out of control, need to be addressed on global priority. The Red Sea, with its strategic maritime routes, is an important artery for trade and sea borne traffic as well as for the choke points in the Bab-El Mandab which needs to be kept open.