Don’t forget the war in Ukraine

The

heinous terrorist attack on Israel

carried out by Hamas and the

grievous repercussions for Palestinian lives and property in Gaza

caused by Israel’s air strikes have understandably focused the world’s attention on the future of the Middle East. While Hamas must be punished militarily and decisively for its barbaric incursion into Israel, it is equally true that the Palestinians, too, have a right to live free of the collective punishment of a whole population because of the crimes of Hamas. Hence, there is no doubt that the international community should insist on the protection of civilian lives and on allowing sufficient humanitarian aid to enter besieged Gaza. The enclave must not become the latest symbol of the intractable nature of conflicts in the Middle East, where violence begets violence in a generational cycle that recedes from view for a while, only to reappear with almost biological vengeance later. The Middle East is too important to the rest of the world to be left to the mercy of its history.

However, Ukraine deserves to be kept firmly in the global view as well. Much as Hamas has unsettled regional relations by breaching Israel’s borders, Russia attacked the entire post-Cold War European (and international) order by invading Ukraine in 2022. If copied by other ambitious nations, the Russian assertion that might equals right in relations between great powers and their weaker neighbours would destroy the very basis of an international order founded on respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, and on the operations of international law. The international diplomatic resistance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is based on this fundamental truth. That resistance must not be overshadowed by the violence in the Middle East – although condemnable – or made an extension of the behaviour of major powers in the region.