WATCH it carefully: the ongoing Israel-Palestine crisis could be a harbinger of what is to come unless mankind changes course.
It is a study of the consequences of hate, of political extremism and of senseless violence and a disgraceful reminder of the failure of the global political order at a time of international crisis.
There should be an immediate ceasefire. The world should not have to contend with this new explosion of turbulence in the middle of a brutal pandemic already exacerbated by inequities in covid19 vaccine distribution.
On Saturday, as the United Nations observed the International Day of Living Together in Peace, Israel showed us its perverse commemoration: mob violence, ground operations, airstrikes, assassinations, sabotage and all manner of bombardment continued to unfold. By now, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed - including dozens of children - in Gaza by Israeli forces, while Palestinian rocket fire has killed about a dozen in Israel.
This conflict is, of course, a microcosm of a much longer conflagration stretching back to 1948 and even further.
But for all the complexities of the situation - with its innumerable sidebars and conflicts within conflicts - there is one elemental truth at its core. This is what happens when people find the enemy in one another, are obsessed with Carl Schmitt's 'other.'
This relates not only to Israelis being pitted against Arabs, but also the very conditions that forced the birth of the Israeli state in the first place in the wake of the Holocaust.
The absence of meaningful peace talks in over a decade, coupled with Donald Trump's shambolic 'deal of the century' - in which he poured fuel on the fire and emboldened Benjamin Netanyahu by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem - cemented long-simmering tensions, setting the stage for the current breakdown.
US President Joe Biden's failure to strongly condemn Israel is simply the continuation of a history in which the US has diplomatically turned a blind eye to Israel's 'one-state' solution - genocide and abuse of power under the guise of defence. The current US president yesterday called for a ceasefire, but at the same time noted 'his firm support for Israel's right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks.'
While Mr Biden is fettered by the ghost of Mr Trump and his extreme Republican allies, the rest of the world is not.
Yet international condemnation has at times only focused on the activities of Hamas, which has fired rockets at civilians in Tel Aviv without concern for the consequences of such nefarious acts.
While Palestine should be condemned for such actions, simplistic positions defending the indefensible on either side are hard to understand in the global context.
Saturday was also the International Day of Light. We hope both sides will see the light, guided by an international community unafraid to hold countries to account for the common good of all mankind.
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