Israel and Ukraine, democracies under attack: what more can we do
Fabrizio Gatti
Editor-in-chief for Insights
09 October 2023 03:02
The attack on Israel by Palestinian Hamas terrorists is not just an escalation of the decades-old conflict between the Jewish right, with its support for occupations and new colonies, and the Islamic extremist movement that rules Israel with an iron fist. Gaza Strip. There is much more: the house-to-house attacks on Saturday, October 7, the 700 Israelis killed, the 100 Israelis kidnapped and currently held hostage, are boosting the morale of regimes that view democracies as a weak form of society in their eyes. And therefore corrupt, defenseless and defenseless. In other words, a society that could be challenged militarily today.
Vladimir Putin’s Russia did this on Thursday, February 24, 2022, with the invasion of Ukraine and the outbreak of war: eight years ago, the independent republic rebelled against the pro-Russian government, which wanted to block the rapprochement process with the European Union. This was echoed by Hamas, which humiliated Israel with the support of Islamic Jihadist extremists and Putin’s major ally Iran. The only thing missing from this alarming game of dominoes is that Chinese despot Xi Jinping keeps his promise to invade the free state of Taiwan.
This is the new world
It is interesting to see how the same regimes that finance terrorist networks and conflicts in the Middle East, especially Iran and Qatar, close their borders to refugees due to their own foreign policies. In any case, the democracies are responsible for this: Europe, then perhaps Canada and the USA too. And rightly so, otherwise we wouldn’t be democracies.
In the wake of the pandemic, the world embarked on paths that changed the geopolitics born in the last decade of the twentieth century, the first decade after the end of the Cold War. Coups in African capitals south of the Sahara are turning into a rebellion against the French presence in favor of the newcomers (China, Russia and Turkey). With his attempt to invade Ukraine, Putin wants to restore Russian influence to what was once the western borders of the Soviet Union. And in Gaza, there is an illusion stronger than ever among Palestinian militias that the Israelis can be driven out of the Middle East, just as happened to the French in Africa. Even if it is a big miscalculation: Israel is not a colony, but a state that will respond harshly to a terrorist attack.
Hamas’ illusion
The majority of Palestinian people in Gaza have experienced many illusions in recent years: one among many was to surrender themselves to the paramilitary organization of Hamas, the Arabic acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement, a terrorist group that has always preached the destruction of Israel. and thus contributed to the failure of the 1992 peace accords.
But in this chaotic new world, will we Europeans be able to meet this challenge? Or will we show Russia, Iran and China that we are truly a civilization headed for collapse? Summits between the governments of European Union member states in recent weeks have been very similar to some condominium councils in their conflictual nature. Meanwhile, military supplies to Ukraine reduced European and American stockpiles to levels they could not go down: In a few days, Kiev’s army fired ammunition that took the United States a month to produce. And if NATO wasn’t still there to protect us under the American umbrella, much of Europe today would probably be a colony of Moscow or Beijing.
Russia and Palestine crimes
The massacres committed by Russians in Ukraine, such as in Bucha, between February 27 and March 31, 2022, and by Palestinians in Israel during these hours, show that democracies without adequate defense are extremely vulnerable. To avoid chaos, we need a major joint effort and new investments aimed at three goals: education and scientific research, health and wellness and, of course, defence. Three strategic sectors are such that their budgets must be freed as soon as possible from the spending constraints that limit the budgets of every EU member state.
The Union’s defense spending had fallen from 187 billion euros in 2008 to 163 billion euros in 2014, when hostilities between Russia and Ukraine began (comparison with total defense spending and 2 percent of GDP in the chart above). Since then, military spending has increased steadily: reaching 350 billion in 2022; this is about half of two percent of Europe’s gross domestic product; It would not be appropriate to fall below the security limit specified by NATO. It is sad to see how much resources must be allocated to armament in our country today, with the hope that it will always and only be a deterrent. But it seems we no longer have any alternative if we want to preserve our democracy: adequately stocked arsenals also strengthen diplomacy. This is exactly what we Europeans learned from the Cold War.
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Source: Today IT

Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.