After the Israeli cyber-attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the expected regional war in the Middle East has begun. There is no turning back from a large-scale regional war. If it is not contained, it seems that the war will further spread to some other regional countries. So far, several hundreds of people have lost their lives in Lebanon, thousands of them have been injured, and even more have fled their homes. It seems that the consequences of the war will extend far beyond Lebanon’s borders.
Israel has dragged the region into a comprehensive regional war. At least for now, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been criticized severely by both the Israeli people and other countries, has achieved his goals of spreading the war to other countries in order to maintain his power in Israel and to secure further assistance from the U.S. and other Western countries. He succeeded in dragging Lebanon into a full-scale war. Israel had been hitting strategic targets not only in Lebanon but also in Syria and Iraq, the two countries with close relations with Iran, for the last decade. Now, the situation has become even more serious.
On the other hand, the U.S. and other Western countries continue to provide unconditional support to the Israeli far-rightist government. Although Western states do not want to be associated with Israeli crimes, they continue to support all Israeli operations. Western countries not only provide weapons and ammunition to Israel but also try to exonerate Israel of its crimes. In other words, Western countries do not hesitate to be accomplices to all of Israel’s crimes. They continue to give an open check to the Israeli government by repeatedly declaring that they will continue to stand by Israel and they would defend Israel from any power in the region.
Therefore, the Republic of Nicaragua institutes proceedings against the Federal Republic of Germany and requests the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to indicate provisional measures under the Genocide Convention, concerning alleged breaches of certain international obligations in respect of the occupied Palestinian Territory arising from Germany’s support for Israel. Many nonstate actors, even from Western countries, call the Western governments to stop rewarding Israel with more and more weapons. The continuous Israeli attacks on regional states will not bring peace and stability to the region and also to Israel.
Regional Arab states are concerned about the course of the war. Egypt has begun to raise its voice against the spread of the war. Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently called on “international powers and the United Nations Security Council to intervene immediately” to stop the escalation of the conflict in Lebanon. Egyptian officials have explained their solidarity with Lebanon and rejected Israel’s violations of the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. The Arab peoples will put more pressure on their respective governments to take action against Israeli aggression. Therefore, the situation of Arab regimes will become more volatile in the near future. Even the Arab countries that have unwavering commitments to working with the United States have to revise their policies toward the regional crises.
If Israel damages Hezbollah greatly, Iran will mobilize its other regional proxies, such as the Houthis in Yemen and al-Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq. All these pro-Iranian actors are semi-official actors in their respective states. Therefore, the future of these nonstate actors is closely associated with the future of these respective states. Soon other nonstate actors may join them in their attacks against Israel. Depending on the level of escalation of violence, these nonstate actors may also extend violence beyond the Middle East, which will globalize violence. Eventually, no nation or state will remain immune from the new waves of violence in the region. All states will directly or indirectly be influenced by the developments in the Middle East.
