It was just another day on the Ukrainian front. Russian shells rained down on Nikopol, the U.S. announced its determination that Russian President Vladimir Putin wasn’t planning on launching nuclear weapons for at least the foreseeable future, and CNN dutifully reported what everyone already knew: “It looks inevitable that Russia’s war in Ukraine will continue for some time.”
That night, international headlines were rocked with news — not of Ukraine but of Israel, which sustained a terrorist attack that killed thousands of civilians as Hamas militants loaded hundreds of hostages into the back of jeeps and onto motorcycles. As Israel prepared to declare war, Russia, Ukraine, and China were already calculating how to turn the tragedy to their advantage — after all, one man’s misfortune is often another man’s opportunity. (READ MORE: Gaza Gets Who It Voted For)
Just hours after the attack, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, issued a message over Telegram that managed to define the Russian position on the Israel–Hamas conflict.
What can stop America’s manic passion for sparking conflicts everywhere on the planet?
Apparently, only a civil war in the United States.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian response sided with Israel — and with the U.S. and its Western allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a lengthy tweet condemning “all forms of terrorism” while asserting that “Israel’s right to self-defense is unquestionable.”
What both countries recognized instantly was that war in Israel and the Middle East has the potential to shift the geopolitical balance of the world, as the U.S. — the last remaining superpower — tries desperately to mend the cracks in the world order.
The U.S. May Be Overextending
The U.S. has responded to the war in Israel with a show of overwhelming support. The U.S. military has deployed two aircraft carriers, the USS Eisenhower and the USS Ford, in the eastern Mediterranean to serve as military support for the Israel Defense Forces and to deter Iran from becoming any more involved than it already is.
President Joe Biden then visited the beleaguered Israel on Wednesday to meet with Israeli government officials and to promise “unprecedented” U.S. military aid. He has since issued a budget proposal of more than $106 billion, including $61.4 billion in aid to Ukraine and $14.3 billion in assistance to Israel, the latter of which would primarily go toward bolstering its air and missile defense systems, according to the Associated Press. (Biden’s dictionary must have a different definition of the word “unprecedented.”)
As The American Spectator’s Melissa Mackenzie noted on Thursday, the problem is that the U.S. has a bad habit of funding both sides of a conflict:
[T]he whole world is buying Russian oil. Certainly American allies, and supposed Ukraine allies, are buying Russian oil. Then there’s the funding of Ukraine.
Currently, this administration is funding both sides in the Palestinian aggression against Israel. Joe Biden wants to give $100 million to the Palestinians for humanitarian aid. Mmmhmm. That will go to the people in need — and by “people in need,” he means Hamas, which runs the show.
The result is that — as the Wall Street Journal observed this week — the war in Israel will stretch “American and European resources while relieving pressure on Russia and providing new opportunities to China.” As far as America’s geopolitical rivals are concerned, this could be the golden opportunity they have been waiting for.
“Any conflict that draws some attention from Ukraine very much plays in favor of Russia,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis astutely observed. “The Russians may not have started it, but they have a huge interest in prolonging the conflict in Israel as long as possible. It would be a win for the Russians tactically, in Ukraine, and strategically, strengthening their narrative against the Western world.”
Xi and Putin Side With Terrorism
Violence against Israel directly impacts how much money the U.S. is willing to give it and, ultimately, reduces the amount the Biden administration can spend in Ukraine. Unlike some U.S. politicians, Putin knows that even America’s wallet has limits.
Thus, because Putin cannot possibly admit that the U.S. is right in its support of Israel, he and his Chinese allies have come out in support of terrorism — even though Chinese citizens were allegedly among those killed by the attacks by Hamas. The results would be comical if they weren’t so sickening. The Wall Street Journal wrote:
Putin, whose forces, according to Ukrainian authorities, killed tens of thousands of civilians as they besieged the Ukrainian city of Mariupol for months last year, compared the Israeli siege of Gaza to that of his hometown St. Petersburg, then called Leningrad, during World War II. This, in essence, equated Israelis with Nazis.
As far as Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are concerned, the war couldn’t have taken place at a better time. Just this week, Xi and Putin met in Beijing during China’s Belt and Road Forum to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Chinese effort to create a rival global infrastructure network — the perfect opportunity to determine how best to undermine what they consider to be the U.S.’s “neocolonialism.”
The two leaders reportedly had a long discussion about the wars in Ukraine and Israel, and, although we don’t know exactly what they said, it isn’t hard to guess the gist of it. (READ MORE: The Gaza Blood Libel and Netanyahu’s Test to Come)
Just after their meeting, the South China Morning Post reported that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi “pledged to support efforts to restore the Palestinian people’s ‘legitimate rights’ and support Arab countries in forming ‘a common position and a united voice.’” He also told Sameh Shoukri — his Egyptian counterpart — that the UN should make efforts to institute a ceasefire.
China and Russia won’t hesitate to take advantage of the U.S. being overextended. They’ll determine the boundaries and, if they conclude they can get away with it, take action.