August 2, 2024
JAKARTA – The Israeli airstrike that killed Hamas political leader and peace negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital on Wednesday pushes the world dangerously closer to a World War III.
The international community must now come together to call for de-escalation of the conflict and an immediate end to Israel’s punitive campaign in the Gaza Strip, the repercussions of which have already been felt far and wide.
It is also reckless to allow Tel Aviv to take any further unchecked measures in its attempt to bring about the end of Hamas, especially after carrying out a political assassination on foreign soil.
No political leader anywhere in the world will be able to sleep soundly at night now that Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration has normalized violating a nation’s sovereign rights to spite a regional rival.
We can only hope that such wanton disregard for human life in the name of political survival does not spill over into other conflicts, lest it inspire others to help bring an end to post-World War II peace.
The United States was able to step away largely unscathed from its assassination of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in the name of its war on terror, but with the decline of American exceptionalism and influence in today’s multipolar world order, Israel cannot attempt to do the same without stinging repercussions.
Nations like Egypt and Qatar, which have been at the forefront of negotiations as brokers for a ceasefire, and even some sections of the European Union agree that Israel is to blame for escalating conflict.
Haniyeh’s assassination only serves to feed into an ever-present fear that the Gaza war will drag even more countries into conflict. Israel has already fanned the flames against Iran once with the bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus in April, so the prospect of even more confrontation is in the realm of possibility.
Even though Iran retaliated against Israel, it was done in limited scope. Tehran even told the US it had no intention of “expanding tensions”, so let’s not pretend we cannot spot who the bad-faith actor is in this one-sided war.
On the other hand, as more global powers, including China, hone their skills and set out to broker peace in regions like the Middle East, it will become much harder for anyone to draw a line in the sand.
And while much of the future of this decades-long conflict will partly depend on whether Hamas retaliates, now is probably the only time anyone can venture to hit the reset button.
Because if we continue to allow the warring parties to take an eye for an eye, we will all eventually go blind.
With the prospects of peace in the broader Middle East hanging in the balance, it has become more important for nations everywhere to cut across geopolitical lines and demand a permanent end to hostilities.
We call on the Indonesian government, both the incoming and outgoing administration, as well as any non-state actors silently clearing a path to peace, to seize this opportunity to help maintain this era of peace.
If anything, Israel’s murder of the Hamas negotiator and its claim of having killed the Gaza rulers’ war general in the middle of last month should be seen as an impetus to finally bring the war to an end.
Israel should no longer be able to hide behind attempts to eradicate Hamas and further raise the death toll of innocent civilians, which has already ballooned to more than 30 times the number of Israeli casualties from Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack across the border.