WIDENING WAR: New US president must strive to bring peace to the Middle East, but can he or she rein in Netanyahu?

Tens of millions of Americans headed to the polls yesterday in one of the closest, most divisive, and most consequential contests in modern US history. Consequential not only for Americans but for the rest of the world, too, as both Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump sit on opposite sides on several key issues in the world, including Ukraine. But there is one region which isn’t looking at the outcome of the US election with much hope and optimism – the Middle East, which is currently witnessing a war, where Israel is carrying out a genocide in Palestine in full public view and with the complicity of the Western world. It’s now an irrefutable fact that whether it’s Trump or Harris in White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can’t be reined in.

American voters, especially Arab-Americans who are anguished and disappointed at the mass murder of Palestinians, and now the Lebanese, found both Trump and Harris pro-genocidal. Even Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American, refused to publicly endorse Harris due to her policies on Israel whereas Trump is seen as the favourite of Israel due to his fulfilling every wish of Israel in his previous tenure. The Israeli lobby’s stranglehold on American policy remains as strong as ever despite shifting public opinion in the US and both Harris and Trump will be unable to break free from it. Just a couple of days ago, the US sent its Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers to the Middle East for the first time since 2019 to deter Iran and its allies in a sign of Washington getting more involved in the Israel- Iran war. The Middle East is plunging deeper into war and chaos.

The region is now anxiously waiting for Iran’s promised retaliation against Israel, which can happen any day, which it says will be more devastating and powerful this time. And that retaliation is likely to elicit a response from Israel which will be deadlier with US support, which is likely to cause a cycle of retaliations and prolonged war. A YouGov Eurotrack survey held in Europe, published yesterday, found that most Western Europeans now believe a full-scale war between Israel and Iran is likely. But most participants criticized Israel and said US and Europe should not provide Tel Aviv any military aid if a war broke out.

The new US president has a duty to bring peace to Middle East and not stoke the flames of war, which it is currently doing with its blind support for Israel’s genocide. But for peace to arrive, Netanyahu will have to be reined in, and so far, he has proved beyond that he is the master, even if it is Trump or Harris on the other side.