By
Joseph Lister Nyaringo
The
League of Nations failed to live up to its mandate, 20 years after inception
paving the way for the formation of the United Nations as a replacement. Whether the UN has lived up to its founding charter of maintaining
international peace and security based on mutual respect of nations and the
principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, remains to be
seen.
Seven
decades down the road, the UN has not done enough to scale down global
conflicts. In the more recent past, we've seen wars in the Gulf, Bosnia,
Somalia, Yemen, and Syria, political coups mostly in former French Colonies in
Africa, and civil strife in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan.
The most
recent is the Russian invasion of Ukraine whose war is still on and the Hamas
extremist attack in Israel last week where over a thousand civilians were
killed and over a hundred were held as hostages.
The
World is currently in turmoil. The major UN organs- the Security Council, General
Assembly, International Court of Justice, and the trusteeship Council have not
done enough to mitigate the situation.
The
Russian President, Vladmir Putin is involved in a senseless war with Ukraine where
innocent lives have been lost and the country’s infrastructure destroyed. The
United States of America which is a superpower housing the UN has failed to be
a neutral arbiter on global instabilities.
In the
Middle East, former US President Bill Clinton almost realized peace between
Israelis and Palestinians in the early 1990s. However, his efforts were
thwarted when Israel extremists neutered the Oslo Accord by assassinating
former Israel Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin.
The
accord was the clearest pathway towards a two-state solution between Israelis
and Palestinians.
Islamic
extremists are having a field day if the recent attack in Israel by Hamas is
something to go by. The killing of almost a thousand Israelis and taking over a hundred hostages has sent shockwaves throughout the world on the future of
peace in the Middle East.
No nation, global body, religious organization, or
individual has shown or come up with any profound idea on how to resolve the
Israel and Palestinian conflict.
As the world grapples with two wars-Russia versus Ukraine
and Israel versus Hamas in Palestine, maybe the world should think of forming a
different global conglomeration to address global peace and security since the
UN has failed.
The UN
has failed either due to violation of its core mandate by member states or
because of the rigidity of its leadership from conforming to new trends in
diplomacy and peacebuilding. For instance, Israel has unilaterally violated
the UN mandate several times without any consequences.
Russia,
which is a permanent member of the UN, with veto powers, is involved in an
illegal invasion of Ukraine which is a sovereign nation. Other member states
are mute about this. Even nations with veto powers like the US, China, France,
and the United Kingdom have not done enough to address the root cause of the
Russian armies in Ukraine.
There is no reason why leaders from 193 nations should
congregate in New York just to make good speeches with recommendations which
are never implemented.
Tooth
for tooth, and an eye for an eye, will make two warring parties blind. The
current conflict in the Middle East can critically be seen to be between
irrationality and insanity-Hamas, and rationality and sanity-Israel. The
Palestinian extremist group, Hamas is like a deranged person while Israel
represents a normal person.
My point therefore is this, Hamas feels justified to
inflict pain on Israel based on decades of territorial differences and Israel
feels justified to retaliate over the infliction. Therefore, Israel should take
a more reasonable path to resolve the crisis and not act like the ragtag Hamas
extremists who have no clear foundational leadership.
On the global scene, Ukrainians, Palestinians, and Israelis
are all crying. In Africa, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in
West Africa, Francophone States are going through coup detats. In all
the said conflicts, the sum total is human suffering.
The proliferation of weapons has spiralled global conflicts.
If Hamas didn’t have weapons, they would not have the temerity to break into
Israel to kill and kidnap innocent civilians. Israel, with its military might
swung into action to retaliate the Hamas attack. Perhaps if they didn’t have
weapons, they could’ve reverted to diplomacy as a pathway to peace.
Extremism or the show of military might cannot solve the
Palestinian and Israelis crisis. What is required is sobriety centred on the
pathway to peace.
Partisanship
from the global community on the conflict continues to bedevil the peace
process. For instance, there is no reason for the US to openly support aggrieved Israel if indeed they believe in brokering peace in the region.
Furthermore,
sending an aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean Sea as well as its chief
diplomat Antony Blinken to Israel at the height of the Israel bombardment in
Gaza is not a well-thought-out idea. This is fueling the crisis into a full-fledged
war.
Instead of sending military gear to
support Israel, the US should utilize former President Bill Clinton’s
diplomatic prowess to help the region work towards the path to peace.
It must be remembered that two decades
ago, Clinton carried out a mission that saved the minority Albanians from
Serbia under the late Slobodan Milosevic. On the other hand, the former
President is remembered for brokering the Oslo Accord which was the best angle
closer to realizing peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
Prime Netanyahu should have the
wherewithal to revert to the Oslo Accord of 1993, where the Palestinian
Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat, and Israeli Prime Minister
Yizhak Rabin struck a deal for peace.
As the longest serving Israel premier,
Netanyahu should focus on his legacy by building clear avenues to leave a
peaceful Israel and not the number of bombs the Israel army will rain in Gaza
and the number of Hamas rebels who will be killed in the operation.
It must be remembered that extremism
is not a preserve of Muslim Palestinians alone. It's also an Israelis
challenge. The ultranationalist who assassinated Rabin during a rally held in
support of the Oslo Accord in 1995 was not a Muslim but a Jew.
Hardline positions from both sides are
likely to worsen the crisis. It will also embolden internal and external
extremist groups like Isis, Al-Qaeda, Alshabaab etc. who are hell-bent on causing
more havoc to humanity.
If the conflict is not contained, it
may spiral to other volatile nations in the region like Syria, and Lebanon. Who
knows, as the global community takes sides in the conflict, it may explode into
another world war as countries like Russia, Iran, China, France, Britain, etc.
have already taken sides.
This is a time for powerful nations to
show leadership by encouraging negotiation for a truce, the release of
hostages, secession of Israel bombing, allowing humanitarian relief to Gaza,
and urging Israel to apply international humanitarian law to protect innocent
civilians.
Nyaringo is the President of the Kenya
patriotic movement, a diaspora lobby based in the US
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