The situation in the Middle East has always been very delicate. Demanding for everyone. In each of the countries that make up this geographical area, very intense internal conflicts develop. Religious conflicts when it comes to currents of Islam. Political conflicts when it comes to exercising power and government. Between several of the countries, territorial conflicts of permanent dispute.
Each country on its own merits enormous concern, if only for the effects that its internal dramas may have on the region and the world. The combination of all of them interacting constitutes a dangerous imbalance that often gets out of hand.
The biggest prize in terms of conflict and danger is Israel. With its near and distant neighbors. With its ideological adversaries, whether legitimate and logical or not. And if we evaluate the internal conflicts, Israel always lives in tension: left and right, religious and secular. A level of confrontation out of the ordinary, transmitted live and direct by every network and data platform there is and will be.
The seven fronts that Israel has managed since October 7, 2023, plus the internal front that means the internal struggle of currents and parties, constitute an unprecedented wear and tear for any country.
First, there is the drama of the Gaza hostages who are not yet freed. The war in Gaza is not over and the defeat of some is seen by the defeated as the real victory. Northern Israel remains devastated, a precarious ceasefire agreement is being presented as the great victory of the defeated. And while this is happening, in the shadow of a change of administration in the United States, the Houthis launch a ballistic missile on Israel as if to not forget them. Just as I write this note, there is news of the tense situation in Syria where rebels have taken over an important part of the country.
The war of attrition is the most effective against Israel. Its structure as a country requires everyone in their jobs, and its military structure, everyone in their combat positions. You cannot stay in either one for too long, because the same people are the ones who take care of them. But the additional and intense wear and tear of seven active fronts and the instability of the region are exhausting.
We are now in December 2024, after almost fourteen months of war, with real threats of trouble elsewhere. The pressure on the Middle Easterners is brutal. That on the Israelis, who are known for their so-called freedom of expression, is simply unbearable. The collateral damage, understood as the permanent stress on individuals and families, the psychological effects on the entire population, generate consequences that will still be seen in the coming years.
In truth, the entire world is experiencing this situation of pressure and uncertainty. The powers that rule the world are not powerful enough to govern and set the standards of world order. They are powerful in terms of their superior capacity for destruction. But the issue of firepower has become accessible to many, perhaps small, but sufficiently lethal. This is how the Houthis, once unknown and with little influence on the world scene, can put a fleet and global maritime trade in check. This is how any country with sophisticated nuclear capacity or not can threaten the stability of the entire world. The entire world is at the mercy of the unreasonableness of those who hold and defend unacceptable, incomprehensible causes.
Added to this is the inability of international organizations to act as intermediaries, facilitators or in their original role of establishing order where necessary. It is evident that international organizations obey interests linked to their majority members and not rational just causes. Given this reality, global anarchy tends to prevail.
As 2024 draws to a close and the Biden administration in the United States of America comes to an end, the hopes of an exhausted humanity are focused on what a new administration of the decayed empire of our days might do. It is not very flattering that, in 2025, the interconnected nations of the world will be sticking to the scheme of imperial Rome that had the power to manage local and global affairs. But this unfortunate and even strange circumstance is due to the fact that everyone is exhausted. Unresolved conflicts, new conflicts and more anarchy.
We citizens of the world are certainly exhausted.
Elias Farache S.