Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has been insistently warning the whole world that the Israeli atrocities in Palestine, especially the Israeli attacks against senior Hamas officials in Lebanon and Iranian targets in Syria, may spread the ongoing war in the Palestinian territories to the entire Middle East. Fidan pointed out that the attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea by the Iranian proxy Houthi militants show the scale of the tension in the region. He warned the related regional states and global powers that if they did not deter Israel, the war could spread to the region. And the regional war will end in a way that every regional state will lose.

During a live broadcast last Monday, Fidan repeated his concern over the potential spillover effect of the ongoing war. He has clearly warned about the risk of World War III, especially considering the most recent developments both in the Middle East and in the Ukrainian conflict. “The world needs to take this scenario, this threat seriously,” he stressed.

In addition, many other politicians both in the West and in the non-Western parts of the world have started to speak out about the escalation of regional crises and the threat of nuclear war. Some politicians, such as Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic, have started to give dates for the beginning of World War III. Some politicians such as Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, pointed out that the war in the Middle East is on the brink of expansion. However, the people who warn the world about the spread of the war do nothing to prevent the process. On the contrary, they continue to support Israel, which pushes others to the brink of a regional war. It is also interesting to see that Lebanese Hezbollah has threatened the Southern Cypriots for becoming “an operational base” for Israeli aggression by opening its airports and bases for Israeli use against the Lebanese targets.

Western support for Israel

Türkiye and many Muslim and Arab countries have been calling on Washington and other Western states to stop their unconditional support of the Israeli attacks against innocent civilians of Gaza. The more the Western governments continue to support the Israeli genocide against the Gazan people, the more they will experience moral collapse, social upheaval, political instability and economic costs. In other words, the more the West supports the Israeli atrocities against innocent civilians and its crimes against humanity, it will continue to lose its comparative advantage in all issue areas.

On the other hand, Israel does not restrain itself from going to war with some other regional actors and states. Since the Israeli government has lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the world public opinion due to its use of unlimited force against children, women and the elderly in Gaza, it wants to regain support by bringing Iran and some other actors such as Hezbollah into the game. The international community has failed to make any effort to prevent the escalation of the tension in the region. Thus, Israel and its Western supporters have violated the main principles of international law and destroyed the main pillars of the global system.

The Western stance on the Gaza issue has many direct and indirect implications. First of all, by supporting the Israeli atrocities in Palestine, the Western countries have weakened their stance in the Ukrainian war against Russia. While supporting the genocide in Gaza, none will support their political discourse against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, since the situation in Gaza is much worse than the situation in Ukraine. As a matter of fact, many Western countries are preparing for the spread of the conflict in Ukraine and to go to war with Russia, a development that carries the possibility of a nuclear war.

Israeli attacks risk systemic war

Second, witnessing the use of unlimited force against civilians, the occupation of the lands of another people/state, and pursuing unilateral policies toward other states, all regional states have begun to engage in armament and power-seeking efforts. The most recent Israeli attacks will cause other regional states to continue their respective militarization processes. The region will turn into a powder keg that could explode at any moment. Unfortunately, the possibility of the spill-over effect of a full-scale regional war in the Middle East is quite high. It may cause a systemic war to which most of the global powers may join directly or indirectly.

Third, since the United States and other Western countries have been providing unconditional military, political and economic support to Israel, their respective peoples have been increasingly becoming critical of the policies of their respective governments. They do not want their government to put their national security at risk, and they do not want to pay the price of the Israeli atrocities. The people who lost their trust in the so-called mainstream politicians have started to vote for far-right politicians, who also generally follow conflictual policies. That is, the Western governments and peoples have found themselves in a deadlock and do not know how to get rid of this deadlock.

Eventually, the Western governments continued to push the world toward further political and economic instabilities, especially after destroying the very institutions and principles that they had established. The current political and economic developments initiated by the irrational politicians push the world toward an inevitable World War III. Therefore, the world awaits the return to rationality.