UWI author and political scientist Onur Sinan Güzaltan was a guest on Turkish On4 TV’s broadcast.
Güzaltan shared his assessments on regional and global confrontation and potential political developments in light of Israel’s recent attack on Rafah.
“Israel lost credibility and legitimacy”
How do you evaluate Israel’s latest attack on Rafah?
Firstly, the entire world agrees that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This includes some European countries, which had initially supported Israel. After the latest attack on Rafah, they too condemned Israel. Israel has completely lost its credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of global public opinion and conscience.
The Palestinian resistance remains resilient
Secondly, despite all of Israel’s attacks on civilians, women and children, the Palestinian resistance remains resilient. The Palestinian resistance is still capable of launching missile attacks on Tel Aviv and areas under Israeli occupation. Israel is also militarily losing. It was the steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance that brought the situation to this point and led Israel to desperation. The opposition to Israel within the US and Europe is also a result of the resilience of the Palestinian resistance. Since the Palestinians are able to defend themselves with arms, Israel is globally losing ground. Domestically, Israel is facing serious economic issues, with many companies going bankrupt, etc. There are demonstrations against the government in Israeli cities. Israel is at an impasse.
Once immigration country now loses population
The moment Israel’s ground operation in Gaza began was essentially the beginning of Israel’s suicide. Israel, which used to attract immigration, is now experiencing emigration. It was already a demographically troubled country, and now the situation is worsening. Perhaps to prevent this downward trend, Israel is mercilessly attacking civilians, trying to deter the Palestinian resistance. But this is backfiring. There is no chance for Israel to emerge successfully from this point. The question now is not whether Israel will lose, but how deep its loss will be.
Can Israeli aggression be stopped by any means other than armed force?
Let’s recall World War II. How did humanity stop the Nazi armies? With arms. The same applies to Israel. The way to stop Israel is through strengthening the Palestinian resistance and supporting them. For example, the South African parliament has introduced a draft law supporting the Palestinian resistance. Agreements, sanctions, etc. are not sufficient.
In the region near the Palestinian border in Egypt, it is difficult to find people who don’t have relatives in Palestine. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees live in Jordan and Lebanon. The same for Syria. The refugees in these countries would react to Israel’s attacks. We must also consider this factor. If Israel continues these attacks, we may witness unexpected developments.
The Israeli lobby in the Western world
How do you evaluate the stark difference between the attitudes of Europe’s leading countries towards Ukraine and towards Palestine?
Actually, this is very normal, there is nothing surprising. In the Western world, in the Atlantic camp, the Israeli lobby is very strong. Israel is very powerful in the fields of banking, financial institutions and media, and has the ability to manipulate opinions. The elite holding political power in Europe are on Israel’s side. However, it is not possible for them to maintain this. Israel is losing not only militarily and politically but also morally and ethically.
Looking at Ukraine, despite all Western support, Zelenskyy is also losing. While the West is losing on all these fronts, its internal conflicts and contradictions are becoming more apparent. The people in Europe are also seeing this.
On the other hand, we should note that Israel is the US’s outpost in the region, and the US will do everything in its power to protect it.
Pregnant with centuries-long consequences
Ukraine and Israel are the two fronts where the Atlantic is fighting against Eurasia. On both fronts, the Atlantic is losing politically, militarily and morally. The loss here will have consequences for the Atlantic not for just the next 10–20 years, but, in the words of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, it will mean “the collapse of 500 years of global Western dominance”. In a sense, what is happening on these two fronts is a burst of power that has been compressed over 500 years. Therefore, we should predict that the Atlantic will do everything in its power not to lose.
You don’t have the chance to remain neutral in this confrontation. We are at a threshold where you must be part of either the Atlantic or Eurasian camps.