Israel, Hamas and the unravelling of the West | Audio Long Read
The Politics Show
The New Statesman
4.2 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2023
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What might be the long term impact of the Israel-Hamas war on global alliances? In this week’s audio long read, the New Statesman’s contributing writer John Gray reflects on three weeks of bloodshed, beginning with the massacres of 7 October, and their wider consequences. An escalating conflict will empower Iran and Russia, he writes, as well as strengthen swing states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The United States might abandon Ukraine, or dilute its commitment to defending Taiwan from China. And with a presidential election on the horizon, does the White House have the stamina for a protracted foreign war?
Already support for both Israel and Palestine has become sorely contested across the West, as Keir Starmer faces pressure from Muslim (and non-Muslim) MPs in the UK, while Emmanuel Macron has banned pro-Palestinian protest. Egypt and Lebanon have said they will not accept Palestinian refugees. For Gray, the events of 7 October mark the point at which the post-Cold War order finally fractured. “We have entered a world of imperial rivalries like that before 1914, which ended in Europe’s suicide in the trenches,” he writes. If America rose to become the global superpower after the second world war, that influence is now coming to an end.
Written by John Gray and read by Melissa Denes.
This article originally appeared in the 27 October-2 November edition of the New Statesman; you can read the text version here.
If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy listening to The Dawn of the Saudi Century, by Quinn Slobodian.
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Transcript
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| 0:46.7 | The New Statement |
| 0:52.7 | You're listening to audio long reads from the New Statement, the best of our reported features and essays read aloud. |
| 1:02.7 | In this episode, Israel, Hamas and the unraveling of the West, written by John Gray and read by me Melissa Deans. |
| 1:12.9 | The link to read the article online is in the show notes. |
| 1:19.1 | The Israel, Hamas war threatens to overturn what remains of a Western-led international order. |
| 1:27.0 | An escalating conflict will empower Iran and Russia, strengthen swing states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar |
| 1:34.7 | and alienate the global south. |
| 1:37.8 | A blockage of oil supplies in the strait of Hormuz would fuel inflation and ravage Western economies. |
| 1:45.3 | Pulled back into the Middle East, the United States will turn away from Ukraine. |
| 1:50.3 | Its commitment to defending Taiwan will become more equivocal and the faltering Hegemon will retreat. |
| 1:57.8 | A fully multipolar system will come into being with all its instabilities and dangers. |
| 2:05.0 | Some or all of this scenario might yet be averted if diplomatic efforts at de-escalation somehow gain traction. |
| 2:13.2 | Yet one stark fact stands out. Ethics and geopolitics obey divergent imperatives. |
| 2:20.5 | Judgments of justice in war collide with the logic of strategy and under the influence of progressive ideology. |
... |
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