The enormous suffering and destruction caused by Israel’s military response to Hamas’ terrorist attack on civilians in that country occurs in a complex context that demonstrates the limited ability of major powers to neutralize global trends leading to a reshaping of the international system.

The war in the Gaza Strip involved nation states, but also many non-state actors. It has global influences. Several Palestinian actors are active in the conflict in the Middle East. The most visible of these is the political-military organization that rules Gaza, Hamas, whose purpose is to establish a sovereign and independent Islamist state with its capital in Jerusalem. Hamas has never recognized Israel. There is also the Palestinian National Authority, which formally represents the Palestinian people at the UN and governs – theoretically – the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Its central purpose is to achieve recognition of the Palestinian State and Authority as its government. On the other hand, encouraged by the current Israeli regime, thousands of settlers occupy and continue to violently attack lands that are, according to international agreements, in Palestinian territory.

Outside of Palestine, there are several non-state groups that are the protagonists of the war. Hezbollah, the “Party of God”, a Shia Islamist organization that has projected itself internationally by fighting for the Syrian president and supporting Hamas, operates in Lebanon, and in the south of the vast Arabian Peninsula there are the Houthis who control the Red Sea Strait through which all Suez Canal ships circulate, mostly Shia , which is waging war against Saudi Arabia and the government it supports. All these forces are in conflict with Israel and its allies.

To this complex situation we must add the interests of nation states. Iran logistically supports Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. It recently signed an agreement to restore relations with Saudi Arabia, its biggest rival after Israel, but feels hurt by deals normalizing relations between several Arab countries and Israel that have sidelined the Palestinian issue. The Hamas attack once again isolated Tel Aviv within the Arab world and put Iran at the center of regional geopolitics because, unlike what happened in the 20th century, Arab countries did not respond militarily or financially to the action of the Israeli power.

Iran has supported Russia with technology and military equipment, and Vladimir Putin has repeatedly called it one of the hubs of the multipolar world he envisions. The war in Palestine, especially its consequences on the civilian population, has severely eroded public support for the United States globally. This conflict shows that contemporary geopolitics goes beyond the behavior of nation states. The world order is undergoing a transformation and no country currently has the capacity to carry out the process of global governance and guide its evolution. (OR)