Decouple the Gaza war from US-China relationship

THE Ukraine war seems to have created in Washington the outlines of a post-Cold War international system, under which a Western democratic bloc led by the United States is facing a Sino-Russo axis of authoritarian states that is challenging the post-1945 liberal global order.

This “new Cold War” narrative disregards the reality in which the strategic interests of Moscow and China – or, for that matter, the US and France – are not necessarily aligned. Hence the Chinese didn’t support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while the French don’t back the US’ “decoupling” approach towards China. And the global balance of power could change once again depending on the outcome of the war in Ukraine.

Nevertheless, the Gaza war has encouraged members of Washington’s foreign-policy community to try to extend the new Cold War narrative, and integrate into it what is basically a national-ethnic war between the Israelis and Palestinians – and, in a wider context, a conflict between two regional powers, Israel and Iran and its regional proxies. These pundits in Washington suggest that we are now facing a confrontation between a China-Russia-Iran-Hamas axis and a Western bloc allied with Israel and that, before we know it, Cold War II would be transformed into World War III.