Содружество

Igor Ladov, Editor

Today, global war is increasingly waged through the erosion of stable international institutions: under the pretext of solving “national” problems, great and regional powers ignite armed conflicts in disputed regions.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the Middle East — a region that has spent decades trapped in cycles of war, with little to show for it but devastation. Israel’s story is tragic in its own right: a people who had just survived the Holocaust were almost immediately forced into yet another war for survival. Then another. And another. Arab states — encouraged for decades by the Soviet Union’s anti-Israel geopolitical strategy, dating back to the Stalin era — repeatedly attacked the Jewish state.

The region was moving, however imperfectly, toward a more stable balance once Egypt ceased to benefit from permanent confrontation. But the Islamofascist revolution in Iran in 1979 escalated the conflict to a new level. The imperial ambitions of some fed the violent ambitions of others, and within that vicious circle, local societies continue to lose lives, homes, and any meaningful sense of a future.

🔸 October 7, 2023, was a bloody act of mass terror. There can be no forgiveness for Hamas, nor for those who excuse its “struggle.” Any state would have responded to such an attack with force. But there are different limits to retaliation — and Tel Aviv, under the influence of far-right ideology, has pursued a grossly disproportionate and brutal policy toward Gaza and the West Bank.

At the same time, Gaza itself lacks any genuine civilian authority capable of real dialogue. Decades of Islamofascist propaganda have turned hatred into a political norm. Hamas murders not only Israelis, but also its own “internal enemies”: any real opposition inside Gaza is subjected to open terror.

Why should this concern us? Because as the left weakened, the arsonists of war grew stronger. The UN has been hollowed out. International law is increasingly treated as optional. But in this security dilemma, the far right — with its obsession with violence and destruction — will never produce peace. Only social democrats are capable of building durable relations between hostile sides.

⚠️ We need a fundamental rethink of foreign policy and political influence. We must return to the active export of democracy and social-democratic values.

That means, at minimum:

— reorienting the Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance toward both open and discreet support for left-democratic forces in the region
— helping build social-democratic organizations, media platforms, and civic networks
— providing those forces with resources, infrastructure, and trained personnel
— offering humanitarian visas and fast-track relocation for Israeli, Iranian, and Palestinian leftists, journalists, trade unionists, and civil society activists
— waging a systematic struggle against both Islamofascist propaganda and the propaganda of the Israeli far right
— using every possible means against hostile agents and militants, but only within strict humanitarian limits
— developing a shared political platform for Israeli, Iranian, and Palestinian left-wing forces
— and, in the long run, pursuing demilitarization and institutional separation in the region under unconditional security guarantees

Right now, this may sound almost utopian. But there is no other realistic path to peace. Palestine will not be saved by Hamas, by religious fanatics, or by “eternal war.” And Israel will not be saved by an ultra-right that pursues imperial policy through annexation and demographic displacement.

🌹 The progressive answer is this: a Palestinian republic built on social-democratic principles, a democratic revolution in Iran, and deep institutional reform in Israel. Love can survive without reciprocity. Friendship cannot.