The World This Week / Episode #61
This weekly feature for Andelman Unleashed, continues on its mission to explore how the media of other nations are reporting and commenting on the United States, and how they are viewing the rest of the world. Reporting today from Riga, Latvia.
It’s not impossible that the greatest single casualty of the war in Gaza lies 1,200 miles to the north. Suddenly, Ukraine has been replaced on the world’s front pages by events in the Middle East.
In both cases, however, the issue for much of the world was the ability of America to sustain its role as leader of the two battles—against autocracy and terrorism. “From the war in Ukraine to the conflict in the Middle East, Joe Biden tries to convince Americans of the need for American leadership,” Le Monde’s U.S. correspondent Arnaud Parmentier wrote following the president’s Thursday evening Oval Office speech. And he continued:
Joe Biden's solemn speech was an impossible mission, the day after his trip to Israel, as the political, community and diplomatic constraints were so strong. In 15 minutes, the Democratic President challenged an increasingly isolationist America in the face of its global responsibilities.
To convince and for internal reasons, it was necessary to succeed in linking the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Hamas, namely the vote for a package of external financial aid of more than 100 billion dollars (95 billion euros) by Congress. The elected Republican representatives, who have a majority in the House of Representatives, no longer want to finance Ukraine (60 billion dollars planned), but they can hardly shy away from the Jewish state (14 billion dollars).
Thus, sometimes artificially uniting the two conflicts, Joe Biden presented himself as a courageous president, after once again going to a war zone, as he did during his secret train trip to Kiev in February 2023. He described the atrocities of both enemies – the kidnappings of Ukrainian children by the Russian army and the crimes of Hamas terrorists.”
Still, this profound issue of equivalency and the dangers that lurked within was raised most directly on the front page of Le Monde by the veteran Singapore cartoonist Heng Kim Song, who draws under the name Heng….
The major issue, as the world sees America, is just how Ukraine can survive when the world may no longer be paying as much attention as it has.
As much as Joe Biden would love to provide the funds and munitions for America’s friends and allies to battle autocracy and terrorism, he still needs Congress to appropriate the funds. And there, the prospects don’t look very favorable. Still, few media outlets around the world seem to be paying very much attention at all to America’s utterly frozen government. The French magazine Le Point pointed out, in a throwaway line in its report on Biden’s Oval Office speech, “He must deal with a paralyzed Congress, due to quarrels between Trumpists and moderate Republicans, unable to form a coherent majority in the House of Representatives.”
The BBC did note in a bit of straight reportage, under the headline, “Jordan to run again for Speaker as backup plan declared ‘dead.’”…
“The Ohio congressman earlier indicated he would hit pause and back a temporary proposal allowing acting Speaker Patrick McHenry to run the House. But Republicans railed against the move, some reportedly shouting and swearing, in a tense meeting Thursday.
The lower chamber of Congress has had no leader for the past 16 days.
Without a Speaker in place, the House is unable to pass bills or approve an impending White House request for aid to Israel and Ukraine.”
London’s The Economist concluded, however, with no reference to the utter disarray at the heart of the American government, “Only America can save Israel and Gaza from greater catastrophe. Iran, Russia and China are profiting from the mayhem….The alternative [to peace] is the decay that feeds scavenger states like Iran and Russia. Mr. Biden is the only leader who can pull things back together. If he fails, and the security of the Middle East crumbles, it will be a catastrophe for America, too.”
Le Monde assembled a team of four correspondents to examine the critical issue of how “Russia uses the Gaza conflict to weaken support for Ukraine”:
Moscow departed from its traditional position of balance between Israel and Arab countries by not condemning the Hamas attack. The Kremlin sees in the conflict an opportunity to turn against the “collective West” the accusations made against it concerning non-compliance with international law and crimes against civilians.
A “gift from heaven” for the Kremlin: the expression comes up repeatedly in the comments of Western diplomats and external observers. Israeli retaliation in the Gaza Strip, in response to the terrorist attack carried out by Hamas on October 7, constitutes a boon for Russia in its war against Ukraine and its confrontation against the "collective West", according to the expression in force in Moscow.
The brutality of the Israeli response and the support it enjoys in Western capitals weaken two pillars of Western discourse on Ukraine: Russia's non-compliance with international law and the crimes committed by its army. The comparison was not long in being made between the Russian and Israeli occupations, which Westerners refuse to put on the same level.
Don’t forget China or a denouement?
In its efforts to present itself as a reasoned and rational arbiter in international crises with none of the domestic conflict that could restrict its actions (the real value of autocracy over democracy), Beijing was quick to weigh in, as Laura Zhou reported in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post:
China has called for an immediate ceasefire in a major escalation of the decades-old conflict between Palestinian fighters and the Israeli military.
The Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing was “deeply concerned about the … escalation of tension and violence between Palestine and Israel”.
“All parties concerned [are urged] to exercise calm and restraint, to cease fire immediately, to protect the civilian population and to prevent further deterioration of the situation,” it added.
At the same time, The Economist was pondering a simple, indeed central question that few powers, especially the United States before its own adventures into Iraq and Afghanistan, ever truly considered:
Europe’s governors suffer from their own malaises
Meanwhile, a cacophony of voices is emerging from Europe from the first moments of the conflict. As France 24 reported, “EU leaders struggled to bridge their often-contradictory messaging on the Israel-Hamas conflict.” The report continued:
A sign of the bloc's divergences, officials said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban—who met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Beijing—skipped the talks. Officials in Brussels have been at loggerheads with each other and member states over the bitterly divisive issues that have long split opinion in the bloc. While there has been widespread condemnation of the slaughter by Hamas of Israelis, there have been disagreements over calls to rein in retaliatory strikes on Gaza and maintaining aid to the Palestinians.
A major point of ire for some capitals has been perceptions that European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen has overstepped her remit with her unflinching backing for Israel. European Council President Charles Michel said leaders had sought to ensure "maximum coordination" between their countries and Brussels at an emergency videoconference. "It's a conflict which is generating a lot of fragmentation, of divisions, of polarization amongst our people, amongst our societies," Michel said. "That's why we need also to cooperate at European Union level to try to defuse the tensions.
Meanwhile, seems China is facing some image problems of its own—from at least one of its many creditors. In this case, it’s Kenya which isn’t at all happy with the results of its new (Chinese) railroad, nor the price tag….
As Jevans Nyabiage reported in the South China Morning Post, “Kenya is to seek US$1 billion from China for a stalled railway, ‘more time’ to repay debts, its deputy president says. Kenyan President William Ruto is expected to meet China’s Xi Jinping during a trip to Beijing for the third Belt and Road Forum this month. Ruto’s apparently West-leaning team has previously criticized the preceding Kenyan administration for burdening the country with Chinese debt.”
Japan wants none of them, or at least fewer. As Gavin Blair reported from Tokyo for The Times of London, “Harassment of geishas, overcrowding at sites featured in manga and anime, and littering on usually clean streets have prompted Japan’s government to crack down on over-tourism. As overseas visitor numbers return to pre-pandemic levels, parts of Japan are struggling to cope with the influx, with locals unable to go about their daily lives.”
“Kishida, the prime minister, attended a meeting on Wednesday to address the issue, and said: ‘In some areas and during certain periods, there has been an impact on the lives of local residents due to inbound tourists, such as bad manners.’”
Another weekend of elections—a core mission of Andelman Unleashed. Monday we should have final results from critical elections that could set a new direction for Argentina and one of two elections this year in Switzerland that will be charting a course for one of the rare members of Europe in the geographic heart and outside the framework of the new Europe.
Stay tuned!
The Jordanian cartoonist Rafat has captured how much of the world, certainly the Arab world, perceives Israel and its actions toward the two million residents of Gaza as the war spirals apparently out of control. Suddenly last week, with 24 hours warning, half the population of the Gaza Strip was ordered out of their homes in the north, under threat of imminent Israeli attack, and herded into an already overcrowded south, the single viable exit, to Egypt, barred to refugees who might seek to flee or receive humanitarian aid so desperately needed inside. It is a shocking event that Rafat paints. But that throws a deep light into the image of Israeli’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Our cartoonist, Rafat Alkhatib, born in Jordan in 1989, obtained a computer engineering degree but always had a passion for drawing. Currently he works in the technology field as a UX designer, and in the evenings he draws, beginning at the age of 15. In 2011, he began posting on social media, Facebook and Twitter. In 2015, he joined Cartoon Movement, in 2017, Al Hudood Network, and in 2018 Al Mayadeen TV. Currently, he publishes on his three platforms and his personal website. He is also a member of the inestimable Cartooning for Peace collective.
Here's how Rafat sees himself:
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