ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR IN GAZA: REARRANGEMENT OF REGIONAL POWERS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST.

The recent Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and their persistent military campaign against each other, owing to atrocities and mass destruction, have drawn international attention to the regional politics of the Middle East. Recent regional political changes have been disrupted, such as Arab-Israel efforts to normalise relations after the Abraham Accords and the latest Saudi-Israel Peace Deal. The ongoing carnage in Gaza has pivoted Arab states’ interests away from the peace processes, thus shifting the regional as well as major powers’ alliance priorities. Iran, whose rapprochement with Saudia Arabia has begun, also warned of a pre-emptive attack against Israel should the latter invade Gaza. Most Arab states have shown solidarity with the Palestine cause; on the contrary, significant actors such as the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) have shown their support for Israel, as manifested by the veto of UNSC resolutions. From a structural realist view, as propounded by Kenneth Waltz, international politics can be explained through a system-level analysis. It highlights cause-and-effect relations that can be observed between the states, primary units, and the anarchical international structure. Keeping this in mind, such rearrangement of alliances in the Middle East indicates the prolongation and intensification of war amid anarchy in an emerging multipolar world. Moreover, the war in Gaza holds a high chance of regional spillover. In any case, the war that ignited Israel-Hamas tensions is likely to continue unless prominent actors’ mediation brings to light the root cause of the problem, which lies in the illegal occupation of Palestine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]