The “Fertile Crescent,” the cradle of Middle Eastern and global civilization, is currently undergoing structural shifts whose repercussions are difficult to gauge in a world where everything moves in several directions at breakneck speed.
This is a piece of territory undergoing upheaval on every front: the tip of the Arabian Gulf, to Iraq, to the northwest toward the slopes of the Anatolian highlands, to the south along the western edge of the Syrian Desert and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, and ending at the Sinai Peninsula....
In Iraq, doubts hover over the integrity and effectiveness of the upcoming parliamentary elections, which will be under the watchful eye of Iran.
In Syria, there is a similar electoral experiment, but it lacks participants, and it remains riddled with fears and anxieties. In Lebanon, the old-new struggle is resurfacing: “legitimate arms” versus “the arms of the resistance.”
And in Palestine, of course, questions- written in blood, destruction, and tears- keep piling up.
In short, this is a region caught in a race between collapse and resilience; between state-building and the disintegration of political entities and components; between pragmatic approaches to ensuring the bare minimum needed for coexistence... And the destructive impact of domestic and external identities.
Yesterday, when this was least expected, dissension into the abyss was averted. Hamas, perhaps with Arab backing, removed the fuse lit by US President Donald Trump’s threat that he would turn Gaza into “hell” unless the movement accepted his “plan,” with all of its shortcomings and favoritism.
In truth, any reasonable person, regardless of their view of Hamas or the idea of normalization with Israel, knows from experience that Washington cannot be a neutral mediator between Israel and any Arab actor.
This time, however, certain factors- dreams of a Nobel Peace Prize and hunger for more lucrative deals- loosened the Israeli far right’s hold on Donald Trump.
At least for now, the “electoral-financial base” that carried Trump to the White House twice has encouraged the president to “break free” of the stranglehold that Jewish right-wing influence has had over his presidency.
It has become clear that some of the hardliners within the white Christian right reject the notion of “Judeo-Christian values” and openly defy its advocates. This is evident within financial, media, and political circles in the US, where the most prominent Israeli lobbies and the forces and figures connected to them have a seat.
These lobbies, forces, and figures have lost confidence in their old, familiar approach to vying for influence. They have gone beyond using money to promote their interests and pushing blunt media campaigns, adding cyber blockades, information control, and “data dominance.”
In other words, the need for someone like late blackmailer Jeffrey Epstein has either faded or declined. These lobbies and their associates now believe that control over traditional media is no longer sufficient. Accordingly, they are aggressively seeking to extend their reach, striving to put their hands on major social media websites and advanced digital applications.
Today, we see these forces dominate cutting-edge artificial intelligence industries, along with data harvesting, storage, and deployment. Much of this information is transferred to the intelligence agencies that fund and partner with them. From their perspective, reckless missteps are no longer tolerable in an age of cyber-surveillance and AI’s alarming advances.
Indeed, social media is awash with stories and reports about the ambitions of hardline right-wing billionaires Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, and their security-data company, Palantir. As we know, the billionaire Larry Ellison has just acquired TikTok, adding it to his media empire that already includes Paramount and CBS. Meanwhile, we are seeing a torrent of reports about the massive investment giants like BlackRock and Blackstone, whose enormous portfolios and sprawling networks are difficult to fathom.
Former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich (who had served under Bill Clinton) posted a brief list on his X account yesterday, raising the alarm:
“The richest man on earth owns X.
The second richest man on earth is about to be a major owner of TikTok.
The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post.
See the problem here?”
And in another striking note on financial concentration and inequality, Reich posted that:
The wealth of the 400 richest men in America is now worth a record $3 trillion, more than what 60 percent of Americans collectively own!
As for the firebrands of the white Christian right (like the media personality Tucker Carlson, activist Nick Fuentes, and congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene), they never miss an opportunity to attack Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in their tirades against “Jewish domination.”
They go further, reminding everyone that most of the uber-wealthy financial oligarchs and tech billionaires are Jewish, claiming that “the Jews” are intent on controlling America and “dragging” it into their wars... against its own national interests.
There is no doubt, then, that this is a striking scene, be it in the US or the Arab world. One might even say it is a confusing and dangerous moment for other regions of the globe as well.
Europe is hardly free of its racist and Russian anxieties. Asia is uneasy about the fallout of potential Sino-Indian rivalry. And inevitably, every region of Africa and Latin America is vulnerable in the face of the technological, economic, and political shifts of the future.
Our world today, as it appears to me, has become unrestrained. The brakes are broken, and we are moving toward a world without principles, values, or norms.
