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Why Blinken’s shuttle diplomacy is failing
When six missiles were dispatched by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Aurori, the modus operandi was both thuggish and roguish. Israel did not inform the US of its original intention.
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Tent meeting: United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pose for journalists on Jan. 8, 2024 during their meeting in Al-Ula, northwestern Saudi Arabia. Blinken is on a weeklong trip aimed at calming tensions across the Middle East. (AFP/Pool/Evelyn Hockstein)
T
he word "shuttle diplomacy" was coined in the aftermath of Oct. 6, 1973, known as the Yom Kippur War to the Israelis and the Ramadan War to the Arabs. The late Henry Kissinger, who was then the national security advisor of United States president Richard Nixon, crisscrossed the whole of the Middle East, including Israel, to bring all sides to agreement on a full cessation of hostilities.
This time around, Antony Blinken, more likely than not, will see his wholesale shuttle diplomacy failing. Why?
To begin with, Blinken's five-day diplomatic tour, which started on Jan. 7, has seen him meet with King Abdullah in Jordan. Yet leverage is not necessarily in the hands of Jordan.
Between Jan. 11 and Jan. 13, global attention is likely to be fixed on South Africa's resolution that Israel's current regime has failed in its commitment to the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention (UNGC). This resolution, which for now is backed by Turkey and Malaysia, in order to be reviewed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), will see South Africa assembling its best legal team to hold Israel to account for bombing close to 85 percent of Gaza and displacing 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million.
Since the world, especially the 22 Arab countries that form the Arab League, has always wanted to see how Israel will respond to the accusations, no Arab countries are bound to assist Blinken in keeping the Gaza conflict under wraps.
Jordan cannot convince the Arab countries to exercise any form of self-restraint, especially when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) drew first blood in Beirut by assassinating the second most senior political leader of Hamas, Saleh Aurori. He served as the link between Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran.
When six missiles went dispatched by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Aurori, the modus operandi was both thuggish and roguish. Israel did not inform the US of its original intention.
