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The Ukrainian Crisis as a Symbol
In 2014, our world is a true global village. A viral Youtube video could make you a celebrity, tweets about a young girl in Pakistan who stood proud against the Taliban can bring her all the way to Jon Stewart’s Daily Show in NYC, and these are just two examples.
This internet-trend based world has changed also the way global politics works. Tweets and Facebook events led the 2011 revolution in Egypt and the so-called “Arab Spring”, and what happens in the last days in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula is another showcase about how getting online information from can affects world stability in a few minutes.
As America’s allies around the world follow closely how powerless the Western powers are against Russia’s invasion to Ukraine, it also hurts the West’s credibility. This process is even more profound among America’s closest allies, especially Israel.
In the next few weeks the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, led by Secretary John Kerry, are about to hit a crucial point. The Obama administration is planning to present a framework document for a peace agreement that both the Palestinian and Israeli leadership will have to accept, with some objections. The White House sees that as one of the top interests of America’s foreign affairs
How does that relate to Ukraine? One of the main American and Palestinian demand is that no Israeli forces will be able to stay on the border line between Jordan and the West Bank in any final agreement. Instead, Secretary Kerry offers that U.S-led NATO forces together with high-tech border fence will prevent weapons and terrorists to cross from Iran, Iraq and Jordan to the West Bank mountains, which oversees Israel’s main population centers. If there was a slim chance that Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu would budge and accept that offer before what happen in Ukraine, now it seems unrealistic.
The live coverage, on Facebook and twitter followed by the traditional websites and TV channels of the unbelievably easy way that the Russians acted against past agreements hit waves throughout our globe.
While America and the West responded with statements and press conferences, Putin changed the political reality and East-West balance on the ground. This is Israel’s nightmare in any future peace deal, and that is how in our global world today something that happens in Eastern Europe can undermine America’s interests in the Middle East.