The emerging defense pact with the United States, will be a decisive moment for Saudi Arabia and for broader Middle Eastern politics. Until it is ratified, the kingdom will likely strive to maintain defense partnerships with both the U.S. and China.

Many people in the West tend to view the expansion of China’s influence in the Middle East through the lens of great power rivalry. China rejects this concept, and its diplomatic efforts have helped to prevent the escalation of regional crises.

Increasing isolation is making it difficult for the Netanyahu government to secure support from the United States, which faces a dilemma: It can continue to back Israel, or it can distance itself from Netanyahu, either of which could have serious electoral consequences for President Joe Biden.

The recent act passed in the U.S. House of Representatives — even if endorsed by the Senate and signed into law by the president — is unlikely to be effective in eliminating antisemitism in the United States. A kind of national reconciliation will be required.

Despite their positive aspects, globalization, multi-polarization and technological advancement come with pronounced negatives that pose challenges to the post-Cold War world order. The only way forward is for the West to cooperate with China and engage in active and candid dialogue.

Sustainable peace in the Middle East — in particular between Israel and the Palestinians — will require meaningful change in Palestine’s status: Its sovereignty must be established and recognized. A unified push by China and the United States to that end would be an important guarantor of success.

The protracted conflict may force the U.S. president to alienate Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to the point of jeopardizing the special relationship, thereby causing powerful Jewish voters and lobbies to withdraw their support. Other traditional Democratic constituencies, such as Muslim-Americans, may follow suit.

The youth will be crucial for President Joe Biden’s bid for re-election, as it was in 2020. But Biden’s continued support for Israel is cooling their ardor. To make matters worse, support for Biden among Muslim-Americans — a key voting bloc in some swing states — has taken a nosedive.

The latest Palestinian-Israeli conflict has lasted four and a half months since its outbreak in October and resulted in nearly 30,000 Palestinian deaths, the destruction of nearly all infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and more than 2 million people left homeless, as well as a severe shortage of food, drinking water and medicine. The humanitarian disaster is intensifying with each passing day.

The possibility of another Trump-style leader in the United States — perhaps even Donald Trump himself — has shaken Europe to its roots. Europe cannot replace American hegemony. Thus, its only course is to accelerate toward “strategic autonomy” to become less dependent on the U.S. security umbrella, which has been in place since World War II.