A reshaping of the Middle East was one of the US's main goals when the secretary-general of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated in late September by Israel. The US has wanted to reshape the Middle East since late 2011.

However, because it failed to achieve its aims, it adopted an investment policy instead. These US policies have been largely successful, although other regional powers, such as China, are also vying for regional dominance.

The American administration has also resorted to re-introducing conflict in the region. This preserves Washington's international status while stopping China's influence. For example, China is credited with brokering an Iranian-Saudi rapprochement in late 2023.

America also aims to confront Iran's rise in influence, stop its nuclear ambitions, end its support of Russia in its war on Ukraine, and strengthen its alliance with China. The rise of China in the Middle East has changed the US's sense of the strength and loyalty of its traditional allies, who have also begun diversifying their strategic partnerships.

The US also realised that its vision for oil was wrong, especially after the Russian-Ukrainian war, which proved the importance of oil in the Middle East.

The US must rearrange its cards in the Middle East to maintain its influence and global hegemony. As a result, international powers have competed for supremacy in the region.

Therefore, the Gaza war follows a policy of strategic deception, and it has employed Tel Aviv to do this.

This attitude has been embodied by the Biden administration's unlimited support and solidarity with Israel. However, its deception has also strengthened its strategic partnerships with Arabs. Moreover, it says that it wants to contain the war in Gaza to preserve its image, values, and rules. The US is also striving hard to curb Iran's ambitions of becoming a greater power in the Middle East and to confront the influence of China and Russia in the region.

The US supports Israel unconditionally.

For these reasons, Netanyahu can do whatever he wants. The US will support him politically, economically, militarily, diplomatically, and intelligence-wise, provided the war does not expand. However, the US has decided that international Western cooperation with Israel is necessary to give it superiority. Israel cannot penetrate Hezbollah and assassinate its leaders and even assassinate its secretary-general without some retaliation. Indeed, Hezbollah has been fighting Israel for 40 years. As a consequence of the US's attitude, the international community is helpless in the face of Netanyahu's crimes, however.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to preserve this image, and he has taken the Middle East and the region into the line of fire. Hence, no one can predict how things will turn out.

Photo: Lebanon is now in Israel's line of fire (by Adobe).