The West-Asia War is raging: One Israel against three — Hamas (Gaza), Hezbollah (Lebanon) and Iran. What will the future be?

The genesis of the Palestinian War and its cause are well-known. Jewish Israel and the Arab Palestinian West-Bank and the Gaza Strip were born with blood and iron in May 1948. Since then both Arabs and Jews have been fighting a war of attrition with no settlement in sight. Wars and Military conflicts are continuing in regular intervals — 1948-49, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006 and 2023, the present ongoing one. Let it be. After all, as Hitler famously said, ‘War is first born in the mind of the man.’ Therefore, to end any war, the man must end the war in his mind and make room for peace. Sadly, this is not happening in this West-Asia War.

Many ask about the possible escalation of the present war because Iran has joined the Arab forces. Will it lead to a Third World War? In recent times we have heard of a possibility of a Third World War for water, not for territory. This one is for territory.

Therefore, this should remind us of books written either with prophecies about the future of this world or about the events that would shake the world bringing in a New World Order. Among the books I can recall are ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the books ‘1984’ and ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell, ‘Future Shock’ by Alvin Toffler, ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ by Jules Verne, ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ and ‘The War of the Worlds’ by H.G. Wells (written in 1897), ‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley and many others.

‘The War of the Worlds,’ a novel, deals with a catastrophic conflict between humans and the extraterrestrial ‘Martians.’ It is frightening to read as to what happened during the Martians’ invasion. It sent shock waves among people when broadcast on radio as a play in Britain with listeners believing the Martian invasion to be true for a moment.

In the epilogue of the novel, the narrator draws the attention of the readers to its significance and warns future generations to prepare themselves for such an eventuality. Israel may draw a parallel and learn a lesson from this. In the given political climate, Israel seems to be under a constant threat of war. If so what could be the future scenario for the world?

For answer, we may have to revisit the book ‘The Clash of Civilizations’ by Samuel P. Huntington. It is a thesis that avers that people’s cultural and religious identities will be primary source of conflict (war) in the post-Cold War (present) world.

The author argues that future wars would be fought NOT between countries — Jewish Israel and the Arab Palestine or Ukraine and Russia as at present. According to the thesis of the book ‘The Clash of Civilizations,’ the future wars would be fought not between countries, but between cultures. And the theory propounded in the book written in 1993 is so prophetic that we are seeing it being played out in the present West-Asian War. The culture of Arab Palestine is different from the culture of Jewish Israel. And who knows this may expand and lead to a clash of Christian and Islamic civilisations. God forbid.

This said, the apprehension is about an apocalyptic war, cataclysmic one as mentioned in the Holy Book The New Testament. A prophetic revelation suggesting the end of the world but the God of Israel will intervene! Yah. Yahweh.

Palestine has a hoary history going back to 4,000 BC. Located in the crossroads of International Highways, it is linked to the superpowers of those days — Egypt, Mesopotamia (Iraq, Syria, Jordan), Greece and Rome. It is called the Holy Land because it is a sacred land for three great monotheistic religions of the world — Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Hence, its importance then and now, the land being claimed by the Arabs and Jews as their own to the exclusion of the other.

Be that as it may, to revert to the future shock of a war to end all wars or an apocalyptic war for peace, there is another book to look into — ‘The Prophecies of Nostradamus.’ I was curious and turned the pages of the book, Corgi edition, published in 1985. This 16th century French astrologer and seer, Michel de Nostredame, had put down his thoughts in his book ‘The Centuries’ for the future of the world. Some, among those who studied him, claim many of his predictions about war, peace, natural calamities and pestilence have come true.

Erika Cheetham is one such person who studied the book and looked at the period of 20th century but now crossing over to 21st century. The preface to the book says, “Among the precognitions detailed in this new book are war in Middle-East (for us West-Asia) and end of both the Papacy and the British Monarchy.” However, her interpretation was considered controversial. Since the West-Asia War is going on, out of sheer curiosity, I peeked into what Nostradamus has said in the book about this war. The way the prophesy is written seems inexorable to me. The language is couched in words that need much expertise to decipher.

According to the interpretations of Nostradamus by Erika Cheetham, “The situation in the Middle-East (West-Asia) has always been of vital importance. He (Nostradamus) envisaged the possible trigger for a Third World War.” Erika Cheetham, alluding to the tragic killings of French and American soldiers in Lebanon, in 1983 quotes The Guardian newspaper in Britain in its headline, “The West is Involved in War with the Middle-East.”

Today we see the West covertly involved in the ongoing war in West-Asia and, who knows, it might expand. ‘The Prophecies of Nostradamus’ says that “Perse” (whoever he is or whatever it is), “is the one that intimates clearly that he will annihilate the regime of the Ayatollah as thoroughly as the latter did to the late Shah.”

Now that Israel has launched a full-blown attack on Iran, it is to be seen whether the prophecy of Nostradamus will prove  correct. Let not War be Peace, as Orwell wrote in his book.

In the midst of the present ongoing two wars — both for territories — that started over a year ago, who will be the possible Peace Maker? After all, history is replete with wars that  ended only after the victory of the one and defeat of the other. However, with the possession of catastrophic weapons in the arsenal, the world seems to be on the edge of a global war, if the ongoing wars are not stopped. Which is why, we need Peace Makers. And among the present day leaders, who could play that role?

Last Saturday (12.10.2024), I was watching an exclusive interview by India Today’s Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai with the American veteran journalist (of Indian origin), a geopolitical expert, of CNN, Fareed Zakaria — both are perceived as not well-disposed towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India’s foreign policy. Suddenly I was surprised beyond belief. Did I mishear Zakaria? I wondered, even as Rajdeep was struggling to suppress his derisive trademark smile of disapproval of what Zakaria was saying with a straight face and quite seriously.

According to Zakaria, there is a possibility of Prime Minister Modi playing a significant role in global politics amidst the West-Asia and Ukraine conflicts. Rajdeep continued to grin as I continued to listen attentively to what Zakaria was saying in his eloquent delivery of an oracle. He said that only a few leaders of the world have credibility with both sides engaged in war today and they are Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey and Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India. What a compliment and recognition of their stature as world leaders — coming as it is from no less a person than Fareed Zakaria.

And when Rajdeep said that people would take note of the names Zakaria had named — Erdogan and Modi — as the leaders who could broker peace, this is how the latter responded.

Zakaria: Yes, and I would say Modi even more than Erdogan. This is a great opportunity for Modi to step up as global statesman. He has the platform, potential and diplomatic skill, but he would need to get energetically involved and be seen as truly neutral mediator.

Now let Modi and Erdogan disprove George Orwell and establish peace on earth and brotherhood among mankind.

Om Shanti

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