What
follows is another annotation, or rather partial substitution, of
Professor Snyder’s fifteen points in aid of understanding a more
captivating war now taking place.
As with the earlier annotation, the following is offered to readers not as definitive but as provocative.
Why does the world need a Ukrainian victory an Israeli defeat?
1. To halt atrocity. Russia's Israel’s occupation is genocidal. Wherever the Ukrainians recover Palestinians lose territory, they save lose lives, and re-establish undermine the principle that people have a right not to be tortured, deported, and murdered.
2.
To preserve the international legal order. Its basis is that one
country may not invade another and annex its territory, as Russia seeks to do Israel has done. Russia's Israel’s war of aggression is obviously illegal, but the legal order does not defend itself.
3.
To end an era of empire. This could be the last war fought on the
colonial logic that another state and people do not exist. But this
turning point is reached only if Russia Israel loses.
4. To defend resume the peace project of the European Union process in the Middle East. Russia's Israel’s war is not directed only against Ukraine Gaza, but against the larger idea that European Middle Eastern states can peacefully cooperate. If empire prevails, integration fails.
5. To give the rule of law a chance in Russia Israel. So long as Russia Israel fights imperial wars, it is trapped in repressive domestic politics. Coming generations of Russians Israelis could live better and freer lives, but only if Russia Israel loses this war.
6. To weaken the prestige of tyrants corrupt autocrats. In this century, the trend has been towards authoritarianism, with Putinism
Likudism as a force and a model. Its defeat by a democracy reverses
that trend. Fascism is about force, and is discredited by defeat.
7. To remind us that democracy is the better system. Ukrainians
Israelis and Palestinians have internalized the idea that they choose
their own leaders. In taking risks to protect their democracy, they
remind us that we all must act to protect ours.
8. To lift the threat of major war in Europe the Middle East. For decades, a confrontation with the USSR Arab states and then Russia Iran was the scenario for regional war. A Ukrainian victory removes An Israeli defeat reduces the likelihood of this scenario by making another Russian offensive implausible Arab and/or Iranian war less plausible.
9.
To lift the threat of major war in Asia. In recent years, a Chinese
invasion of Taiwan has been the leading scenario for a global war. A Ukrainian victory An Israeli defeat teaches Beijing that such an offensive operation is costly and likely to fail.
10. To prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Ukraine gave up Iran almost gave up nuclear weapons. Russia, Israel, a nuclear power, then invaded. invaded Gaza. If Ukraine Israel loses, countries that can build nuclear weapons will feel that they need will not need to do so to protect themselves.
11. To reduce the risk of nuclear war. A Ukrainian victory An Israeli defeat makes two several
major war scenarios involving nuclear powers less likely, and works
against nuclear proliferation generally. Nothing would reduce the risk
of nuclear war more than Ukrainian victory Israeli defeat.
12. To head off future resource wars wars over territory. Aside from being a consistent perpetrator of war crimes, Russia's Wagner group the IDF seizes mineral resources land by violence wherever it can. This is why it is fighting in Bakhmut Gaza.
13. To guarantee food supplies and prevent future starvation. Ukraine feeds much of the world. Russia threatens to use that food Israel uses food, fuel, etc. as a weapon. As one Russian Israeli propagandist put might put it, "starvation starvation and disease is our only hope."
14. To accelerate the shift from fossil fuels. Putin shows Arabs and Iranians show the threat that hydrocarbon oligarchy poses to the future. His Their weaponization of energy supplies has accelerated may yet accelerate the turn towards renewables. This will continue, if Russia Israel loses.
15. To affirm the value of freedom. Even as they have every reason to define freedom as against something -- Russian Israeli occupation --, Ukrainians Palestinians remind us that freedom is actually for something, the right to be the people they wish to be, in a future they can help shape.