Think of world peace - at least now!

It wasn't just the Americans who were waiting to hear the results of the US midterm elections yesterday. The same was true of the Israeli parliamentary elections last week. In a sense, those elections were a referendum on the peaceful life of people around the world.  The people of both America and Israel, holding up the prayers of nations wounded by unjust wars and torn apart by genocide, and living up to the hopes of peace-loving people who oppose genocide and wars of annihilation, voted in their rejection of the hateful and destructive policies of two dictators, the masters of the most sinister strategies of our time.  The narrative created by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was that the attacks on Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran were carried out to protect the sovereignty of his country and the good of the world. But at the height of the war, the people took to the streets, declaring, "This war not in our name." The people of Israel were the first to realize that endless wars were being created to cover up the dirt of the corruption crimes they had committed. They once again shattered the designs to totally hijack the people's will by abusing the courts and administrative systems and using the fireworks of a hate agenda. One cannot expect any democratic decency from Netanyahu to accept an unfavorable people's will. Allegations are being made that Arab parties sabotaged the elections and that there was foreign interference, but even those who favour him do not endorse this. If the opposition coalition forms a government with the support of Arab parties, Netanyahu will have to stand trial in the dock in corruption cases that he tried to cover up using force and the war situation; and pressure will also mount to implement the International Court of Justice's ruling in the genocide case. The people of the world, including Israelis, are eager for that.

Netanyahu was able to continue his destructive wars, despite opposition from his own people, solely thanks to the US government standing by him with the necessary weapons and resources. The burden of this was borne by people all over the world, including those in the United States. The impact of the Iran war caused fuel prices to soar, and there were shortages of food and other daily necessities around the world. The price of a gallon (about 3.9 litres) of diesel in the US market had risen from $3.75 in February, before the war to $6.52 in September. As the war costs increased, unnecessary tax burdens were increasingly imposed on the people.  And the result: opinion polls have shown that Trump's popularity, which returned to the White House with great public support in the 2024 presidential election, has plummeted in just two years.

However, the election results show that the situation is even more deplorable than the surveys showed. The American people have returned the heavy punishment through the ballot for the fact that ordinary people's tax money was freely pumped in for bloodbath abroad and arms manufacturing monopolies without finding solutions to the problems of their own citizens. These midterm election results testify that the anti-war slogans that were heard on campuses and streets of the country were not just emotional expressions, but were popular anger that could shake the foundations of imperialist policies. When Trump's appeal that people should vote assuming his name was there in the ballot was summarily rejected, the voters voted out his favourites en bloc, and the Republican iron walls collapsed one by one. And thus the people embraced the Democrats, rejecting the hate campaigns waged by Trump and his team at a cost of billions of dollars. The landslide victory of Ilhan Omar and Abdul El-Sayed, who were hounded by Trump's racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric, is a reflection of the American psyche.

The heat of the popular vote has also penetrated the walls of Trump's palace. Vice President JD Vance, who is described as the president's shadow and touted as a possible successor, has openly said:  "The reason we lost is the war.   The president himself said so last night."  Trump, who had said on the eve of the election that his decision to go to war with Iran was right and that he would do it again, has not responded to it. As the noise of the results announcements subsides, what the world will watch closely to see is whether the merchants of death will understand the meaning of these popular votes and be ready to make course corrections. We must at least now try not to disappoint the children waiting in refugee camps for days when gunfire will not be heard, and schools and hospitals will not be bombed and destroyed. Otherwise, what value do popular votes hold!