Realities: 2016
By Mowahid Hussain Shah

2016 had its dramatic moments that shaped the world. Conspicuous among them were the terror attacks at airports in Istanbul and Brussels, lorry rampages at Nice and Berlin, and the biggest mass shooting in American history at Orlando. Uniting this violence were the spillover effects of the carnage in Syria and vicinity.
The US invasions of Iraq – and, earlier, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan – have roiled much of the world. Now, low-cost, low-tech, high-impact acts are wreaking havoc, with lorries being used as a lethal weapon. Homicidal acts have been simplified, requiring little training or group organization or network. Online hate, with its surfeit of bigotry and fake information, is a constant source of explosive incitement to gullible minds that live and operate in a bubble and are dismissive of contravening perspectives. The Internet is being weaponized in a way it was never intended to be.
The election of Trump – witnessing an upsurge in hate crimes – may mark the slippage of US preeminence. Karl Rove, close aide to George W Bush, in a fit of pharaonic arrogance, had bragged: “We are an empire now and when we act, we create our new realities”, thereby displaying once again that the real danger comes from within and not by missiles from the skies or from across the borders.
2016 realities may not be easily digestible, with Russia smack in the center of the Mideast and calling the shots in Syria. The unfolding calamity in Syria and Iraq drove a migrant exodus on the Mediterranean to Europe.
Witnessed this summer in Turkey was the spontaneous public fury that thwarted a military coup to oust a major NATO country’s leader, President Erdogan. Turkey again was in the firing line when the Russian ambassador there was assassinated in what appeared to be a professional hit job.
Britain’s Brexit vote and American non-presence during the humanitarian catastrophe in Aleppo have left a perception of the West in retreat, creating a strategic vacuum. Can there be a pivot from areas and issues that matter?
Another so-called reality is Mr Modi at the helm in New Delhi. His exclusivist caste-ridden Hindutva conception ensures that Indian ambitions of unchallenged regional supremacy remain elusive. The deadly September attack on the Indian Army base in occupied Kashmir at Uri underlines that Kashmir, too, cannot be sidelined through brute force.
Then there is the case of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu who recently was seen boasting of his forming a covert alliance with the Arab Establishment against Iran and of Israel breaching the barriers of international isolation (Interview by Lesley Stahl, CBS “60 Minutes”, December 11, 2016). He spoke too soon. On December 23, with the United States abstaining under Obama’s instructions, a landmark UN Security Council resolution was passed, condemning Israeli settlement encroachments on post-1967 occupied Palestinian territories as a “flagrant violation of international law.” Its precedental ramifications pose unexpected obstacles to Israeli expansionism. With the new UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, further hurdles to Israel may lie ahead. It brings the core Palestinian issue back to center stage where it belongs, despite vigorous attempts to derail it.