Thread by @khodorkovsky_en

Americans are tired of being the world police

But standing by and watching will only make things worse. Amid China's actions in HK and intentions for Taiwan, it's vital to support both Israel and Ukraine.

It's not about countries — it's about the world we want to live in 🧵1/14

Anyone with a concept of morality was horrified by the Hamas attack on October 7, which targeted women, children, the elderly – and even a peaceful music festival. One person who was not horrified was Vladimir Putin (2/14)

For him, Hamas’ attack and Israel’s retaliation have been a welcome distraction from his own terror campaign in Ukraine. With the media focused on the Middle East, the killing of civilians in Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv by Russian missiles has almost gone unnoticed (3/14)

Nothing implicates Putin in the Hamas attack. But it is interesting that his regime has held several meetings with Hamas over the past year, and Putin has compared Israel’s blockade of Gaza with the Nazi siege of Leningrad (4/14)

Putin called the Hamas attack ‘an example of US policy failure in the Middle East’, this is key to understanding how it serves his interests

It furthers the perception that the West is weak, and that perception generates instability and emboldens autocrats and terrorists (5/14)

Western resolve has been straining for years, tested by the Syrian civil war, the Iraq debacle, the Taliban’s reconquest of Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine from 2014 and Putin’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The Hamas attack is the latest test, and demands a robust response (6/14)

However, the US has shown restraint so far – backing Ukraine just enough not to lose, but not enough to win decisively. This, for many outside the democratic world, makes America appear weak – ‘they want to win, but they can’t pull it off’, they think (7/14)

The truth is, many Americans don’t want to be the world police anymore. But if the police step back from their work, criminals cease to fear them, every lowlife out there will think they can get away with anything, and the challenges to the global order will intensify (8/14)

What will happen next? Will China, having already trampled the rights of Hong Kong, escalate its aggression against Taiwan? If not them, there are many potential flashpoints around the world, from Kosovo to Iran (9/14)

President Biden gives some hope with his response to these challenges. He realizes that Hamas and Putin share a common goal – to annihilate a neighboring democracy – as well as common tactics – those of terrorism (10/14)

While many in the US question why they should foot the bill for maintaining peace, Biden sees it as a smart investment. And he is right – the alternative, of retreating from the world and allowing bad actors to run riot – would have catastrophic consequences (11/14)

While American engagement is critical, Europe also has a role to play. Bad actors – Putin being one of them – seek to destabilize European societies, and the EU must be proactive in putting a stop to it, notably by giving Ukraine the tools it needs to secure victory (12/14)

The sooner Kyiv is able to decisively fight off the Russian invasion, the less serious the damage will be – to Ukraine, to Europe, and to the global order as a whole (13/14)

The aim of ensuring a Ukrainian victory in no way contradicts support for Israel in its fight against Hamas. On the contrary, these are two parts of the same struggle. Because a win for terror anywhere is a win for terror everywhere (14/14)

Read in full here: economist.com/by-invitation/…