Meanwhile, as an increasing number of countries are breaking or at least downgrading ties with Israel, further alienating the Global South — including Africa — is high on the US’ list of the many diplomatic risks Washington is facing amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza. “Meanwhile, amid both the Ukraine war and the crisis in Gaza, some Africans feel that the continent’s own conflicts and tragedies have been ignored, a dynamic that veteran observers have warned about as well,” Thurston argues. Unlike the more distant war in Ukraine, the situation of Palestine evokes numerous solidarities all across Africa: ethnic, religious, political, and more. Those solidarities are growing amid the present conflict, undoing some of Israel’s diplomatic gains and posing long-term challenges to Washington’s own diplomatic clout. To that end, Washington may thus find it increasingly difficult to convince African leaders and the public that the US represents a particular set of universal values, Thurston concludes.
