The Armageddon is on hold for now . . . but is Joe Biden up to his job as leader of the free world?
AMID all the blood and horror on the devastated streets of Gaza there is perhaps the faintest glimmer of hope.
Not for the vile Hamas terrorists, who will be rooted out of their rat holes and destroyed.
Nor for a return to the uneasy peace before their depraved slaughter of 1,400 Israeli men, women and babies on October 7.
That has gone forever.
But there are signs the panic over a Middle East meltdown and global nuclear armageddon have diminished.
There’s been a pause, a sharp intake of breath, as regional and international powers weigh up how to avoid World War Three.
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Israel heeded US President Joe Biden’s plea: “While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it.”
It delayed the tanks and allowed civilians to flee northern Gaza and for humanitarian aid to trickle in.
The West remains solidly behind Israel’s right to defend itself.
Britain’s political parties are united.
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To his credit Keir Starmer is resisting Labour’s growing clamour for a ceasefire — tantamount to Israel waving the white flag.
And there are signs in the Arab world that this time Hamas has gone too far.
Saudi Arabia and the Emirates are quiet.
Even Iran’s mad mullahs, the spiders in this sulphurous web, appear shaken by the horrors inflicted by Hamas in its name.
Most important of all, China is not stirring the cauldron of hatred, for now.
The big question is whether politically divided America is ready to restore its neglected role as the world’s policeman.
Can it fight two proxy wars — in Ukraine and Israel — at the same time?
And, crucially, is Joe Biden up to his job as leader of the free world?
Cheap politics
Senior Tory figures with personal knowledge of the 46th President have their doubts.
“Despite his age and wisdom, Joe Biden can play cheap politics,” says an ex-Cabinet minister. “He will go where the votes are, reacting to whatever is in the media today.
“America used to be able to say to the Gulf states, ‘We will protect you from Iran’.
“Today they do not believe those American reassurances.”
Another senior Tory is scathing. “Biden personifies American weakness,” he says.
“He has become an embarrassment. He stumbles over his words on TV. He describes Hamas as ‘the other team’.
“He ends his interviews by saying, ‘I’m going to bed now’.
“The last president to do this was Ronald Reagan, who soon after was being treated for Alzheimer’s.”
Biden, 81 next birthday, is also struggling to win a second term against a resurgent, rampant Donald Trump, aged 77.
Meanwhile all eyes are on China’s President Xi Jinping.
Will he use the fog of war to invade Taiwan?
Much depends on America’s performance in the Middle East.
“They will only go for Taiwan if they know they will succeed,” says a British defence source.
“The Chinese leadership know if they attack Taiwan and fail, it will be the end of the Communist Party.
“They are calculating our resolve, both in Israel and in seeing off Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.”
Others have picked up more encouraging signals, including the recent arrest of Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu, a prominent anti-Western hawk, though the significance is clouded.
China has influence over Iran, cares little about bloodshed, but does not want Iran to become a nuclear power.
It has huge oil interests in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.
The last thing China wants is war in the region to up-end its wobbly economy.
American resolve remains the decisive factor in this shifting landscape.
Chess game
US warships are assembling in the Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The fleet is equipped with devastating firepower, much of it still secret.
It could sink the entire Russian navy in days.
Even China is no match for an American counter-punch.
With America fighting on two fronts, one decisive victory would send a huge message.
Biden must give Ukraine the jet fighters to defeat Russia, and Israel the weapons to defeat Hamas.
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Biden can call on respected CIA chief Bill Burns and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to guide his next moves in this multi-dimensional chess game.
But these are lonely judgment calls — and the buck stops with the Commander- in-Chief.
'We're all doomed'
LD soldiers surveying the slouching hoodies who infest our streets will say: “They need a war to sort ’em out,” or “Bring back conscription”.
But for Gen Z and Gen A, it may already be too late, even for boot camp.
Nobody shuts doors, offers up a seat on the train, retains litter or holds a phone to their ear rather than broadcast on “speaker” while walking into other pedestrians.
They can’t utter three words unless one of them is “like”.
As Private Frazer used to moan: “We’re all doomed.”