As we take its side, the US is losing global clout

happens in Europe, its paramount bailiwick, it’s even more so elsewhere.

Which brings up the second new development eroding US clout: Israel’s looming attack on Rafah, the tiny enclave in southern Gaza bordering Egypt, the last population center in the territory not held by Israeli forces, where 1.3 million Palestinians, mostly fleeing war, have holed up.

Already incensed over Washington’s military aid for Israel and opposition to overwhelmingly approved United Nations resolutions for Gaza ceasefires, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have warned against attacking Rafah.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to proceed, however, arguing that “four Hamas battalions in Rafah” cannot be left there. He has ordered the army to evacuate 1 million people from potential war zones. But that won’t stop the mounting body count, now topping 28,000, mostly women and children, Gaza health authorities report.

When the UN General Assembly voted twice since October for humanitarian ceasefires, the US joined Israel in the small and dwindling minority of nations voting “no.” The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued an initial ruling on South Africa’s suit alleging genocide by Israel in Gaza, calling for action to prevent genocide. Washington, however, will probably never accept a genocide ruling to avoid having to take action against Israel, as US law requires for genocidal acts.

Bottom line: American support for Israel is alienating most nations of Asia and Africa, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). So, while the Philippines is becoming a US military platform in Asia, the rest of Asean has not followed Washington’s lead in building a regional alliance to counter China.

The third development eroding Washington’s global clout is Brics, the global economic grouping led by its acronym nations — rising economic powers Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. A top Brics initiative is the expansion of trade and financial flows bypassing the dominant US dollar-based international monetary system.

This de-dollarization push got a boost with the West’s financial sanctions on Russia, shutting out its banks from the Swift international payments network used for most financial transactions, plus the freezing of Russian assets held by foreign banks. That led dozens of nations to join Brics as a fallback in case of economic sanctions.

Also driving the shift to nondollar assets and transactions is the greenback’s repeated volatility whenever the US federal government debt nears its legally mandated borrowing limit fought over by rival Republicans and Democrats in Congress. In recent years, central banks have increased gold holdings and shipped bullion home instead of keeping them in Western banks.

Where is this going for the world and our country? That’s for Sunday, February 18.