I am looking at Gaza and the lives whose loss we are witnessing every hour and thinking how this will directly shape the US election. The traditional US camps are pro-Israel as usual, and I don’t expect any of them to relent on that position else they lose the “numbers at the polls”.

We saw in 2020 how COVID response was constrained by the general election in the US. Even when it was clear why public policy should have saved more lives, the assumptions in Republican strategy limited clear action on the biological threat.

In 2024, we are faced with a similar scenario where clear decisions on saving lives and avoiding genocide in Gaza — and easily avoiding an unpredictable war — is constrained by the upcoming 2024 elections.

Fuel prices will blow up, inflation always lurks behind fuel prices, social dislocation, and perhaps more authoritarian rules emerging around the world as they justify increased (in)security measures to ward off terrorism.

We are staring at a dark phase.