Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s Middle East editor, has issued a warning that reads like a Thucydidean epitaph for our times. He suggests that Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are steering the region toward a 'permacrisis'—a permanent state of emergency where war becomes the norm, not the exception. This is not merely a news bulletin; it is a diagnosis of a civilisation in decay.
Let us cast our minds back to the late Roman Republic, when generals like Marius and Sulla began raising armies loyal to themselves rather than the state. The result was a century of civil war, proscription lists, and the eventual collapse of republican institutions. Trump and Netanyahu, in their respective spheres, are modern Sullas. They treat the state as a vehicle for personal and tribal ambition, not as a sacred compact. In Gaza, Netanyahu’s government continues a campaign of collective punishment that has killed over 40,000 people, according to local health authorities. Trump, meanwhile, has promised to 'finish the job'—whatever that means for the remaining Palestinian civilians.
Bowen’s term 'permacrisis' is apt because it captures the intellectual poverty of our leaders. They cannot conceive of a future beyond the next election cycle or the next airstrike. Compare this to the Congress of Vienna in 1815, where Metternich and Castlereagh engineered a balance of power that kept Europe at peace for a century. Today’s diplomacy is a farce of photo-ops and threats. The Abraham Accords were hailed as a breakthrough, but they papered over the core issue of Palestinian statehood. Now, with the Gaza war raging and Hezbollah exchanging fire with Israel, those accords look like a Roman triumphal arch built on sand.
What is the exit from this 'permacrisis'? The Victorians, for all their faults, understood the concept of a 'just war' and a 'peace settlement'. Palmerston would have bullied both sides into a ceasefire, then imposed a border. But we lack the moral clarity or the political will. Instead, we have the spectacle of American presidents urging Israel to avoid civilian casualties while sending more bombs. This is not realism; it is decadence. We are living in the late antique world where the barbarians are at the gate, but our only response is to hire more mercenaries.
Bowen is right to warn us. But warning is not enough. We must ask ourselves: Do we have the collective spine to demand a different course? Or shall we sink slowly into the permanent emergency, our comforts paid for by the blood of others? The answer, I fear, is already written in the ruins of Gaza and the ashes of Western moral authority.
