To be weak is to be wrong/ To be right is not enough/ To be good/ You need to be strong.

WE are at a turning point of regional and global history because of several seminal developments. The moral, institutional, political, and economic degeneration of the US. The berserk aggression of Israel, which has finally destroyed the credibility of the US as a force for regional and international stability. The realisation among Arab elites that they can no longer rely on a trade-off between national humiliation and external protection against Arab streets. China`s recognition that its diplomacy will not significantly postpone a day of reckoning with a fearful and implacable US.

The emergence of a vast Afro-Asian Muslim playground waiting to be co-opted by the East as deliverance from the West. India`s failure to transition from regional power status to international power status, and become a credible partner for the US against China.

Above all, climate change in the Anthropocene age, in which human activity becomes a principal determinant of the rate of global warming and the fate of plant and animal species, including human beings. Because of the irresponsibility of the principal industrial powers, climate change will shortly become irreversible. Management of and adaptation to climate change may at most delay, but not avert the demise of human civilisation possibly within this century. As a result, Noam Chomsky observed that far from the noblest of God`s creatures, mankind will be the stupidest and most short-lived of animal species. All of the above is reflected in the last reset of the Doomsday Clock, which at 89 seconds to `midnight`, is the closest yet to doomsday. The next reset next January will be even closer.

This is the global context in which we are today witnessing the culmination of a centurylonggenocidalprocess against the trapped and defenceless Palestinian people. This unparalleled crime against humanity was initiated by Imperial Britain, and is culminating in the comprehensive connivance of the US. If, Godforbid, Palestine dies, the Arab and Muslim world will face a colossal moral and civilisational failure, which it may not survive. The genocidal policy of the US and Israel has made the two-state solution for Palestine, as mandated by the UN, impossible to achieve.

Accordingly, Israel has forfeited the right to exist. The only just solution now is the liberation of the State of Palestine in which people of all faiths who have the right to be there including all Palestinians who have an internationally recognised right of return are encouraged and assisted tolive togetherinharmony, peace and justice. All other proposed solutions to the Palestinian tragedy have been rendered impossible by the violence, greed, guilt and hypocrisy of the US and its European allies, in support of the rabid racism of the criminal and illegitimate State of Israel.

What is to be done? What can be done? How can it be done? Where do we begin? If answers to such questions regarding the genocide in Palestine can be agreed upon and implemented, it will be possible to similarly address other challenges that in greater or lesser measure threaten the future of humanity.

Historically, power systems have always opposed the implementation of sensible and practical answers to such questions. This has been the warp and woof of human history. The finest brains have been selected to conjure up appealing or convincing reasons for such perversity. The difference today is that mankind has the capacity to destroy itself. The stakes are globally existential.

Alex Carey noted that `grass-roots` propaganda is designed to sway the masses through their beliefs, fears and prejudices, as well as their ignorance which is sustained by the social system in which they are confined. `Tree-top` propaganda, on the contrary, is designed to comfort the upperand middle-class intelligentsia who like to see themselves as decent human beings while serving the avarice and rapacity of their masters, who similarly wish to see themselves in a benevolent light. The comprador intellectual, whatever his or her profession, isaccordingly among the vilest of social beings.

Nevertheless, Chomsky suggests there are things that can be done to make a difference.

One is for concerned people `not to be passive and quiescent` and to make life uncomfortable for exploiting elites and their cohorts who wish to preserve a decent opinion of themselves. Just persistently asking questions in all kinds of forums can be effective. Being a pest can also make a significant contribution. But he also notes that whatever one does should be done consistently. Power systems do not mind occasional protesters. In fact, they welcome them as proof of their tolerance and respect for free speech. A jihad or struggle has to be an organised and sustained learningprocessforit to be meaningful and ultimately successful.

And this is where the men are distinguished from the boys. And this is also where women are often `more men` than most men. They `hold up half the sky`, according to Mao. That is why they are taught by men and unfortunately but understandably often enough by their mothers to see their world in the household and virtue in obedience, tolerance, and suffering.

Those women who excel in these docile qualities are worshipped by men largely in the abstract. Men never seem to ask why God gave human intelligence to women if it was superfluous, even when they rightly suspect women are wiser, stronger, and braver than them.

To sum up, starting with turning points, I focused on Palestine, asked questions, quoted Chomsky and Carey, and paid due homage to women. Good things can lead to more good things. So let us begin by feeling uncomfortable about the prevailing situation at home and abroad. That might lead to reflection, anger, action and eventually deliverance from climate catastrophe and political evil. Let us then resolve to keep doing something good for Pakistan, our only country, and for Earth, our Mother Planet. • The writer is a former ambassador to the US, India and China, and head of UN missions in Iraq and Sudan.