In the past, China had been more than happy to ignore Israel’s dirty war on the Palestinians. It didn’t have a dog in the fight. The conflict is basically intractable; a two-state settlement? Dream on, deluded Western liberals! And ignoring it fits perfectly with China’s diplomatic doctrine of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs. It’s more than willing to do business with both Jews and Arabs. As far as Beijing is concerned, everyone should do their own dirty laundry quietly and shut up about other people’s. But that won’t do anymore; call it the burden of becoming a superpower. Every superpower, past or present, eventually got sucked into the quagmire of the Middle East, whether it was imperial Britain, Soviet Russia or the United States. In the latest escalating violence, close to 200 Palestinians have been killed, about half of them women and children. Israel has reported 10 dead, including two children. The conflict broke out more than a week ago as China took over the chair of the United Nations Security Council by rotation. Given its new UN responsibilities, Beijing, as represented by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, had to convene with other UN council members to try to mediate, de-escalate or call for a ceasefire, however fruitlessly, in Palestine. And true to form, Israel’s biggest backer, the US, has blocked any UN Security Council resolution, or even a joint statement. Israel must be given a free hand to bomb Gaza to smithereens; Washington will always be on hand to give it diplomatic cover. Incidentally, the bombing has even targeted the building that housed international media, and another that was being used by the Qatari Red Crescent Society, the Arabic equivalent of the Red Cross. Given the sophistication of Israel’s weaponry and on-the-ground intelligence, you can be sure those weren’t accidents. If Russia were doing that, say, in Ukraine, the Americans would be shouting “war crimes”. Instead, senior American officials are loudly declaring that they will not let up pressuring China over the Uygurs in Xinjiang , against whom Washington claims Beijing is committing “genocide”. But where are the Muslim bodies? Not in Xinjiang ; they are found nowadays mostly under rubble in Gaza, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of the dead in Muslim countries, in Afghanistan and across the Middle East, as the direct or indirect results of America’s war on terror. And China is committing genocide? That is why while America’s Western allies have been jumping on the Uygur genocide bandwagon, Muslim countries have, by and large, supported China or stayed quiet about it. They know what’s what and who’s killing whom. And that, of course, is another reason Beijing wants to get involved this time in Palestine. There is no better illustration of two-faced America and its totally predictable response every time its closest ally in the Middle East goes on a rampage against the Palestinian civilian population. The Joe Biden administration wouldn’t even offer a moderate call on Israel to take it easy on the civilians. Given all the heat Beijing has been taking over the Uygurs, the Gaza slaughter is just too irresistible for China to pass over to expose America’s bad intentions. And lastly, Beijing’s global ambitions, for example, the Middle Eastern routes of the Belt and Road Initiative, mean making its presence felt in the highly volatile region. Partnering with Iran, which has been on a non-stop losing streak on the diplomatic, military and economic fronts, has not exactly been a winning formula. Playing the honest broker of peace in Palestine, however ineffective, helps gain diplomatic prestige, especially with Arabic/Muslim countries when it needs all the help it can get over Xinjiang . The irony is that despite its commitment to “non-interference”, China is joining everyone else to expose each other’s dirty laundry.