Filenews 10 October 2024 - by Marc Champion
A year after Hamas militants launched their nightmarish assault on Israel, Netanyahu's government is dramatically transforming the balance of power across the Middle East.
The method may be military, but the goal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, is to create a new regional order that is free from the fanaticism represented by Iran and its proxies, from Hamas to Hezbollah in Lebanon to Yemen's Houthis.
Who can not support this?
Eventually, almost everyone, and that includes Arab nations as well as lifelong supporters of the Jewish state, who are stressed by its displays of brute force, and the families of hostages still in Gaza's tunnels. A year on, parts of the world have begun to see Israel, the victim of the psychopathic October 7 massacre, as an aggressor, "dependent" on war.
Propaganda, anti-Semitism and historical ignorance play a role in this alarming turn of events. But one factor at least as important is under Israel's control: Netanyahu has yet to define the most fundamental of the issues, a strategy that makes his ultimate goal believable, let alone feasible. Without giving meaning to all the violence taking place, all this looks less like a plan than revenge.
What Netanyahu imagines a better Middle East should look like is no mystery. It is exactly as described in his speech on September 27 to the United Nations General Assembly. The maps he used as backdrops were cartoonish, but the goal for the area is precisely the "The Blessing" scenario he set.
This is a world in which Israel's high-tech economy and democratic institutions could act as catalysts for growth across the resource-rich Middle East. It is a world in which Israel is no longer seen as a colonial power and where the religious fundamentalism that has so poisoned the region can be put aside.
In this "blessed" Middle East, there can be no place for Hamas, a Sunni terrorist organization masquerading as a government. Nor for Hezbollah, a Shiite terrorist organization masquerading as a Lebanese political movement — similarly, there can be no place for Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are attacking shipping lanes to the Suez Canal, which accounted for 22% of global container traffic in 2023. That flow fell by 67 percent through the first quarter of this year, opening a major hole in Egypt's budget.
In fact, there is no place for any "Axis of Resistance" that is committed to Israel's destruction. Each of the members submits to Tehran and jeopardizes the sovereignty and governance of the territories in which it operates, be it Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon or Yemen. The more chaos they cause, the more room they have to manoeuvre.
Most Iraqis, Lebanese, Palestinians and Yemenis do not want chaos. In fact, most Lebanese are not Shia and despise Hezbollah. They do not want their country to be used as a pawn in Iran's expansionist games. In the same way, most Iranians do not want to be ruled by Islamist clerics and—though horrified by the plight of Palestinians in Gaza—do not want to destroy Israel. Even in Gaza, many Palestinians dislike Hamas and the devastation its actions brought them on October 7, 2023.
All this creates space for hope and potential partners in any plan to improve the situation. However, the hope and strategy they need are the crucial ingredients missing from Netanyahu's call for a better Middle East – most blatantly when it comes to the Palestinians. No one thinks this can be easy. It is an issue that has remained unresolved for 70 years, with responsibilities shared. But until it is resolved, no military success will create a secure future, either for Israel or for its neighbors.
So when Netanyahu, in his speech at the UN, presented Saudi Arabia as Israel's key partner, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan followed suit with a response to the Financial Times a few days later. Such a partnership, he said, can only come if it is based on a ceasefire in Gaza and the establishment of "an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital."
What Saudi Arabia has now understood, unlike Netanyahu, is that not addressing the Palestinian issue was a fatal mistake of the otherwise highly positive Abraham Accord, brokered by former U.S. President Donald Trump's administration between Israel and several Gulf states in 2020. Saudi Arabia was poised to sign an agreement last year when October 7 and Israel's disastrous response to it made it politically impossible.
The important thing here is that Israel must also transform. Because, just as there is no place for Hamas or Hezbollah in Netanyahu's – let's face it – currently utopian new Middle East, there can be no place for the religious and nationalist fanatics represented by Israel's current ministers of national security and finance, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
These are people who have advocated the "voluntary" migration of Palestinians from Gaza, while it has been reduced to rubble. They believe that Israel should have control over the entire Holy Land, including the occupied territories that would constitute a Palestinian state. They have justified torture and the blockade of humanitarian aid. And every time a move is put forward that could create hope, they threaten the collapse of the government.
What these members of the Israeli cabinet are proposing is ethnic cleansing and a recipe for constant war. They fit perfectly with the old Middle East and are indistinguishable from their radical Sunni or Shiite counterparts. It is their role in Israeli politics that hinders Netanyahu's plan for the future.
It is time for Israel to address this strategic gap. To ensure security, reconcile with the Arab world, and isolate Iran's clerics, Netanyahu must take care of his own affairs. It must begin to offer hope, as well as show strength, starting with a plan for the Palestinians that includes the prospect of ending their occupation.
Performance – Editing: Stathis Ketitzian
