The foolishness strategy is in full swing in the region—more than ever. On the night of July 17, the Israeli Knesset quietly passed a resolution rejecting the creation of a Palestinian State… This insidious move undermines the Biden administration just as it prepares to host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week. American leaders are expected to reiterate their support for the two-state solution, as outlined in the Oslo Accords signed on September 13, 1993, by Israeli Prime Minister (Labor Party) Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat, under Washington’s auspices.
The Oslo process was derailed by… Netanyahu and the Israeli right, as well as by Hamas! These same two actors are now engaged in a merciless war in Gaza, initiated by Hamas with the intent of once again derailing another peace initiative—the Abraham Accords of September 2020, which established peace between Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. The ultimate goal of these accords was to lead to normalization between the Hebrew State and Saudi Arabia. However, this effort was quickly thwarted by the Islamic Republic of Iran which, in its bid to assert itself as an essential regional power in the regional arena, could think of nothing better than inciting Hamas to launch the deadly October 7 attack against Israel.
For those who still had doubts, the mullah regime currently in power in Tehran has provided unequivocal proof that it cynically manipulates the Palestinian issue through its proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis—to quench its hegemonic ambitions on the Middle East Chessboard. Consequently, the Palestinian cause has been reduced to a mere populist slogan, masking its real aims, which diverge from the publicly projected media stance designed for domestic consumption. The suffering and massacres endured by the people of Gaza, southern Lebanon or Yemen are viewed as mere collateral damage by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The ultimate goal of this masterfully orchestrated and diabolical game is to sabotage the Palestinian State project. This accounts for the objective and situational alignment of interests between the Israeli right and the Iranian camp, much to the dismay of Arab countries and international bodies that emphasize that enduring peace and stability in the region can only be achieved through the two-state solution.
To avoid addressing the contentious issue during Netanyahu’s meetings in Washington, the Knesset preemptively rejected the establishment of a Palestinian State. However, Israeli right-wing leaders have yet to clarify the future for the residents of Gaza and the West Bank. Some voices in Tel Aviv are advocating for a binational State, a scenario that would effectively condemn the Israeli population to perpetual civil war or enduring security instability. Others, without scruples, advocate for the outright “transfer” of Gaza’s population to Egypt and those from the West Bank to Jordan. This approach would inevitably lead to severe and dangerous destabilization in both Egypt and Jordan. Rather than solving the issue, it would merely relocate it, as it is increasingly evident that the key to “deblocking” the peace process is in Tehran and requires imposing a solution that the mullah cannot refuse…
It is easy to foresee that simply relocating the Middle East issue through violence and bloodshed would only exacerbate radicalization among Palestinians and foster the emergence of new Islamist movements, which would intensify the cycle of blind violence. This would create a much larger geographical breeding soil for extremism than before, providing fertile ground for the Pasdaran to exploit and manipulate, in order to additionally consolidate their influence in the region. Consequently, this would further condemn the Israeli population to endure never-ending cycles of violence with no end in sight.
The Knesset’s resolution rejecting the Palestinian State could be perceived by some as a cynical maneuver adopted ahead of Netanyahu’s meetings in Washington. However, this hypothesis is demolished by the strategy of irrationality and foolishness adopted by the Israeli far right for decades. This folly is largely evident among Islamist movements and certain Arab milieux, with the primary daily victims being the populations of countries held hostage by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
