In the lives of nations and peoples, there occur acute and critical moments when destinies collide, the future begins to look bleak, and the present is too murky and confusing to see clearly or make objective judgements.
The region has experienced such an agonising moment since the Al-Aqsa Flood reignited the chronic conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, which escalated to a regional conflict between Iran and Israel and then to an international one when the US under Biden threw its military weight behind Israel.
Recently, the US under Biden’s successor, has added fuel to the fire with its proposal for the forced transfer of the Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan. When Saudi Arabia supported Cairo and Amman’s refusal, Netanyahu made things even worse by suggesting a Palestinian state on Saudi territory.
Despite such arrogance and escalation by the US and Tel Aviv, Arab resolve forced Washington to weigh its priorities and reconsider its position. Washington did not turn off the taps to US aid, and it did not stop Saudi Arabia from serving as a venue for solving the Palestinian/Arab-Israeli conflict and even the Ukrainian crisis.
The Arab region is experiencing the birth of a “Neo-Arabism” manifesting in the Arabs’ ability to respond to an unacceptable project with, firstly, an Arab counterproposal on how to rebuild Gaza without the expulsion of the indigenous people and, secondly, an Arab project for a comprehensive and lasting peace between the Arabs and Israel.
The Arabs do not have to wait for the US to make the first move, whether in the form of a solution, and adventure, or a real-estate deal. But can the current generation of Arab rulers and thinkers steer the region out of the eternal cycle of conflict?
The answer to this is yes. While remaining firm in their rejection of forced population transfer, they are working on the alternative.
Together with the US-Israeli political scientist Shai Feldman, former director of Brandeis University’s Crown Centre for Middle East Studies, last fall, two Arab researchers – Dr Khalil Shikaki, a political scientist and leading pollster from Ramallah, and myself (from Cairo) – attempted to identify a way forward towards the two-state solution and peace.
The results appeared in a small, 105-page monograph titled Arabs and Israelis: From October 7 to Peacemaking.
We had previously co-authored Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East, a comprehensive history, which has become a standard reference work in university courses on the subject.
Our subsequent collaboration is based on this encyclopaedic work and inspired by one of history’s main lessons: major catastrophes can sometimes pave the way to a better future. Among the most notable examples of this is World War II, which led to the establishment of the UN and NATO, the pacification of Japan, and the creation of the EU. Another is the Vietnam War, which engulfed Laos and Cambodia in the 1960s but then led to peace and the establishment of ASEAN, which brought together some of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
Can the horror of 7 October 2023 and the war that followed lead to a better future for both Palestinians and Israelis?
Our monograph explores this possibility by examining what led to the 7 October attack, its aftermath and the ensuing war, what peace between Palestine and Israel might look like, and the potential obstacles to achieving such peace and how to overcome them. We were guided by several premises, one being that the conflict between Israel and Hamas can only be brought to a stable and enduring conclusion in the framework of a broader, comprehensive resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Secondly, given how many regional, international and domestic factors were instrumental in dooming previous peacemaking efforts, it was crucial to identify potential impediments and how to overcome them.
Thirdly, as we wrote, “notwithstanding the horrors of Hamas’ October 7 attack and the subsequent war—developments that, in the short run, engendered an understandable hardening of views among both Israelis and Palestinians—as the violence reached the end of its first year, significant numbers of both Israelis and Palestinians indicated a strong desire to reach some form of accommodation that might avert the even greater horrors of a full-scale region-wide war.”
Fourthly, in tandem with the negative developments and phenomena that led to 7 October, the past quarter century brought some important positive developments in the Middle East, making peace between Palestine and Israel possible. Lastly, while the support of outside powers is essential to setting the current war on the road to peace, there is no alternative to direct communication between the two parties. Ultimately, this is the only way to overcome the mutual ignorance and lack of empathy between Arabs and Israelis.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 27 February, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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