From Gaza to the West Bank and from Syria and Lebanon to Iran, Yemen, and beyond, Israel is reshaping the region by fire and force.
Backed without hesitation by the United States, it views this moment as an historic chance to expand, subdue, and impose the vision long cherished by its nationalist religious right of a “Greater Israel.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been explicit in saying that the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 on Israel was not a single confrontation in his view as much as a turning point and an opening to reorder the Middle East around Israeli power.
This vision demands not only territorial dominance but also the systematic fragmentation of the Arab states, the stirring of sectarian strife, and the weakening of armies and economies. The devastation in Syria is one such model.
Washington has stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel throughout. It has shielded Tel Aviv from international censure, armed it with vast sums and weaponry, and disguised war as diplomacy.
Ceasefires and negotiations have repeatedly been used as traps: Hizbullah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah was killed in September last year after agreeing to a truce in Beirut; Iranian commanders met the same fate last June under the guise of “reprieve talks;” and Hamas leaders in Doha were targeted mid-negotiation last week.
Each time, the US was complicit, if not enabling, in the Israeli attacks.
The Arab world is now confronted with an unavoidable reckoning. For decades, its regimes have relied on the American narrative: that Iran was the destabiliser, that US bases guaranteed protection, and that normalisation with Israel would deliver prosperity.
The so-called “Abraham Accords” epitomised this illusion. But recent events have stripped away the façade. America’s loyalty is absolute – not to its Arab allies, but to Israel. The evidence is stark: even as Arab leaders convened on Monday in Doha to protest against Israeli aggression, Washington dispatched a vast congressional delegation led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Tel Aviv, pledging unwavering support.
“The American message could not be clearer: if a confrontation arises between Israel and any US ally in the Middle East, Washington will side with Israel whether it is the aggressor or the victim. As the proverb says: he who does not see through a sieve is blind,” an Arab diplomat in London remarked to Al-Ahram Weekly.
“The comparison must be made plainly. Iran is a regional rival, to be sure, but Israel is a strategic enemy. With its aggressive, expansionist policies, it is capable of setting the entire Middle East aflame,” he added.
Despite Washington’s repeated denials of prior knowledge of the Israeli attack on Qatar and its insistence that it did not have enough time to warn the Qataris or intervene to prevent the strike, the American website Axios revealed on Monday that Netanyahu in fact informed US President Donald Trump about 50 minutes before the attack on the Hamas leaders in Qatar.
This means Washington could have persuaded Israel to stand down, activated its air defences in Qatar to repel the strike, or at the very least warned Doha. Yet none of these options were pursued.
The White House claimed that Trump did not learn of the attack until after the Israeli missiles were launched, leaving him no opportunity to intervene. However, according to Axios, Israeli officials disclosed that Netanyahu called Trump around 8:00am Washington time, roughly an hour before the strike on Doha.
They confirmed that Israel would have cancelled the mission had Trump objected. Behind the scenes, Israeli officials suggest that Washington deliberately distorted events for political reasons, while Israel refrained from contradicting the US version of events in order to protect bilateral relations.
The Israeli attack on Qatar was the latest development to stir anger in the region, compounding long-standing dissatisfaction with Washington’s policies. Meanwhile, Arab officials are making last-minute contacts to persuade the US administration to grant visas to representatives of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah so they may attend the UN General Assembly meetings this month.
Surprisingly, Washington denied Palestinian officials visas to attend the upcoming General Assembly meetings, which begin on 23 September. This decision represents a blatant violation of US obligations as the host country of the United Nations. Under the UN Headquarters Agreement and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, the United States is legally prohibited from obstructing any member state or observer from participating in General Assembly sessions.
The ban comes at a time when Palestine is expected to be a central issue during this 80th session of the General Assembly. Discussions will focus on the two-state solution, amid growing international momentum led by France to recognise a Palestinian state. The meetings in New York will also address the ongoing genocide in Gaza, with reports from the UN secretary general and the UN high commissioner for Human Rights documenting the dire humanitarian conditions on the ground.
Washington’s exclusion of Palestinian representatives has fuelled anger in the Arab world, raising questions about US attempts to silence Palestinian voices and weaken their political representation. Many believe the United States is working in tandem with Israel to dissolve the Palestinian issue politically and pave the way for Israel’s occupation of all historic Palestine.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, an international coalition of states supporting a just resolution to the Palestinian question is seeking to leverage the expiration of the deadline set by the General Assembly last year.
That deadline, falling on 18 September, requires Israel to comply with International Court of Justice (ICJ) rulings and UN resolutions. According to last year’s resolution, if Israel fails to cease collective punishment, the targeting of civilians, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, power plants, desalination facilities, roads, and homes, measures will be taken against it.
Israel has not implemented any of these things. On the contrary, it has intensified its policies, persisting in what many describe as a campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people.
On Tuesday, a United Nations commission of inquiry concluded that Israel has been committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. It documents nearly 65,000 deaths, famine, mass displacement, and the collapse of health systems, noting the destruction of Gaza’s largest fertility clinic. The commission stressed that states must act to prevent genocide or risk complicity in it.
In addition to blocking Palestinian representatives from attending the UN General Assembly in New York, Washington is pressuring its European allies not to recognise a Palestinian state. The Trump administration is also working to prevent any resolutions that could punish Israel during the UN meetings.
RESPONSE: In response, a coalition of states and international organisations supportive of Palestinian statehood is seeking ways to bypass Washington’s veto power in the Security Council.
One initiative under discussion is reviving the 1950 Uniting for Peace mechanism. Created during the Cold War, it allows the General Assembly, where no state holds a veto, to act when the Security Council is paralysed.
The precedent is clear: in 1956, it authorised the deployment of the UN Emergency Force in Sinai during the Suez Crisis despite obstruction by Britain and France.
While often used for symbolic calls on Palestine, the mechanism could, in theory, authorise far stronger measures, including economic and diplomatic sanctions on Israel, the suspension of its UN accreditation (as happened with Apartheid South Africa), the creation of tribunals to prosecute officials, or even the deployment of a multinational protection force with a mandate to safeguard civilians, facilitate aid, preserve evidence of crimes, and prepare for reconstruction.
Yet, Israel’s sense of impunity under American protection is making the current moment particularly dangerous. Its ground offensive in Gaza City could push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians towards the south, effectively confining them to camps under conditions of starvation, disease, or forced displacement.
Such a scenario would not only deepen the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza but also risk liquidating the Palestinian cause altogether.
The Doha Summit condemned Israel, yet without imposing punitive measures against it. However, this raises a deeper question: what about the United States? The region now faces a historic transformation. Successive American administrations, Democratic and Republican alike, have moved towards relying on Israel as a regional power that guarantees US interests, while Washington reorients its focus towards containing China.
In a lengthy speech on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu framed the war in Gaza as a “small battle” on the larger Middle East chessboard. He repeatedly claimed Israel was triumphing over enemies ranging from Hamas and Iran to Hizbullah and the Houthis in Yemen, reshaping the region in the process.
He even claimed that the US-Israeli alliance was “roaring with thunder,” portraying Israel as fighting not merely for itself but on behalf of the entire West.
If Netanyahu persuades Trump to ignore international criticism, the US will provide money, weapons, and diplomatic cover for his vision of Israeli regional dominance, even at the expense of traditional Arab allies and the stability of the wider region.
This creates a paradox: many Arab states’ security is guaranteed by the American umbrella, yet Washington is not demonstrating a willingness to restrain Israel. On the contrary, the US silence, or tacit endorsement, suggests complicity, calling the structure of regional security into question.
This is a classic security dilemma. Washington’s role is ambiguous: either it is unable to restrain Israel, or it is unwilling to do so. In either case, the credibility of the US security umbrella is in question, producing a “credibility gap” between American assurances and regional realities.
Moreover, Israel’s expansionist policies and cross-border military actions generate spirals of insecurity. Each strike provokes retaliation, which then justifies further escalation. Left unchecked, this could ignite a multi-front conflict, pulling the entire region into chaos.
The Arab states, especially those dependent on global markets and oil exports, would be particularly vulnerable, unable to shield themselves from the fallout.
Ultimately, the dilemma illustrates the contradictions of the post-Cold War Middle East order. An order built on US hegemony, Israeli impunity, and Arab dependency is now unravelling under its own weight.
As one Arab diplomat warned, “I don’t want to be dramatic, but the Arab world is like a frog in a pot of water placed on the stove. At first, it does not sense the heat or the danger, but by the time the water boils, it could be too late to jump out.”
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 September, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
Short link: