The Israeli and American attacks on Iranian nuclear sites opened diplomatic windows not only for the subsequent Iranian-Israeli ceasefire, negotiations over the future of Gaza seemed feasible and could come to fruition if Israel and the US would not have dragged their feet in July this year. Both US and Israel blamed Hamas for lack of coordination and acting in bad faith. While any negotiation process to be successful needs to engage the demands of Hamas – still the de facto authority of the strip that include the US guarantees Israel’s withdrawal of forces from Gaza, the ceasefire with Israel become a permanent agreement and that humanitarian assistance through UN and other agencies to Gaza keeps surging with enhanced accessibility, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still pursues the impractical goal of completely disarming Hamas and insists on its leaders be exiled even after the Hamas agrees to hand over the remaining Israeli hostages.

Israel’s Overconfidence in the Neighborhood

Israel with its spectacular military attainments in the Middle East especially vis-a-vis Iran has become apparently assured enough not to make any meaningful concessions on Palestinian issue. Israel’s stubbornness to resist the idea of turning its military achievements into diplomatic success is rooted in history. The country’s intransigence to turn its military victory over Arab states in 1967 war into cultivating friendly ties with the neighboring Arab states undercut its privileged position in the region that sustained diplomatic efforts would have granted. Had diplomatic relations taken off, another war- Yom Kippur war would not have perhaps occurred six years later in 1973. Israeli Prime Minister  Netanyahu firmly believes that he can make peace with Arab states once the Gaza war ends without  addressing the core concerns of Palestinians. Israel still pursues the quixotic objective of complete destruction/disarmament of Hamas and to attain this it has not hesitated and will not draw back from pursuing a relentless military campaign in Gaza with serious humanitarian consequences for both Gaza, West Bank and other Palestinian land. Israeli leaders press for relocation of inhabitants of Gaza in humanitarian areas in Southern Palestine. They do not have any plans for post-war restitution of institutions and reconstruction plans for Gaza. They look Gaza and West Bank from the prisms of Israel’s security rather than humanitarian issues afflicting civilians and seem poised to occupy these regions for long-term security considerations.

 

Israeli leaders carry a misplaced notion that the frictions emerged between Israel and Arabian world after the former’s military campaign in Gaza are short-lived and these can be turned around through trade and cooperation in the fields of military and technology. After all, Israel has demonstrated its military and technological superiority in the Middle East since the inception of its military campaign in Gaza. It expects Arab countries would be inclined to take benefits in these areas by working with Israel. No Arab countries except Saudi Arabia has been resolute on the Palestinian statehood issue. No Arab country has withdrawn from the Abraham Accord such as Bahrain, UAE, Sudan and Morocco or from the bilateral security agreements with Israel such as Egypt and Jordan. Israel by substantially reducing the missile and nuclear capabilities and diminishing the threat of Iran considers that it has emerged as a benign power in the region but it fails to take cognizance of the fact that it is also being viewed as a source of war and  destabilization in the region. The Iranian attack on the US base in Qatar retaliating to Israeli and US attacks against it points to the glaring fact how Israel is becoming a force of instability in the region. Israeli attacks in Southern Syria in mid-April this year that it claimed was intended to protect the Druze minority from marginalization brewed more instability instead by stoking more sectarian violence and chaos in the country and Syrian authorities viewed this role as part of Israel’s expansionist agenda in the region.

Need for Diplomacy

There has been a groundswell of anti-Israeli sentiments among the people of the Gulf region over the Israeli devastating military campaign in Gaza. Israel has picked up multi-pronged fights against several actors in the Middle East including Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi rebels, Iran, Syrian ruling Islamic groups and Turkey which would make peace in the region elusive unless Israel relinquishes its expansionist policy and takes sincere diplomatic steps to decide on the future of Gaza and Palestinian statehood.