A year ago, Saudi Arabia was preparing to recognize Israel in a normalization deal that would have fundamentally reshaped the Middle East and further isolated Iran and its allies while barely lifting a finger to advance Palestinian statehood.
Now, that deal is further away than ever, even after the killing of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, which has been widely seized upon as a potential opening for a peace deal. Instead, Saudi Arabia is warming relations with its traditional archenemy, Iran, while insisting that any diplomatic pact now hinges on Israel’s acceptance of a Palestinian state, a remarkable turnaround for the kingdom.
A diplomatic détente is underway in the Mideast, but not the one envisioned by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who continues to say that his administration can clinch a deal with Riyadh. This month, the foreign ministers of the Persian Gulf states met for the first time as a group with their Iranian counterpart. It is a shaky, early-stage rapprochement that will only chip away at centuries of sectarian antagonisms, but it represents a sharp shift in a region where the rivalry between Riyadh and Tehran has drenched the region in bloodshed for decades.
Tehran’s outreach continued after that, with the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, visiting Saudi Arabia before heading to other countries in the region, including Iraq and Oman, in an effort to ease tensions.
Finding common ground that accentuates the basic humanity between two warring groups is textbook diplomacy. Well done Israel, and best of luck fighting an enraged united muslim world, which is about 26% of the 8.18 billion people on the planet. Jewish people are 0.2 percent, mostly not in Israel. This is not going to end well.
Muslims at large dont care about opposition to Jews. Muslims and Jews lived together quite well, until Israel came into existence.
An united Ummah is not a threat to Jews or Christians. It is a threat to the US, Russia, China, India and others with aspirations of global power.
If you look at the history of how Northern Africa and West Asia were shifted from a colonial rule to a post colonial rule, it was done in a way to deliberately destabilize the regions. That is what Israel is so crucial to the US for.