Jeffrey Jacques and Sybil Faresh
Arab states must reject Israeli hegemony and build a regional security structure independent of Washington.)
The war that Israel and the United States launched against Iran on February 28 has now slowed down but is not over. The main fighting has stopped, diplomatic efforts have stalled, and both sides are preparing for another round of confrontation. To understand why the war will soon resume, it is necessary to understand the intentions of the two governments that started it (the United States and Israel). Neither of these governments wants peace. The Israeli leadership wants to maintain its dominance in the Middle East, while the United States wants to maintain its dominance worldwide. The very mention of these objectives makes it clear that both governments are operating in a world of illusion.
The Israeli political leadership is steeped in the belief that Israel’s survival depends on its military superiority over the Arab world and the permanent subjugation or extermination of the Palestinian people. This belief is a kind of collective madness, yet it is the principle that guides Israeli policy. Israeli leaders cannot accept that peace is within reach. In the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, Arab states proposed full normalization with Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, and that proposal still stands.
Peace cannot be built on the basis of the ongoing massacre in Gaza, hatred of the Palestinian people, and attempts to displace them from their own land. But this is the path that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen and is now openly campaigning for, along with his ‘national religious’ allies, including Itamar Ben-Gavir and Bezalel Smotrich; these allies distort religion to promote hatred and murder.
The United States is concerned about its declining power. Iran has been a US target for more than 70 years. After Iran’s elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized Iran’s oil industry in 1953, the CIA and British intelligence agencies overthrew him. The United States then installed the Shah and supported his repressive rule until the Iranian people overthrew the Shah in 1979. The United States has never forgiven Iran for escaping American rule. In the 1980s, the United States supported Saddam Hussein’s deadly war against Iran and continued a series of economic warfare, covert operations, cyberattacks, and assassinations for four decades. Trump canceled the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018, bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025, and then joined Israel in a direct war against Iran in February of this year, in which Iran’s supreme leader was martyred in the initial attacks.
Washington’s overwhelming focus on Iran is dedicated to serving American hegemony. In The Grand Chessboard (1997), Zbigniew Brzezinski identified Iran as one of five “geographic pivots” – nations whose importance is greater because of their location than because of their own power. Iran controls the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. Brzezinski wrote that an “anti-hegemonic” alliance of China, Russia and Iran could only be formed “if the United States were to simultaneously short-sightedly make both China and Iran its enemies.” In fact, Washington has proven to be equally short-sighted and reckless.
The signs of renewed war are not hidden. This week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited Israel to discuss the joint strikes again. According to Israeli sources, the plans target Iranian petrochemical facilities and nuclear sites. The White House has pledged that the United States will not attack Iran before the November 3 midterm elections. This is effectively another way of announcing a timetable for war. The US naval blockade of Iranian ports has exceeded 100 days. In September, Iran proposed a seven-day ceasefire, which Trump rejected. Although Tehran says the offer is still valid.
The October 27 Israeli elections have added fuel to the fire. On October 18, Trump backed down, saying that the US would only “finish the job” against Iran while Netanyahu was in power. On October 21, at a rally in Dimona (where Israel is secretly building its own nuclear weapons stockpile), Netanyahu said that the only way to end the Iranian threat was to overthrow the regime. He said he had instructed the army, Mossad (Israeli intelligence agency) and security services to do so.
Iran has naturally drawn its own conclusions. Its commanders have announced a new offensive doctrine that includes pre-emptive strikes and attacks on bases in neighboring countries used for operations against Iran, and they have warned that a new attack would cause a global energy crisis. Attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz have reached a new high this month.
This is the reality that the Arab world, especially the Gulf states, is now facing. The US military bases throughout the Gulf region have failed to provide security in this war. They have turned the very nations that shelter them into targets. The US-Israeli strategy of ‘divide and rule’, which portrayed Iran as the permanent enemy of the region and prompted Arab states to accept Israeli hegemony and embrace American power; This has led to war in the region, economic losses in the Gulf countries, and widespread massacres in Palestine and Lebanon.
The only way to stop this madness is for the Arab world to tell the United States, “Enough is enough.” The Arab states must declare that they will never accept Israeli sovereignty, that Palestine must be a sovereign state, and that the security of the region will come not from Washington but from regional cooperation. The solution could be two states, or a democratic state composed of two states, or a confederation, as in the Arab Peace Initiative. What is important is that the Israeli Jews and the Palestinian Arabs, who number about eight million, should live in peace, security, and the right to self-determination. The continuation of Israel’s brutal apartheid state is not possible.
Signs are beginning to emerge. Qatar has called for regional dialogue between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states, Turkey, and Pakistan† In addition, Qatar, Pakistan, and Oman have kept channels of mediation open with Tehran throughout the war. These efforts should evolve into a permanent regional security structure, encompassing Iran, the Gulf states, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, and Pakistan. This structure should be based on the concepts of mutual non-aggression, freedom of navigation, and a nuclear-weapon-free zone, which should eventually include Israel.
The Arab states have much more influence than they realize. If Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and their neighbors declare that their territory and airspace will not be used for another war against Iran, and refuse to normalize relations with Israel until a Palestinian state is established, Washington and Tel Aviv’s calculus will have to change immediately. And the American people, who hate war with Iran and side with the Palestinians, will cheer.
The era of US-led “divide and rule” that made Iran the permanent enemy of the Arab world is over† even if Washington and Tel Aviv refuse to admit it. Arab nations should say this openly before the next phase of the war begins, and by doing so, pave the way for the creation of a region that can ensure its own security and peace.
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