Over the past decade, Israel’s foreign policy, particularly under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing governments, has gradually shifted away from the long-standing paradigm of “land for peace,” replacing it with a new proposition: peace for peace. The concept of peace for peace rests on the assumption that by setting aside historically contentious issues, most notably the Palestinian question, and instead prioritizing economic, security, and technological interests, Israel could normalize relations with the Arab world without making political concessions.
State of the Abraham Accords
The Abraham Accords, which entail the opening of diplomatic missions in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and negotiations with Sudan and Morocco can all be regarded as tangible manifestations of this approach. However, developments since October 2023, particularly following the Gaza war and Israel’s subsequent strikes in Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Qatar have begun to generate new intellectual fractures among Arab elites and analysts regarding the nature and future of this approach. Contrary to the initial expectation that closer ties between Israel and the Arab world would moderate Tel Aviv’s regional behaviour, recent actions in the field suggest the opposite trend. These actions include:
- The continuation and intensification of Israel’s military operations across multiple fronts simultaneously (Gaza, southern Lebanon, Syria, and targeted strikes in Iran).
- The expansion of pre-emptive operations, rather than defensive deterrence.
- Above all, the absence of any meaningful international response, particularly from Israel’s Western’s allies. This situation is gradually reshaping the prevailing Arab perception of the normalization project.
Put simply, the question now arises: If normalization and rapprochement embolden Israel rather than reduce tensions, what are the strategic benefits of this process for Arab states? In the Middle East, nothing is as terrifying as “reality,” and nowhere illustrates this more starkly than Syria today, where reality has overtaken politics, outpaced diplomacy, and even transcended logic.
