Link to Article: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/saudi-prince-seeks-mideast-leadership-independence-with-xis-visit-2022-12-04/
Summary: Government officials, scholars, and policy experts from Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Morocco, Bahrain, and the UAE are set to meet in Rabat regarding the N7 initiative, a project to address and create practical proposals regarding regional and longstanding issues between the Arab World and Israel. Only states that have recognized Israel and normalized ties with them were allowed to participate, while other Arab states are allowed to observe. The initiative’s current goals are to introduce youth exchange programs and increase religious tolerance to address concerns of education and coexistence between the states and to allow future generations to be more tolerant of each other.
Analysis: States such as the UAE have moved to recognize and normalize ties with Israel in the absence of the United States in the region. While the issue of Palestine has not disappeared, it is ultimately to the advantage of these states to ally with Israel, a state that has proven it strongly fights for its territorial integrity and existence, to become good allies with them in the long term. Israel has faced multiple invasions in the past from Arab-led coalitions, mainly from Syria and Egypt, conflicts in which Israel had won and expanded its territory, while reaffirming its territorial sovereignty in which Arab states saw Palestine as the true ruling people. Most surprisingly, Egypt has been one of these states to normalize ties with Israel and start to cooperate with them, likely due to historical lessons of Israel fighting hard for statehood and Egypt becoming close with a western-backed state in the Middle East can eventually allow them and other Arab states to counteract Turkey and Iran’s regional influence. Taking the diplomatic approach allows the Arab states to potentially diplomatically and gradually solve the Palestine issue, while also garnering a potential future ally that hates their enemies. An ally can be found in those who hate your enemies.
Connection to Class: Arab states taking steps to support Israel demonstrates the concept of the fluidity of alliances. States are willing to disregard their history in the pursuit of power or security, and a western-backed state such as Israel is the closest entity they have to a western state being able to defend them against regional powers such as Turkey and or Iran. While the issue of Palestine remains a major issue for these states, the Palestinians can still be disregarded in the sake of the survival of their states and ultimately come second to counterbalancing regional hegemons and national security.