The Gaza war and violence against Arabs within Israel may slow investment from the Gulf.
In March 2021, the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum held its first meeting as a recognized international organization. Delegations from member countries – including Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, and Palestine – gathered in Cairo to organize a regional gas market. The forum is a unique space that offers a platform for dialogue between European and Middle Eastern countries. Furthermore, it is rare that Israeli and Palestinian delegations cooperate on the international stage. Yet, as the inaugural meeting demonstrated, the conflict is never too far away. When the delegates voted on whether to grant the United Arab Emirates observer status in the forum – a privilege given to the United States and European Union – Palestine vetoed, a clear demonstration of Ramallah’s frustration with the normalization process that started a few months ago.
While riots and even violent military clashes between Israel and the Palestinians are unfortunately nothing new, and the conflict itself has been of interest to the international community for many decades, the recent, sudden escalation in violence has come as a surprise to many outside observers. This has forced individual states and international organizations to take a stance on what’s happening, including the EU. For the EU, the Middle East conflict is one of the greatest challenges in the immediate neighborhood and a major factor hindering the implementation of its European Neighborhood Policy in the eastern Mediterranean.
“على عمرو أن يطمئن الفلسطينيين بأن إدارة بايدن جادة في معالجة مخاوفهم، خاصة فيما يتعلق بالوضع في القدس”.
“مصر بحاجة إلى انهاء سريع للمذبحة في غزة عن طريق التفاوض، وذلك لأسباب دولية ودبلوماسية، ولكن تدخلها ضروري أيضًا لأغراض محلية”.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Even as it pays lip service to a two-state solution, the international community—particularly the United States—has largely acquiesced to the Israeli-imposed status quo in Gaza and East Jerusalem by exempting both areas from the political and diplomatic process.
“منذ أن اندلعت الأحداث في حرم المسجد الأقصى، يستمر الوضع في التصعيد”.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Failure to condemn anti-Palestinian violence will only further it.
“في حين أن المدى الكامل لتداعيات القرار لا يزال غير واضح، فليس هناك شك بأن عباس تسبب لنفسه بضرر كبير”.
Khaled Elgindy and Lara Friedman discuss the public launch of their congressional teach-in series, “Israel-Palestine: Where We Are, What Comes Next, and Why It Matters to Congress.” The series of webinars features an array of American, Palestinian, Israeli, and international experts on topics dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. policy.
At a press conference on Thursday, MK Mansour Abbas, head of the newly elected Islamist party in Israel, the United Arab List (Ra’am), made what many in the Israeli media dubbed a historic speech. In an effort to reach out to the Jewish Israeli public, he spoke in Hebrew and during the prime time on television often given to Israeli politicians. Speaking surrounded by the party’s green flags, the conservative Islamist quotedverses from the Quran calling for the creation of “an opportunity for a shared life, in the holy and blessed land for the followers of the three religions and both peoples” and told his Hebrew-speaking audience that “Now is the time for change.”
Josep Borrell Fontelles, former Spanish minister of foreign affairs, officially assumed the role on Dec. 1, 2019, and during his first year in office his focus in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region was primarily on four main issues: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the ongoing civil wars in Syria and Yemen, Iran’s nuclear program, and the threat of another migration crisis.
With virtually all of the vote in and results unlikely to change, it is clear: Not only will there be no kingmaker in Israel’s latest election, there will probably be no king.