Before a massive Hamas terrorist attack triggered a new war between Israel and the Palestinians, the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia were moving closer to normalizing relations. In March, the Saudis and Iran made history when they established ties. The political landscape of the Middle East appeared to be changing.
Indeed, the region’s politics were operating differently than they had when the U.S. fought two fruitless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, after the rise and fall of the Arab Spring, the Palestinian cause seemed to slip in importance among Arab elites as the Trump administration pursued the Abraham Accords.
In this episode of History As It Happens, Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft breaks down the geopolitical consequences of the war now centering on Gaza, home to more than 2 million Palestinians. In Mr. Parsi’s view, it was wrong to assume the Arab world no longer cared about the Palestinians, even if governments in Washington, Europe and elsewhere had lost interest.
“This was an assumption that was adopted by the Trump administration and had been pushed by the Israelis for some time. The opening came as a result of the Arab Spring. It became clear that the Palestinian issue was no longer as potent in the Arab world … because suddenly there were more urgent priorities, meaning the internal affairs of these Arab states that were undergoing protests and revolutions,” said Mr. Parsi, an expert on U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East.
“To assume that was a permanent shift, meaning that the Muslim populations around the world had gone the same route as Europe and the U.S., that’s an assumption that was really questionable … but also that the Palestinians would forget about the Palestinians.”
History As It Happens is available at washingtontimes.com or wherever you find your podcasts.
SEE ALSO: History As It Happens: The rise of Hamas
