VSIt’s just a hypothesis that the ambient gloom will say is crazy, absurd and totally unrealistic, but let’s imagine all the same. Let us imagine that after discreet consultations with the United States and the European Union or certain of its members, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed Ben Salman, known as “MBS”, relaunches the Arab peace initiative initiated in 2002 by the predecessor from his father.
King Abdullah then proposed that the countries of the Arab League recognize Israel in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state on the territories occupied since 1967. This plan was ignored by Israeli leaders, because it opened the door to a sharing of Jerusalem and a return of refugees and their descendants. Although endorsed by the Arab League and applauded by the Palestinians, this initiative remained a dead letter, but let us imagine for a moment that the Americans, Europeans and Saudis would soon unearth it, without excessive haste, but without procrastination either, and propose to make it the starting point for new discussions.
Which Israeli prime minister could turn a deaf ear today as he did at the beginning of the century? Even Mr. Netanyahu could not. The successor he will soon have could do so even less, and now that several new Arab states have already recognized Israel, it is not only the creation of a Palestinian state that could be under negotiation, but the realization of the old dream of Shimon Peres, the creation of a common Middle Eastern market, paving the way for regional security and cooperation agreements.
Another Hundred Years’ War
More surely than any military operation, this dynamic would lead to a complete political elimination of Hamas and to the marginalization of all lesser terrorist groups. Peace, real peace, could come from this. It will of course be objected, from all sides, that as beautiful as the dreams are, the reality is that the killing of October 7 and the bombings of Gaza lead straight, if not to a world war, to a war of hundred years. Those “in the know” will say it is as inevitable as it is inextricable since there would now be no more Palestinians ready for peace with Israel nor Israelis willing to coexist with a Palestinian state.
Everything seems to prove them right as mistrust, resentment and the desire for revenge are raw everywhere. But if we refuse to let ourselves be blinded by the surrounding unreason, there is no shortage of reasons to hope.
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