The Beginning of the End of the Arab-Israeli Conflict?

תקציר

In its familiar format, the Arab-Israeli conflict is fading away. The peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 marked the end of the beginning of the conflict, and we are now witnessing the beginning of the end. This is not the dream of peace that was promised by the Oslo process. The threats to Israel may have actually increased, because the Arab enemy of yesterday was far less dangerous than the Iranian enemy of today. Nor does it mean that the radical Arabs fighting Israel are any less determined or ruthless. It certainly does not signal the end of the conflict with the Palestinians. What is new is Israel’s success in breaking the pan-Arab front against it, and in convincing most Arab countries that a strong Israel is not a threat, rather an essential condition for their survival. While the region remains rife with violence and instability, the axis of struggle is not between Israel and “the Arabs”; it is between an Arab-Israeli coalition on the one hand, and Iran’s Islamic Revolution and Erdogan’s Turkey on the other.<br><br>