Our Wednesday News Analysis | Saving the Middle East: The Map Begins with Palestinian Justice

A Palestinian girl wearing a traditional thobe. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

A just peace will invite more than just the absence of war;
it will invite opportunity, reconstruction, a collective regional rise,
and—most importantly—the restoration of hope.

This is not a desperate wish whispered in a time of darkness. It is the only way out.

This is not a conversation about a “political solution” in the narrow, bureaucratic sense. Such solutions require no particular genius: true justice can only occur when the Palestinian people are granted the totality of their rights and the fulfillment of their political aspirations.

Equally true is the reality that no such justice can manifest so long as Israel remains committed to its current Zionist ideology—a framework predicated on racial supremacy and the systematic eradication of the indigenous Palestinian Arab population. Once the shackles of this ideology are broken, the exact political mechanics become secondary; history suggests that the future would lean toward a shared coexistence rather than a continuation of the current segregation along ethnic lines.

To some, discussing a liberated Palestine now may appear slightly—though not entirely—removed from the current war ravaging the region. It is a war that, if not permanently halted, will continue to devastate the peoples of the Middle East, inviting further militarization, runaway defense spending, and cycles of violence. On the contrary, this is the most critical discussion we can have today.

In his seminal documentary, the late Australian journalist and filmmaker John Pilger summed up the centrality of Palestine to the Middle East in these prescient words:

“A historic injustice has been done to the Palestinian people, and until Israel’s illegal and brutal occupation ends, there will be no peace for anyone — Israelis included.”

These are not mere words of posturing; they are an undeniable historical truth. Palestine has remained the beating heart of every Middle Eastern war and every persisting conflict. For Israel, the occupation has served as the linchpin for its military incursions across borders. For Palestine’s neighbors and allies, it remains the unhealed wound of a region historically unified by political, cultural, linguistic, and religious continuity.

Even during periods when Palestine was seemingly relegated to the periphery of regional diplomacy, Israel was keen to remind its neighbors that its designs were never limited to the Palestinians alone. Whether in historic Palestine or the Shatat (Diaspora), the Zionist project has always signaled broader ambitions...

Read more: Saving the Middle East: The Map Begins with Palestinian Justice

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ON THE WARPATH

Source: Savage Minds
https://substack.com/home/post/p-190769117

By Ilan Pappé
Published March 12, 2026

Messianic Zionism, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and Israel's War Without End

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on 4 February 2025. Photo credit: Avi Ohayon

In the past, campaigns like this were abandoned the moment they faced difficulties.

Loss of American life, pressure from other countries in the region, public opinion in the US, the potential resilience of the Iranian regime,
and continued Palestinian resistance may all shift the balance.

An invasion of Lebanon, judging by past attempts, will benefit no one.

Much depends on the global coalition that fortifies Israel’s wars: the arms industry,
multinational corporations, megalomaniac leaders of powerful states, Christian and Jewish Zionist lobbies,
the timid governments in the global north, as well as corrupt Arab regimes in the Middle East.

What is certain is that before this fiasco ends, Israel will inflict a great deal of suffering ...

Here is a conundrum. While stock exchanges across the world react nervously to the onslaught on Iran, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is booming. Here is another: while millions of people in the region dread the US-Israeli military operation and its consequences, Israeli society is jubilant. According to the latest polls, 93 per cent of the Jewish population support the war. Writing in Yedioth Ahronoth, one journalist captures the euphoric mood:

While we are getting rid of the monstrous Iranian Octopus, I walk down the street, the shops are open, Wolt couriers are rushing to deliver sushi, shawarma and overpriced chocolate cakes to Israeli citizens, people are jogging in the park, and at home I have electricity, hot water and internet. The Pilates studio is open, and the Israeli stock exchange is breaking records. And at this very moment, over my head in the lowlands, Air Force fighter jets take off for another sortie . . . They destroy with impossible precision another home of a mid-ranking officer in the Revolutionary Guards . . .

This is what the most critical war since the founding of the state looks like? This is what it looks like because the State of Israel is a miracle that cannot be explained.

He goes onto suggest that Israel has the great leadership of Netanyahu to thank, along with the exceptional qualities of its people and divine assistance. In Israel Hayom, another prominent journalist offers another jingoistic encomium to Israel’s Prime Minister. Even Netanyahu’s detractors must admit that he is possessed of ‘patience, cunning, determination and unwavering focus’ in his steady destruction of the enemy—total war on Hamas, then Hezbollah, now Iran—and curtailment of Trump’s foolish attempts to negotiate with the Mullahs and devise a peace plan for Gaza...

Read more: On the Warpath

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WHAT WILL NETANYAHU DO WHEN TRUMP DEMANDS PAYBACK FOR THE IRAN WAR?

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026-03-17/ty-article-opinion/.premium/what-will-netanyahu-do-when-trump-demands-payback-for-the-iran-war/0000019c-f7e8-df50-a9de-f7f9f2030000

By Aluf Benn
Published March 17, 2026

Is Trump working for Netanyahu, or the opposite? While public opinion holds that the U.S. was dragged by Israel into an unnecessary Middle East war, an opposite interpretation, no less persuasive, can also be presented

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, during a news conference in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, September. Credit: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg

But an opposite interpretation, no less persuasive, can also be presented:
that Netanyahu harnessed the IDF and endangered Israeli civilians in a war aimed at controlling Iranian oil,
to serve the interests of Trump, his associates, and their partners in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Trump himself said, "If anything, I might have forced Israel's hand" to go to war, rather than being pulled into it.

Next year, according to the timetable set by President Xi Jinping, the Chinese army will complete its preparations to conquer Taiwan. Beijing will present an ultimatum to Taipei: reunification "by consent," or war.

U.S. President Donald Trump will promise to defend the island and try to assemble a wartime coalition. He will turn to European leaders for help and receive evasive responses. Then the phone will ring in the prime minister's office in Jerusalem.

"Bibi," or "Naftali," Trump will say, "I need a few fighter squadrons, Arrow anti-missile batteries, and Iron Dome units, maybe even a division or two, to save Taiwan." The prime minister will shift in his chair and try to explain that Israel has no conflict with China, that we are a small country surrounded by enemies, and that the IDF is vital for defending our borders.

"When you asked me for help against Iran you got bombers, fighter jets, aerial refueling, early warning, high-quality intelligence and coordination with the neighbors," the president will thunder. "Now it's your turn to help me. Or, as you say in your army: '20 seconds, move.'"

Israel's founder, David Ben-Gurion, dreamed of a defense pact in which America would commit to protecting Israel. Supporters of the idea pointed to strengthened deterrence, while opponents warned of losing freedom of action. Trump ended the debate in his first term when he attached Israel to the defense perimeter of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) alongside Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

Even without a formal defense treaty and Senate approval, the IDF became integrated into the U.S. military's regional system through commanders' meetings, operational planning and joint exercises...

Read more: What Will Netanyahu Do When Trump Demands Payback for the Iran War?