PHILADELPHIA – March 8, 2024 – The Spring 2024 issue of Middle East Quarterly features a bold proposal for administration of postwar Gaza and contributions by other leading specialists on issues of concern.
In “Building a Decent Gaza,” Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes endorses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recently announced plan to establish a new governing body in Gaza unaffiliated with either Hamas or Mahmoud Abbas’ corruption-prone Palestinian Authority. Critics say the plan is untenable because Gazans don’t like and won’t work with Israelis.
Pipes thinks they will. Gazans have endured something “monstrous and possibly unique in human experience over the past fifteen years” – exploitation by rulers determined to maximize civilian deaths on their own side for public relations purposes. Judging from available polling of Gaza residents, footage of spontaneous anti-Hamas demonstrations, and other data points, he sees “a solid majority of Gazans wanting liberation from the tyranny of Hamas,” even if that means working with Israel.
Pipes has in mind a “tough Israeli military rule overseeing a tough police state along the lines of what exists in Egypt and Jordan, countries where one can lead a normal life so long as one stays out of trouble.”
In “Damming the Blue Nile: Will Ethiopian-Egyptian Tensions Ignite?” Israel Institute for Strategic Studies CEO Martin Sherman discusses the escalating standoff between Egypt and Ethiopia over the latter’s construction of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
With the supply of water fixed and demand for it steadily growing on both sides, the dispute has proven to be an “archetypical zero-sum game,” made more intractable by difficulties making credible negotiated commitments. “One would need a giant leap of faith in Ethiopian altruism to entertain the possibility that Addis Ababa will refrain indefinitely from using the waters of the GERD for expanded irrigation, rather than merely for hydroelectric power generation as is currently foreseen.”
Sherman suggests that acute water insecurity will eventually lead Egypt to seek a military solution to the problem (likely at the expense of attention to its leading security threat – jihadists in the Sinai). The “unavoidable conclusion” is that only “artificial production of water” (principally desalination and purification of sewage and wastewater) can alleviate Egypt’s predicament, which can best be achieved through “a U.S.-led mega-infrastructure initiative.”
In “Kuwait’s Hedging Strategy Toward Iran and Saudi Arabia,” Mohammed Torki Bani Salameh, a political science professor at the UAE’s National Defense College, examines Kuwait’s strategy of sheltering itself from the conflicts of its much larger neighbors, particularly the Saudi-Iran rivalry. While adhering to collective decisions of the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) regarding Iran, Kuwait has maintained flexibility in its bilateral relations with Tehran and its regional allies, illustrated by its position of neutrality toward the Saudi-led boycott of Qatar. Salameh attributes the strategy in part to the risks and uncertainties posed by American “repositioning” in the region. Despite having a large Shi’a Muslim minority, Kuwait has managed to resist Iranian attempts at domestic subversion.
In “Recognize Kosovo? A Middle East Dilemma?” historian Michael B. Bishku makes the case for wider recognition of Kosovo’s independence. Diplomatic recognition of the secular Muslim breakaway Balkan nation is “one policy where the countries in the Middle East that matter most to the United States and its Western allies are on the same page,” in opposition to key American adversaries, notably Russia and China. Washington should encourage further recognition from Muslim-majority countries, which is essential to Kosovo’s bid to acquire United Nations membership, join the European Union, and attract greater foreign economic assistance.
In “Israel’s Secret Wars and Diplomatic Offensives,” Middle East Forum Director of Research Jonathan Spyer reviews Yonah Jeremy Bob’s and Ilan Evyatar’s “readable, sometimes gripping, and always engaging account” of Israel’s covert campaign to obstruct Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Covering some of the most celebrated actions of the campaign, such as the Mossad’s 2018 theft of documents from Iran’s nuclear archive and the 2020 assassination of its top nuclear scientist, the authors make the case that this covert warfare not only succeeded in setting back Iran’s nuclear progress, but also helped produce a “strategic victory” in Israeli-Arab relations culminating in the Abraham Accords. He notes, however, that the events of October 7 may lead to a different reckoning regarding the historical place of some of the actors and strategies depicted in the book.
Finally, book reviews by Daniel Pipes, Michael Rubin, Mark Durie, and Robert O. Freedman critically examine new works on topics ranging from the hijab to Kurdish independence.
The Middle East Forum promotes American interests in the region and protects Western civilization from Islamism. It does so through a combination of original ideas, focused activism, and the funding of allies. Subscribe to the MEF mailing list here.
For immediate release
For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman
Roman@MEForum.org
+1 (215) 546 5406
@GreggRoman - Twitter
