____________________________________________ 7 IICC Perspectives The merging of the various "resistance axis" arenas, Iran and Iraq to Israel's east, Hezbollah to the north and the Houthis in Yemen to the south, caused and fueled by the war, illustrates the centrality of the Palestinian issue. Iran's drive for regional hegemony profits greatly from the lack of a political solution for the Palestinian issue. The dangers of such a situation to regional and internal stability have become clearer to the Arab states, and the commitment to a political solution is greater mainly because of a negative vested-interest, to prevent the inherent potential damage to their stability and development, such as the Saudi Arabian focus on completing Saudi Vision 2030. The effective dealing of the Arab states, Israel and the United States with Iran's two main threats, its regional gamble, with the assistance of its proxies, and its nuclear bomb program, both of which somehow depend on putting the Palestinian issue at Archimedes' principle of the center of gravity, in complete contrast to the schematic logic of normalization with the Arab states, which pushed the Palestinian issue to the sidelines. Therefore, the "unity of the arenas" lends the war in Gaza in particular, and the Palestinian issue in general, regional and global importance which extends far beyond their narrow borders, up to and including the Global Jihad organizations. The al-Qaeda websites keep hammering the need to exploit the Palestinian arena, especially the Gaza Strip, as an environment for chaos, from which benefit can already be derived. If in the past the organization considered the Palestinian arena as secondary and not yet ripe as a site for focus, it has changed its opinion in the wake of the current war. It is also concerned, as is Sunni ISIS, that the war will increase the prestige of Shi'ite Iran and the "resistance axis," especially, through the influence of Hamas, its proxy in the Palestinian arena. This combination of dual threat, both from Israel and Iran, motivates the Global Jihad to elevate the priority of the Palestinian arena. Regional leaders Jordan's King Abdullah the second and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. The worsening of the Israeli Palestinian conflict is liable to collapse Israel's peace agreements with them, which so far have been stable. (Photo by Jordanian Royal Palace / AFP)
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