____________________________________________ 8 IICC Perspectives The way out In principle, the choice in the current circumstances is binary, either-or. Today the United States, the West in general and the Arab-Muslim world (with the exception of Iran) propose to Israel to solve the problem of the Gaza Strip within the general context of settling the IsraeliPalestinian conflict throughout the Land of Israel based on the return of a reorganized Palestinian Authority to the Gaza Strip, and the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. That will result not only in a local solution for the Palestinians, but in a wider regional dimension of normalization between Israel and the Arab-Islamic states, which Saudi Arabia has already publicly stated, and create a political-security coalition which will include Israel as a key member. The dominance of Saudi Arabia in the Arab-Muslim world will be able to help design Israel's place in the final arrangement in a way relatively easy for that world to digest. Hamas and "resistance axis" in general will find themselves isolated, their star dulled in Palestinian and general regional public opinion. They will be exposed as securely enslaved to the will of Iran and caring nothing about their own national interests, and Israel will no longer be isolated. Hamas, currently in competition for leadership of the Palestinian people, will be hit especially hard. It is not by chance that Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah regard a political solution for the Palestinian issue as the worst possible threat, which is why for the past 22 years they have consistently rejected the Arab Peace Initiative, despite the general Arab-Islamic consensus consistently supporting it. The fact that Israel, in terms of result, not intention, has joined its enemies in the "resistance axis'" in the management of the conflict, and as they do, rejects political initiatives, is a tragic paradox. Thus, Israel finds itself shoring up its sworn enemies and their image for a large percentage of the population in the region and beyond, while it is pushed into an isolated corner with a "stop the world, I want to get off" mentality, or rather, "stop reality..." If the Palestinian issue ends with a political settlement, the worlds of Iran and Hamas will turn upside down. From interviews with (the deceased) Saleh al-'Arouri, the deputy of (the deceased) Isma'il Haniyeh, head of Hamas' political bureau, heralding the war, we learned that one of the main reasons behind the October 7 attack and massacre was Hamas' fear that of a possible normalization in relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The dialectics of history will celebrate its victory when it turns out that in the end Hamas was responsible for exactly what it wanted to prevent, normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia along with a political resolution to the Palestinian issue. The same will be true for the government of Israel, when its military victory in the Gaza Strip produces the unexpected, or perhaps unintended consequence of a political resolution to the Palestinian issue. The irony is that history will have toyed with both sides.
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