This is apropos a Business Recorder op-ed “Fallout of the Gaza war” carried by the newspaper last month.

The writer, Rashed Rahman, has concluded his argument by saying that “Iran will back Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen to continue the armed resistance against the expansionist, settler colonialist Zionist entity.

When that entity is finally brought to its knees, only then perhaps can one hope for a reconciliatory dialogue between the victims and their oppressors, the Palestinians and Israelis, provided of course the former are prepared to acknowledge their historic wrongs against the latter and prepared to contemplate a different reality that shuns apartheid, discrimination and oppression in favour of a very different Palestine that may include Jews who have shunned Zionism.” I, however, beg to differ with the learned writer on two points.

Firstly, the Islamic republic has not raised, supported, armed and financed the groups in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen to wipe Israel out.

Iran’s strategy, which is clearly aimed at protecting and preserving its own geostrategic interests, stems from the challenges that it faces in the region and beyond following the hostage crisis that took place in the wake of the Iranian Revolution (1978-79).

Secondly, Israel cannot be brought to its knees until and unless the US-led West revisits its approach to the Middle East conflict.

This will require it to make serious efforts towards enforcing a two-state solution and that solution would require Israel to revert to the pre-1967 borders, ending its occupation of the West Bank and Jerusalem.

But the October 7 Hamas attacks seem to have provided the Zionist state with a golden opportunity to not only further perpetuate its rule over the Palestinian territories it has been occupying since 1967 but also reclaim the Gaza Strip that the Israeli government under Ariel Sharon suddenly abandoned in 2005 due to whatever reasons.

In my view, the ongoing Gaza war casts an air of deep pessimism over the future of the Middle East. But here I must add that the control that pessimism exercises need not destroy global efforts aimed at bringing about lasting peace in the region.

P.K.R. Nambiar, Dubai, UAE

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023