False saints and real demons: The story of the Middle East - opinion

In a Middle East suspended between self-proclaimed saints waving banners of revolutionary purity and real demons intent on stoking conflict, each new generation is born into a promise of deferred liberation. They inherit a struggle with Israel that bleeds their societies dry, with no clear end in sight.

The chronic instability that defines our region is not merely a product of failed settlements with Israel, nor is it just the result of stubbornness on the part of the direct players. It is also the outcome of the ongoing complicity of regional actors who see this conflict as a useful tool for maintaining their influence and bolstering their own legitimacy.

It is telling that most of the regimes with the most strident anti-Israel rhetoric share no borders with it and engage in no direct military confrontations.

Yet, these same regimes repeatedly adopt escalatory stances, forcing their own people to bear the economic, social, and moral costs of a conflict to which they contribute nothing but fiery statements and hollow slogans.

The common denominator among these actors is their use of the Palestinian cause and the wider Arab-Israeli conflict as a sword to brandish whenever they face the threat of domestic accountability or rising calls for change.

This pattern of political engagement – waving the banner of conflict without bearing responsibility for its consequences – reveals an undeniable opportunism. Whenever a realistic chance for a solution appears, the grandstanders mobilize to scuttle it. They fear that ending the conflict with Israel would erase the very pretext for their own survival.

If a final agreement were ever reached, these governments would find themselves face-to-face with their own people, forced to provide real answers for their failures in development, their political stagnation, and their administrative corruption.

Meanwhile, this approach has achieved nothing tangible for the Palestinian people or the region. Every time a new wave of violence or tension with Israel erupts, the public is fed the same tired narratives – blaming conspiracies and promising a victory that never comes, while civilian suffering deepens and the prospects for sustainable development recede.

The people of the Middle East seem destined to bear the consequences of complex regional calculations that are not aimed at ending the conflict with Israel, but at preserving it at a manageable, politically useful level.

Certain regional powers thrive on this state of declared hostility, viewing it as a perpetual excuse to delay reforms, stir up public sentiment, and silence voices demanding change.

This path reveals a strategy of perpetuating the conflict not as a strategic necessity but as a means of reinforcing legitimacy and preserving power structures.

These domestic considerations have converged with other regional interests to build a psychological and cultural wall that confines the consciousness of Arab societies, trapping them in a state of open-ended hostility. In this reality, a genuine will for peace is as absent as the courage for a responsible fight.

After decades of manipulating this issue, it is time to state the facts plainly. The conflict with Israel has become a time-honored excuse used to legitimize the rule of regimes that have delivered nothing but failure to their people. Its legitimacy cannot be sustained by rhetoric alone, without any real commitment to either wage a battle or achieve a settlement.

Instead, it has become a calculated political choice managed from a distance to serve the interests of staying in power and cementing systems of influence.

A new generation in the Arab world is starting to ask pointed questions: How many more times will our suffering be used to sustain a narrative of confrontation with Israel? How much longer are we expected to believe that this conflict is an inescapable destiny, when it is, in fact, the result of political decisions? How many times will we be forced to take part in an endless emotional rally while our chances for a decent life slip away?

The moment the investment in hostility toward Israel ceases will be a moment of reckoning, when all parties will be held accountable for their role in perpetuating the conflict, instead of seeking to end it. That moment will inevitably come, no matter how long this conflict is exploited for domestic and foreign policy gains.

In the end, none of this was inevitable. It was a deliberate political choice, crafted by multiple actors united by their interest in power and a perpetually deferred conflict with Israel.