Palestine and the regional order in the Middle East

Addressing them from these two international perspectives—international power and international norms—is essential to gaining a comprehensive understanding of the reality in this highly sensitive and conflict-ridden part of the world. The consequences of the First World War (WW1) (1914–1919) and the Second World War (WW2) (1939–1945) worked in favour of the Jewish people. 

This is an indisputable historical reality, and we are not saying that it is right or wrong, only confirming it. At the end of WWI, the League of Nations or Society of Nations promoted the so-called British Mandate over Palestine, which followed the Balfour Declaration (1917), and at the end of WWII, the United Nations issued Resolution 181 on the Partition of Palestine, following the UNSCOP Report, which included former Peruvian Foreign Minister Arturo García Salazar, recommending the creation of two states: Israel and Palestine.  

The Israelis took advantage of it and the Arabs rejected it, declaring war on Israel. The so-called pan-Arabism developed a hostile relationship towards Israel, which, aware of its vulnerability in the region, decided, as a matter of state policy, to empower itself militarily with the support of the United States. After bloody wars over the territories occupied by Israel, its governments, always with Washington's support, sought peace with their Arab neighbours. 

The agreement was achieved with Egypt (1978), the most vocal opponent in the 1960s under Gamal Abdel Nasser, and then with Jordan in 1994. The situation with Palestine remained deadlocked, as was inevitable given the contrasting emergence of Jewish settlements and Palestinian refugee camps. 

With the arrival of the ayatollahs to power in Iran (1979) and the Lebanon War (1982), Hezbollah emerged in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, and the most sensitive issue of all became more acute, giving rise to two Intifadas in 1987 and 2000. 

Israel wanted security and peace, which it did not have and still does not have, and it took action with Prime Minister Isaac Rabin, who was assassinated (1995), just like Anwar el-Sadat, President of Egypt (1981), and the death of Yasser Arafat (2004) - who is said to have been poisoned - cracked that path. Hamas came to power in Gaza (2006) – with the support of Hezbollah and Iran, as it still does today – and, removed from the Ramallah government, Palestinian unity was broken. 

Then came the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab countries (the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco), normalising relations, which were interrupted by the war with Hamas (2023), which massacred 1,200 Jews, and Israel, which reacted with another massacre that has left more than 52,000 Gazans dead. Israel went against Iran in a preventive war - outlawed by international law - and with Donald Trump they sought to add Iran to Iraq (2003), Libya (2010) and Syria (2024), and they almost succeeded. 

The regional order in the Middle East, then, is not religious, but geopolitical, that is, pure power for oil and territory. 

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Mackay. Former Foreign Minister of Peru and Internationalist 

Article published in the Diario Expreso newspaper in Peru