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Diplomacy
OpinionComment
Sameed Basha
Sameed Basha

Opinion | As the US loses ground to China in Middle East, Israel needs to rethink its position

  • The winds are changing in the region, as China engages in peace efforts not just for Saudi Arabia and Iran, but also Israel and Palestine
  • Meanwhile, the US is failing to read and adjust to the new situation, which makes Beijing’s offer of win-win economic solutions all the more appealing

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken takes part in a joint press conference with the Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, in Riyadh, on June 8. Photo: AFP
Sameed Basha
A state visit by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas to China has come when Chinese-led efforts to broker peace in the Middle East have changed the nature of a region that once was dominated by the US.
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Beijing has put forward a proposal for peace between Israel and Palestine, which calls for the restoration of the Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, increased development and humanitarian assistance to Palestine, and an end to provocative language or actions.

The visit is part of a string of diplomatic efforts by China to engage the Arab world as Beijing seeks to fill the power vacuum left by the US. In recent years, Washington has appeared to find little or no strategic value in the Middle East, shifting its attention and resources to Eastern Europe to tackle Russia and to Southeast Asia to contain China.

Since the storming of Beirut in 1958, the United States has remained an influential force in the region, focused on a transactional relationship with Gulf countries. This relationship involves providing security in exchange for a steady supply of crude oil, which has been a critical strategy for maintaining a US presence in the region while preventing Arab countries from launching attacks against Israel.

Israel has been the primary beneficiary of this relationship, receiving significant US economic and military assistance. As a result, Israel has emerged as the strongest country in the region, with the ability to protect itself from threats posed by countries like Lebanon, Iran and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. But Israel now finds itself in a precarious position as it tries to redefine itself in the Middle East, despite the signing of the Abraham Accords brokered by the US.
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That establishment of Israel’s diplomatic relations with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Morocco was underpinned by mutual opposition to Iran and a loss of interest in the Palestinian cause at government level among Arab states.

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