The Religious Changes That Helped Bring about the New Era of Israeli-Arab Diplomatic Cooperation

Last week, the senior diplomats of Morocco, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and the U.S. gathered in the Sde Boker kibbutz in the Negev—where David Ben-Gurion spent his final years—to discuss regional cooperation. Aryeh Tepper examines how this summit, which would have been unimaginable a decade ago, results not only from diplomatic and strategic shifts but also from theological ones:

A serious struggle is being waged by Islamic scholars from Morocco to the Gulf to cultivate and to advance a tolerant form of Islam that respects non-Muslims and that recognizes minority rights based upon Islamic principles. The efforts of Islamic scholars must of course be seen within larger political contexts. In the Middle East, religion and politics are rarely separable. Additionally, even if one identifies with these scholars’ aims, it’s possible to wonder about the effectiveness of scholarly-religious pronouncements and documents, in general.

But, . . . if you had been following the various forms of Islamic reform and their interaction with global Jewish communities over the past few years, meetings often spear-headed by the American Sephardi Federation, then you weren’t terribly surprised when the kingdom of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates established, and the kingdom of Morocco restored and upgraded, diplomatic relations with the Jewish state in 2020.

In 2013 and 2014, Morocco and the UAE were already working to change the Islamic discourse in the Muslim world. And in Marrakesh, in 2016, over 300 Muslim scholars, activists, and politicians came together to articulate a tolerant vision of Islam that can function as a constructive, humane force in a modern state. The result, the “Marrakesh Declaration,” is grounded in the belief that tolerance is deeply rooted in the Muslim past.

It’s clear on which side the Jewish people stands in this battle. It was on display in Sde Boker.

Read more at Sephardi Ideas Monthly

More about: Abraham Accords, Israel diplomacy, Moderate Islam, Morocco

 

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF