This is just a hypothesis that will call the surrounding gloom crazy, absurd and completely unrealistic, but let’s imagine it anyway. Let us imagine that, after discreet consultations with the United States and the European Union or some of their members, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salman, known as “MBS,” relaunches the Arab peace initiative initiated by his father’s predecessor in 2002.
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King Abdullah then proposed that Arab League countries recognize Israel in exchange for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the territories occupied since 1967. This plan was ignored by the Israeli leadership as it opened the door to a division of Jerusalem and a return of refugees and their descendants. Although this initiative was endorsed by the Arab League and welcomed by the Palestinians, it remained a dead letter, but let us imagine for a moment that the Americans, Europeans and Saudis would soon reveal it, without undue haste but also without hesitation , and would suggest that make it the starting point for new discussions.
Which Israeli prime minister could be as deaf today as he was at the beginning of the century? Even Mr. Netanyahu couldn’t do that. His soon-to-be successor could do so even less, and with several new Arab states having already recognized Israel, not only the creation of a Palestinian state could be negotiated, but also the realization of the old dream of Shimon Peres, the creation of a common market in the Middle East , which paves the way for regional security and cooperation agreements.
Another Hundred Years’ War
More surely than any military operation, this dynamic would lead to the complete political elimination of Hamas and the marginalization of all smaller terrorist groups. Peace, real peace, could come from this. Of course, it will be objected from all sides that the killings of October 7 and the bombing of Gaza, as beautiful as the dreams are, would in reality lead to a hundred-year war, if not a world war. Those in the know will say that it is as inevitable as it is insoluble, since there are now no more Palestinians willing to make peace with Israel, nor any Israelis willing to coexist with a Palestinian state .
Everything seems to prove them right, because mistrust, resentment and the desire for revenge are omnipresent. But if we refuse to be blinded by the irrationality that surrounds us, there is no shortage of reasons for hope.
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