The New Middle East: A Delicate Dance To Arabic Farsi and Hebrew Tunes?

Arabs have an historic opportunity to examine themselves, reassess their goals and chart fresh plans for the future: A future where Iran and Israel figure prominently.

Israel understands too well, it cannot continue to exist as an efficient state without reaching peace with most -- if not all -- of its neighbors. Neither can it face the Iranian threat alone in the region.

Iran has established itself as a Middle East super power and continues to push forward with its nuclear program despite threats, sanctions and isolation. Its fingerprints are obvious in many significant nations from Morocco to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, all the way to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. It also has enough allies in region and outside to keep it on the same defiant plan for a long time. That leaves Gulf countries, hosts of the largest U.S. air bases and military launch pads for America’s wars, at arm’s length of Iranian missiles shaking of rage, fear or both.

Arabs have no nuclear ambitions that we know of. They have no political or military muscle that is worth mentioning; some of them have oil, still a very important bargaining chip, but not for long. So it is high time for a new game plan, a creative vision, and a modern strategy. For significant players, mainly the Sunnis of the Gulf, the strategy seems to be opening up towards Israel, gingerly working their way towards normalization. Others continue the loud anti-Israel posturing while negotiating under the table. The smaller players are watching quietly and are likely to follow the crowd at the right time.

The Islamist threat looms more lethally today than ever before. While dictatorships might have quelled most of the fundamentalist activities for decades, they failed to uproot the movement. On the contrary, it spread and turned into a wild octopus with tentacles reaching far and wide, capable of creating havoc anywhere it touches from Southeast Asia to the Americas to Europe and of course all over the Middle East and Africa. The more power Islamist groups muster through democratic processes the more these terror groups will be keen on spreading their version of Islam across the world. As they continue to function without a central command, soon they will be completely out of control.

In the face of these threats, Arabs need to re-brand themselves, re-define their mission in life individually and collectively.

Despite its internal divisions, Israel stands as one against all when it comes to its security. Opposition aside, Iran stands as one against many. Arabs on the other hand stand united around nothing.

While individually, they might have a vision for success and inclusion, together they stand against nothing and in support of nothing. Until that “nothing” is changed into a life-changing goal, the trend we are seeing now of rapprochement after the other between Arab nations and Israel and other Arabs and Iran will continue in the same pattern until only two camps are left. If that happens, Arabs won’t be players anymore but fillers for either.