In a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu presented his vision for a new Middle East that is taking shape amid the conflict between an axis led by Iran and another led by the Zionist entity, as expressed in a map he displayed to the audience, most of whom left the hall as soon as the Prime Minister of the occupation entered to deliver his speech on September 27th last year.
Hours after Netanyahu's speech, it was announced that airstrikes were carried out using 85 concussion bombs weighing 2000 pounds each to assassinate the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in an operation that is considered the costliest in the world.
The assassination operation, along with previous intelligence military operations targeting Hezbollah elements in Lebanon by detonating "pager" communication devices, was prepared and planned over a long period starting with the July 2006 War, and concluded with achieving a deep penetration in 2016, enabling the occupation to accumulate intelligence successes and prepare a military plan that was expected to run parallel to an economic, political, and security project promoted during the era of former US President Donald Trump under the title of the "Deal of the Century", and gained further momentum during the era of President Joe Biden's administration with the known project of the "Indian-Israeli Development Corridor" in 2023 announced at the G20 summit in the Indian capital New Delhi.
Marginalization of Arab and Islamic identity
The concept of the Middle East was first carved out by British colonial circles in India in the 1850s, but it was strongly associated with American colonial circles before any other, and with their projects for domination and control of the Arab region, which became clear after the formation of the Central Command in 1980.
The concept of the Middle East was first used in 1902 by American naval officer Alfred Mahan, the founder of the theory of naval power in history, in an article published in London in September of that year entitled "The Persian Gulf and International Relations", without specifying its countries. It was officially used by the United States government for the first time in 1957 during the Suez Crisis as part of Eisenhower's principles, and in which Secretary of State John Foster Dulles defined the Middle East as "the region stretching between and including Libya in the west and Pakistan in the east, and Syria and Iraq in the north, and the Arabian Peninsula in the south, in addition to Sudan and Ethiopia."
In Netanyahu's view of the New Middle East, there is no place for Arabs and Palestinians, and for America, there is no place for China and Russia or the Arab Islamic civilization. It is a project aimed at consolidating American Zionist dominance and influence through what is known as the American peace process, which began in 1978 with the signing of the "Camp David Accords" between Egypt and the entity and continued its most prominent stages in the Madrid conference in 1991 through the Oslo Accords, and the Wadi Araba Agreement, ending with the Abraham Accords normalization agreements in 2021. These were projects aimed at settling the Palestinian issue, which was demolished by the occupying entity, leading to the marginalization and weakening of the Arab and Islamic identity in favor of a Middle Eastern identity with "Israeli" standards supported by the United States and Europe, and in partnership with India, which represents an economic and demographic giant capable of dissolving the cultural identity of the Arab region and the entire West Asia.
Geopolitical Dimensions
Netanyahu's project for a new Middle East has taken on geopolitical dimensions that align with American ambitions to contain China and Russia, ultimately aiming to surround and prevent their influence from expanding in the Arab region and the Indian Ocean, similar to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Israeli proposals have aligned with the U.S.-India-Australia-Japan quadrilateral security dialogue launched by Washington in 2007, reaching its peak of activity after the war in Ukraine and escalating tensions in the South China Sea and Taiwan.
The Israeli American project is ambitious, and despite being dealt a severe blow by the "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation launched by Palestinian resistance on October 7, 2023, it has returned to relying on military force to impose itself on the region after originally counting on economic and soft power to achieve its goals, with the assistance of the United States and its active diplomacy. Netanyahu expressed this during discussions to strike Iran, calling it a historic opportunity during his call with U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the attack on Iran and the military prospects in Lebanon and Gaza.
Netanyahu's project for a new Middle East is supposed to weaken all regional powers that challenge Israeli dominance, with Iran, Turkey, and Egypt at the forefront, aiming to marginalize their roles through military or soft power by deepening their internal and economic crises to ensure American-backed Israeli dominance. India has emerged as a partner due to its demographic and economic strength, breaking its historical ties with Arabs and Muslims in favor of a new nationalism rooted in Hindu heritage, represented by the far-right Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party led by current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In conclusion, Netanyahu's project is a true revival and breakthrough for a project that was not clearer than now in producing an Israeli-centric Middle East with cultural dimensions targeting the region's identity, economic dimensions ensuring Israeli control and dominance as the core of any development or economic project, and security dimensions through the establishment of a military and security alliance claiming to counter an Iranian project threatening the security and stability of countries from Gaza to Tehran and Yemen. All of this is framed within a political system under the framework of normalization agreements and the Abraham Accords, which was marketed as the future vision for the region. This project suffered a major setback after the "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation on October 7, which shattered the Israeli Middle East project and turned it into a deep drain of Israeli and American influence, removing it from its effective strategic context.
