Unresolved conflicts such as that between Israel and Palestine have for decades turned the Middle East into an arena of constant tensions, clashes and the involvement of superpowers directly or indirectly.
This has kept the conflict far from reaching a peaceful resolution and has complicated the notion of stability in the Middle East further.
This fierce competition was especially evident during the Cold War era, and with that coming to an end, the competition entered another phase, this time between the United States as the winning bloc and the opposing faction to US-enforced the liberal order.
Under such global tensions, it has been evident that reaching a just solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has become impossible, due to the above-mentioned perpetual superpower competitions.
Additionally, the situation is worsened by the continued failure of mediations orchestrated by the United States, where the priority has been given to Israel’s demands and the recognition of Palestine as a state ignored.
Multilateralism offers hope
Interestingly, the current multilateral global system gives provides an opportunity for middle powers to have an enhanced role in orchestrating peaceful outcomes in global diplomacy.
Surprisingly, the role of the middle powers has been narrowed to either nations that demand independent foreign policy that is passive in global diplomacy (self-centered), or actors that guarantee the mega-projects of the superpowers by benefiting from the cooperation under the banner of “economic development.”
The recent Hamas offensive is an opportunity not only for the superpowers to orchestrate peace talks between Palestine and Israel as mediators, but for middle powers such as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, India and Iran to play an essential role in materializing the recognition of the Palestinian state in more constructive ways than simply announcing their positions officially.
Moreover, the middle powers mentioned above have the capability of establishing a coalition that invites all sides to participate in ending this long-lasting conflict, in order to have a just outcome in which the rights of all sides in the conflict are equally accepted.
Taking into consideration that all the above-mentioned countries have officially announced the urgency of recognizing Palestine as a necessary key to ending the conflict, the effective hedging strategy that the majority of the middle powers have been performing in balancing between the two competing poles (Western and anti-Western) should also be considered as a tactical opportunity to reach just solutions.
Furthermore, a coalition orchestrated by the middle powers could also turn into a broader movement with the aim of finding a just solution for the Palestine-Israel conflict.
Moreover, such inclusive international diplomacy put together by the middle powers would generate a space between the competing superpowers, through re-creating the non-alignment bloc in a broader sense.
In other words, the ability of effective diplomacy by all sides that the middle powers put forward with the hedging strategy raises its importance in international relations for the superpowers to keep the status quo and not to escalate their confrontations into full-scale war or launching other hybrid wars.
The Ukrainian war has indicated that the competing superpowers are not hesitating from opening new fronts that could transform regional wars into a global one.
Simply put, the current global situation implies that if the middle powers are benefiting from mega-projects proposed by the superpowers, at the same time the superpowers are in need of the advanced role of the middle powers in working toward a just resolution that would work as a stability space between the competing bipolar superpowers.
Furthermore, such inclusive diplomacy on a global level performed by the coalition of middle powers would force the US and Israel to shift their uncompromising attitudes on recognizing Palestine, acknowledging that the rights of the Palestinians must be recognized as well in order to have lasting peace.
Such an American foreign policy would raise the chances for the Palestinians to reach a just solution, to halt the possibility of another regional hybrid war between the United States and its regional and global allies on the one side and the anti-Western bloc on the other.