With shifting political alliances between the US and Middle East regional forces, we must not lose sight of the most vulnerable who are paying the cost of these changes

By Jesse Wheeler

Although “realignment” has been the word of the month in the world of Middle Eastern socio-political analysis, a likelier descriptor might be that of “making explicit that which has up to now remained implicit.” While US-Israeli relations and US-Saudi relations are nothing particularly new, this is the first time Israel and Saudi Arabia have been so publically affectionate. With economic partnerships and arms deals, Israeli generals on Saudi news networks, puff pieces exploring Arabia’s Jewish past, and other overtures toward “normalization,” it looked this month as though the third leg of this unlikely love triangle was on its way to being complete.

While at first it might be tempting to celebrate an apparent rapprochement between such religiously symbolic adversaries as Saudi Arabia and Israel as a positive step toward the ever-elusive prospect of Middle East peace, it is crucial to recognize that legitimate reconciliation requires both justice as well as peace, equal parts of truth and mercy (Psalms 85:10). The common denominator, beyond oil and arms, between Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Trump administration is that of a shared hostility toward Iran and its regional clients. What this triple alliance represents is a buttressing of positions against the increasingly triumphant Shia axis as the conflicts in Syria and Iraq wind down, the Qatar crisis stalemates and the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen continues unabated, especially after President Saleh’s recent assassination. The saber-rattling against Iran and its various clients in the region has certainly ratcheted up in recent weeks, with the Shia axis responding in kind, as each accuses the other of declaring war. Meanwhile, Israel has been escalating military action in Syria, increasing the likelihood of sparking a wider regional conflagration, while readying global opinion for another possible war in Lebanon.

What this ostensible détente with Israel indicates is that the perceived threat of Iran and its clients has overshadowed the Palestinian cause as a regional rallying cry – at least prior to the US decision this week to recognize Jerusalem Israel’s capital. Likewise, Hezbollah’s initial foray into the Syrian conflict on behalf of the Assad regime has forced a redefinition of its own raison d’être as a resistance movement. Given such a diplomatic context, the question then becomes what is to be made of the Palestinian struggle for human rights? Is, as reported in a recent article from the Independent, “Saudi Arabia willing to abandon the Palestinians to make a deal with Israel against Iran?” On the one hand, Palestinians have long felt abandoned by Arab leadership. On the other hand, Palestinian leadership and its various factions have also long relied on support from neighboring regimes. With the exceedingly myopic decision by Trump yesterday to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel, coupled with the naturally expected Palestinian response, one can only wonder what the future holds for the Palestinians and the peoples of the Middle East more broadly.

As followers of Christ, it is our responsibility to remain equal parts committed to justice and peace, truth as well as mercy. As Colin Chapman wrote to me recently in a personal correspondence on 18 November 2017,

I have a concern that when many others talk so much about ‘reconciliation’, they are in danger of playing down justice. I ask how appropriate would it have been to talk about reconciliation in South Africa during the time of apartheid. How appropriate is it for westerners like me to come in and talk about the occupied being reconciled with their occupiers?

So as political alliances shift, form and reform, our ultimate allegiance must be to the messiah of peace and his peaceable Kingdom. To stand firm upon the rock of our crucified king amidst the shifting tides of regional politics is to eschew the mobilizing rhetoric of whichever country, faction, axis or alliance with which we might otherwise resonate. To believe that Saudi Arabia is an ally in a new war on terror is a vulgar joke. To think that Iran and its client regimes have the best interests of the region’s peoples at heart is likewise an extremely difficult notion to swallow. And, to think that the US (or Russia, or the West in general) can in any proper sense act as a viable mediator for regional peace is as equally preposterous, especially given the events of this past week.

But as followers of Christ our commitment must be to the flourishing of all, be they Sunni or Shia, Israeli or Palestinian, Lebanese or Syrian, Iranian, Arab, or otherwise. So as the world’s most powerful leaders conspire within the walls of their gold-encrusted monuments to their own idolatrous self-importance – pretenders each to the lordship of their respective socio-religious communities – those of us who would dare follow the crucified messiah must look always to the impact of such machinations on those most vulnerable: on the widow, whose husband died a conscript in a needless war; on the fatherless, a child victim made vulnerable by these same brutal power plays; and on the refugee, the displaced alien forced against her will to live amongst a people not her own in a land she will never call home.