Victory over Islamic State Won’t Bring Peace to the Region

Is it possible for the Middle East to achieve peace and stability after the destruction of the Islamic State group?

The achievement celebrated by the Donald Trump administration is vital and significant, but one fails to understand the logic and the intention behind announcing Israeli sovereignty over the Syrian Golan Heights on the same day of announcing victory over the Islamic State group!

Moving a few months back, one faced the same confusion in trying to understand Trump’s stance when he promised a comprehensive solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict after hastening to announce his country’s acknowledgement of occupied Jerusalem as the capital of the occupation and decided to move the American embassy over to Jerusalem.

Decades before the emergence of terrorist organizations, our region was plagued by a catastrophe that stymied security, peace and stability, epitomized by the establishment of Israel and the rejection of all peaceful solutions based on a two-state solution. This prolonged conflict granted extremist forces and foreign countries a long-term investment chance amid continuous instability in the Middle East.

Former American administrations finally realized that the security and stability of the Middle East is directly tied to a fair solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; this realization, however, seems to have completely vanished in the era of the current administration.

No Arab citizen will be able to share the American president’s joy over defeating the Islamic State group when he simultaneously announces the acknowledgement of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Arab territories, contrary to an international resolution ratified by the United States.

It is true that organizations like the Islamic State group and al-Qaida and similar terrorist organizations that neither ever cared for the Palestinian people and their cause nor for the occupied Golan Heights and committed massacres against innocent people around the world, including Arab people, with the pretext that they are fighting the regimes of the “disbelievers.” The threshold for extremism and conservativism in the Arab world was established due to the historical unfairness faced by the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli occupation, so when the United States got involved in the war against terrorism, the prevalent conviction on the Arab street was that it was fighting to defend the security and interests of Israel and not the Arab people.

Extremists and terrorists are smarter than the United States as they knew how to employ America’s biased policy toward Israel to win support for their vicious conduct. The paradox here is that popular Arab entities that acknowledge Washington’s role in the destruction of the Islamic State group don’t dare express their gratitude for this role or appreciate the sacrifices of Americans to accomplish this mission, because they are against U.S. policies toward the Palestinians and this in turn escalates anger against America and not gratitude and appreciation.

There is an unprecedented decline in confrontation with the terror organizations in the region but the cycle of violence will continue because the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will keep feeding feelings of extremism and bring new terrorism forces into life.

According to the American-Zionist definition, Iran and its allied forces are the sole entities that jeopardize the existence and security of Israel and not the Islamic State group, which is losing prominence. The role of these forces is bound to grow and continue amid America’s biased policy toward Israel.

Victory over the Islamic State group won’t bring peace and security to the Middle East, so don’t go overboard with your celebrations.