When will Israel join the Arab League?

A few days ago, the Israeli "Channel 12" revealed that the army deployed a radar system in several Arab countries, the most important of which are the UAE and Bahrain, as part of a vision of joint cooperation in confronting Iran's missile threats, and creating an early warning system.

At the same time, representatives in the US Congress put forward a bill aimed at integrating Israel's air defenses with the Arab countries.

Meanwhile, the US administration is seeking to establish a security and military alliance that includes Israel with 9 other Arab countries, the six Gulf Cooperation Council states, in addition to Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, and it may expand later to include other countries.

It is clear that Israel appears to be the main and pivotal player in rearranging the political, strategic and security situations in the Arab region from the ocean to the Gulf, after it has transformed in recent years into an effective and influential regional player through the development of its network of regional relations with Arab countries.

All of these moves reveal the extent of the political, geostrategic, security and military transformations that the Arab region is going through, which aim to reshape the balance of power in favor of certain parties at the expense of others.

The declared goal and broad title of all these moves is to confront Iran and its threats in the region, especially in light of the faltering negotiations of the Iranian nuclear file with the West, which seem to have entered a critical stage, and no one knows where things will lead.

But the most important thing that these moves and transformations reveal is related to the Israeli role in the region.

It is clear that Israel appears to be the main and pivotal player in rearranging the political, strategic and security situations in the Arab region from the ocean to the Gulf, after it has transformed in recent years into an effective and influential regional player, whether through the development of its network of regional relations with Arab countries, or through its emergence As a force in the global energy market with its gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

This is an issue that has become especially important in light of the global energy crisis caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war, and Western sanctions imposed on Moscow in the oil and gas fields.

This gives importance to other sources of energy, whether in the Middle East or abroad.

In light of the high global demand for oil and gas, and the accompanying rise in food prices, and price inflation, the world appears to be on the cusp of one of the most severe economic crises in half a century.

It is a crisis that will also rearrange the balance of power globally and regionally.

Here, Israel will emerge as a new power in the field of energy, enabling it to meet part of the needs of European countries, as happened during the tripartite agreement that was signed a few days ago between Israel, the European Union and Egypt to export Israeli gas to Europe, after its liquefaction in Egypt.

This means an increase in dependence on Israel internationally, and consequently an increase in its role, weight and regional and international influence, and the negative repercussions this means on the Palestinian cause.

Also against this background, we can understand the shifts in US-Saudi relations over the past few months, especially after the outbreak of the Russian war on Ukraine and the occurrence of great tension in the relationship between Washington and Riyadh as a result of what appears to be the latter’s exploitation of the energy crisis in order to pressure US President Joe Biden. To rapprochement with it and to stop his hard-line approach with the Saudi leadership, especially since he had pledged during his election campaign to treat Saudi Arabia as a "pariah state."

It was recently announced that Biden will visit Saudi Arabia on July 15-16, and during his visit, he is supposed to meet Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In fact, the security and military rearrangement of the region is not only related to confronting Iran’s influence in the region, as this is the declared goal of the recent moves, but the other most important goal is to fully integrate Israel into the Arab system, and consider it a “normal” state, which in practice means the end of what was called Arab national security and his funeral to his final resting place.

In recent years, Israel has succeeded in normalization with a significant number of Arab countries, whether it was declared or secret.

For example, two years ago, Tel Aviv announced full normalization with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, while it is secretly normalizing with Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman and Mauritania, and has open channels of communication and normalization with Haftar in Libya, and recently with some of Qais diplomats. Said in Tunisia.

It was already printed with Egypt 40 years ago, and with Jordan 3 decades ago.

In other words, nearly half of the Arab countries have relations with Israel, whether covert or overt.

Therefore, we should not be surprised that if the current momentum in the relationship between Israel and the Arab countries continues, Tel Aviv will apply to join the Arab League or the Gulf Cooperation Council, even as an observer, before it asks to become a full member, which means the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. In the interactions of the region will have its aftermath.