In his blog in the French newspaper Le Monde, a historian and expert on Middle East affairs identified 3 parties that he said were the biggest winners in the recent confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians, and 3 other parties he said were the biggest losers.

A professor of Middle East studies at the Institute of Political Science in Paris, Jean-Pierre Feliu, explained that the last round of Israeli-Palestinian clashes, between May 10 and 21, led to the killing of 273 Palestinians - including 25 in the West Bank - and 12 Israelis, and constituted another tragedy for two million people. In the besieged Gaza Strip for 15 years, the shock of the wars: 2008-2009, 2012 and 2014 has exacerbated, so that the Secretary-General of the United Nations said that "if there is hell on earth, it is in the lives of the children of Gaza." Between "winners" and "losers".

The three big winners

Speaking about the winners, Feliu said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was - at midday on May 10 - no more than a Prime Minister suspended from work and unable to form a new government, and facing a tripartite list of charges of fraud, corruption and breach of trust, in addition to To a harsh insult caused to him by the peaceful mobilization of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, which forced him to cancel the Israeli celebrations for the "reunification" of the Holy City.

However, the rocket barrages launched by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and its allies from the Gaza Strip allowed Netanyahu to regain his preferred role, which is the role of defending Israel's security in the face of "terrorists" and in the face of any form of external interference, be it diplomatic, humanitarian or media. Even his unconditional base praised the bombing of foreign media offices in Gaza, without any evidence of Hamas’s presence in the targeted sites.

At the same time - as Filio says - Hamas decided to hijack the symbolic victory of the demonstrators in East Jerusalem, as "defender" of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest of Islamic places. Consequently, it benefited from the tremendous feelings that the Israeli intervention had sparked among the most shocking Palestinian population, because it occurred during the blessed month of Ramadan, which led to the marginalization of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his authority, who believed that they were perpetuating their control over a part of the West Bank by postponing parliamentary elections that were held. It was scheduled to take place on May 22 indefinitely, as has always been the case since the establishment of the Authority in 1987; Therefore, Hamas is the other winner in this confrontation.

For his part, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan succeeded - according to Filio - in portraying himself as the most important leader of the Islamic world "under attack" in the face of Israel's interference in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its bombing of the Gaza Strip, after his criticism of the Israeli attack on Gaza in 2009 earned him tremendous popularity in Turkey. And outside it, because of his departure from the embarrassing silence that his Arab peers adhered to, especially if he added to this his position on the statements of French President Emmanuel Macron in which he defended the "cartoons" offensive to the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace.

The three big losers

As for Professor Filio's talk about the losers, he explained that US President Joe Biden emerged from his first diplomatic crisis weaker than he was, as the whole world expected him to violate the unilateralism practiced by his predecessor Donald Trump, but despite his claim that he controls the Israeli-Palestinian issue, he waited. Long 9 days before calling for a mere "de-escalation."

The writer commented that this harmful combination of unilateralism and passivity could only encourage the continuation of hostilities, marginalize the "moderates" in the region, and increase the humiliation of the United Nations, which the United States prevented from expressing throughout the crisis, so that Washington, behind the scenes, threatened to veto a resolution. A Frenchman in the Security Council calls for a ceasefire, and thus Biden showed that he is still affected by the bitter failure of former US President Barack Obama in this issue, not to mention his failure to adopt a new approach that is more open to his allies.

The European Union appeared - as Filio says - divided and helpless, not exceeding the rank of spectator, in the face of a conflict that has multiple consequences on its territory, and then it is paying the price for his grave mistake by accepting Abbas sabotaging the Palestinian electoral process, and he could have forced him - as the main supporter of the Authority. Palestinian - to vote on the presentation of his mandate, which ended in 2010.

While the US disengagement provided a historic opportunity for the European Union in the Middle East, the foreign ministers of the Union did not meet until 8 long days after the start of the conflict, and even the "trivial" statement they adopted on this occasion was condemned by Hungary, which proves that the Union is losing everything. .

For its part - says Filho - the UAE - which is the third biggest loser - has proven that the peace treaty it concluded last September with Israel was only bilateral, and would not have a positive impact on the Palestinian cause, so that the transformation of the "new Middle East" that was from The "Abrahamic Agreements", with it and with Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, are supposed to be promoted simply as a public relations process.

Thus - Feliu adds - when the moment of seriousness came, Abu Dhabi had to leave mediation between the warring parties to Egypt and Jordan, the two Arab countries that do not prohibit the peace treaty with Israel from establishing relations with Hamas.

Feliu concluded that the lesson learned from that is that Arab-Israeli normalization, in the best case, does not lead to a solution to the conflict, and in the worst case, it makes the matter worse. Consequently, "the time has come to internationalize the Palestinian issue," said journalist Alan Frachon in "Le Monde".