"Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar. Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war."

Psalm 120

What we witnessed yesterday in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf is the opposite of this " song of ascents” where the Israeli neighbour to the Arabs is the peace-seeker, while they turn toward war.

In a reversal of biblical verses, the Arab world wants peace, and Israel's face is turned toward war.

The Gulf's Economic Imperative

What happened yesterday? The Gulf states demonstrated a desire to end all wars and focus on economic development alongside the United States, but encountered Israel's refusal to join peace arrangements, insisting instead on going to war.

Why do Arab states, particularly the Gulf nations, want economic development? For two reasons: First, they are aware that oil and gas wealth will not last forever, and they already face many competitors in global markets, including the United States.

They must advance economic development as an alternative to oil wealth, leveraging their current capabilities to continue among the ranks of developed nations for generations to come.

It's worth noting that Gulf states have ceased their aid programs to the Arab world because their trend is to preserve money for domestic investment.

Hence, any commitment to help Gaza must be in the form of a beneficial investment, which is why Saudi Arabia insists that Hamas be disarmed before it puts a single dinar toward Gaza's development.

The Iranian Threat and Defence Needs

This is one matter. Another is the threat from Iran. Saudi Arabia was hit by missiles from Iran and the Houthis and needs a defence umbrella. This could have been Israel’s advanced systems, as part of peace and normalization with Saudi Arabia, but she missed this opportunity for the known reasons, and hopefully not permanently.

In the absence of a defence umbrella from Iranian and Houthi missile threats, Saudi Arabia seeks an economic defence umbrella—it will not only invest a trillion dollars in the American economy but also attract strategic investments from American companies, which would serve as their defence umbrella against the Iranian threat. An attack on them would constitute an attack on American interests.

This isn't enough, but it's something, and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf still need Israeli technology.

The Gaza War's Economic Impact

Hence the importance of ending the Gaza war. Continued warfare reflects poorly on economic development and investment willingness. Economic Saudi Arabia wants a different image of the Middle East—not one of religious fanaticism and anarchy, but of stability and an invitation for economic investment.

While the Arab world wants to shake off political Islam—namely the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, and their ilk—Israel is moving in the opposite direction, sinking into political Judaism that is taking shape these days in the form of their Muslim Brotherhood counterparts. Political Judaism is what the verse says about us: "I"—the Arabs—"am for peace, but when I speak, they"—the Jews—"are for war."

Qatar vs. Saudi Arabia: Different Approaches

However, when we speak of "Gulf states," they are not a monolithic bloc. The main difference is between Qatar on one side and Saudi Arabia with the Gulf emirates on the other.

This was expressed in "gifts" to Trump—while Saudi Arabia committed to investing in the American economy, Qatar gave him a plane. In other words: Saudi Arabia and the Gulf are pursuing economic development; Qatar is pursuing bribery. Did we say QatarGate?

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf partners want stability; Qatar sows chaos. The special relationship between Israel and Qatar makes Israel suspect of joining hands with Qatar to destabilize regional stability, to implement Smotrich's "Decisive Plan," which involves transferring Palestinians amid regional chaos. I've heard from senior Egyptian sources heavy concerns that Israel and Qatar together are undermining Egyptian stability. This is what stands behind the deterioration of Israeli-Egyptian relations.

Al-Jazeera's Role in Regional Tensions

The inciting broadcast station causing Arab chaos is Al-Jazeera, and Israel's role in this alliance is to provide Al-Jazeera with images of horror from Gaza.

Therefore, Qatar actually promoted Netanyahu's position in negotiations to divide the release of hostages into small batches, not all at once, to prolong the war, contrary to the position of all other Arab states to complete the deal in one stroke.

Regarding Hamas, while Hamas-Qatar's position was indeed also to complete the deal at once and end the war, ultimately, they aligned with Qatar to divide the deal into batches.

Recent Diplomatic Signals

Therefore, Qatar's part in the general reconciliation was to end Al-Jazeera's inciting broadcasts, and before Trump's arrival, there were indeed signals from Qatar in this direction. Suddenly, horrific images from Gaza stopped, and even Al-Jazeera restrained itself and didn't cover Ben-Gvir's provocation with the sacrifice on the Temple Mount—a quality incitement event in the Arab world that could have brought masses to the streets.

In the spirit of goodwill to reduce if not end horrific images, Abu Mazen cancelled the ban on Al-Jazeera broadcasts in the West Bank, apparently after a promise not to incite Palestinians against him.

The Urgent Need to End the War

Hence the urgent interest of Arab states to end the war—to stop the flow of emotionally charged coverage. Israelis don't know what this is about because we don't broadcast it here, and we have no idea what's happening in Gaza.

Anyone who followed Al-Jazeera during Trump's visit could see there was no coverage at all of the talks in Riyadh, except for the magnificent press conference, while the talks in Doha were detailed and focused on two issues—the meeting with Jolani and the hostage deal. All other matters related to talks with Saudi Arabia were pushed to the sidelines. In other words: there's still no reconciliation between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and part of Saudi Arabia's difficulty with us is that they link us with Qatar's schemes.

Competing Pipeline Projects

This raises amazement because in the economic context, Gulf states want to connect the oil pipeline through Israel to Europe, while Qatar wants to stretch the pipeline through Saudi Arabia and Jordan to Jolani's Syria, and from there to Turkey. Israel is shooting itself in the foot.

It's worth noting that in the meeting between Trump and Jolani, the U.S. President told him that Syria must join the Abraham Accords—meaning: Saudi Arabia will help rehabilitate Syria, but the oil pipeline won't pass through you to Turkey, but rather from the Gulf to Israel.

Qatar's plan threatens Saudi Arabia and Jordan because it requires revolutions in them in the Jolani style in Syria, and we've already seen the beginning of Muslim Brotherhood threats against the regime in Jordan.

Israel's Self-Defeating Strategy

Why doesn't Israel want to reap the fruits of the dramatic moves in the Middle East? Because for the first time in its history, it's going to war against its most urgent interests, due to an agreement between coalition partners.

One could say that opposite the Trump-bin Salman axis stands the Netanyahu-Ben-Gvir axis. Which axis will prevail?

Smotrich's Decisive Plan is designed to affect a transfer to make room for settlements. Anyone following the nature of the IDF's fighting in Gaza now cannot fail to notice that it's concentrated in Jabaliya, pressuring Palestinians to move south, supposedly to aid distribution areas not through UNRWA but in designated aid compounds funded by Qatar.

Israel attributes the plan to Witkoff, but that's spin, of course. According to the intentions of the American company designated to manage aid, aid areas will be in all parts of the Strip, not just in the south, and one can assume this issue was also among the difficulties in reaching an agreement in Doha.

The Balance of Power

So which scale will prevail—Saudi Arabia's scale wanting the deal and ending the war to focus on economics, or Qatar's scale wanting to disrupt the economy and increase chaos?

Trump has the solutions.