Abdel Bari Atwan warns that the aggressive policies of the United States and Israel have pushed the Middle East to the brink of a new crisis, raising fears of a prolonged and destabilizing conflict.
The fragile ceasefire in Gaza has once again brought global attention to the underlying dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the broader power struggle shaping the Middle East. While the temporary truce has halted the immediate bloodshed, questions about its sustainability, reconstruction, and accountability continue to dominate regional discourse.
In this context, Abdel Bari Atwan, the renowned Palestinian-British journalist and editor-in-chief of Rai al-Youm, offers a critical perspective on Israel’s motives, the role of the United States, and the future of Gaza. Speaking to Me News Agency, Atwan described the ceasefire as “very fragile” and warned that Israel’s history of violating agreements leaves little hope for lasting peace.
Atwan’s remarks shed light on the intersection of politics, economy, and power that drives Israel’s policies. From the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure to the geopolitical ambition of creating a “Greater Israel,” his analysis underscores the deep-rooted challenges facing any genuine peace initiative in the region.
Below is text of Mehr News Agency's intreview with Abdel Bari Atwan;
1. In your opinion, how durable is this ceasefire? Considering Israel's past violation of ceasefire agreements, do you forsee the possibility of renewed attacks once the prisoner exchange phase is completed?
I believe this ceasefire is very fragile, simply because Israel has never been trusted. We have a lot of agreement, ceasefire agreements before and exchange of hostages and prisoners, but it never worked at all. Look at what's happening in Lebanon after more than eight months of the ceasefire, Israel violated this ceasefire more than 5,000 times and they are raiding Lebanon and killing people nearly every day there.
So I believe the same experience could be repeated in Gaza. We would see today about nine people were killed by the Israeli raids in Gaza after the ceasefire. So those people [Israelis] actually, they never respected their word on not killing people, whether in Lebanon, whether in Yemen, whether in Gaza, whether in the West Bank. So personally, I'm not really optimistic.
2. What do you see as the main challenges to Gaza reconstruction and which actors are likely to shape this process?
I believe the reconstruction will be a very complicated phase the conflict in Gaza, because it is more than that, Gaza is completely destroyed. Israel destroyed about 95% of the houses and of the towers of buildings in Gaza. People are homeless here. More than 2 million people are completely homeless.
The question is, is Israel going to let this construction to take place? And the second question is, who will pay for that?
It is a drastic position here. Israel destroyed and asked the Arabs to actually finance this construction, which could cost more than 700 billion dollars. So it is very, very early to talk about the construction. We are only in phase one of this ceasefire. So I think Israel again will violate this agreement, this ceasefire, and I wouldn't be surprised. They will come back and reoccupy Gaza again.
The most important thing here is that they are protected by the American administration. The American administration gave the Israelis the green light to destroy Gaza. And we have the genocide war, the starvation war. So as long as the Americansare taking the Israeli side, which I believe they will continue encouraging the Israelis to continue the genocide and the moral starvation, I believe the reconstruction may be just a word without any credibility at all.
I think the most important thing now is to save the Palestinian people in Gaza from genocide, from destruction, from starvation, and also to let the humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. People are really starving, really starving there. So the priority now is to keep those people alive and to stop the genocide and stop the starvation, and then we can talk about the reconstruction.
3. In your opinion, how has the recent wave of recognition of the Palestinian statehood influenced the political landscape surrounding Gaza? Can international opinion realistically constrain Israel from now on?
The most important thing at this stage is to maintain the ceasefire. Talking about a two-state solution or an independent Palestinian state I believe is not discussed anymore now. The United States, which sponsors this ceasefire and the so-called peace plan, does not recognize the two-state solution and a Palestinian independent state. Trump several times said he is not going to accept any independent Palestinian state, and he was against all of the the movements for a durable ceasefire and druable solution for the Israeli-Arab conflict. So this is the problem.
I believe, yes, the Palestinian would like to have their own independent state, not only in the West Bank and Gaza, but all over Palestine. All over Palestine is our country. But the problem is that the Israelis is not looking only to keep the occupied Palestine in 1948. No, they want actually the greater Israel to be established on the account of the Palestinians, the whole of Palestine, and also most of the Arab countries like Syria, Lebanon, part of Saudi Arabia, part of Iraq, part of Egypt. So this is, this is the problem and we should look at that. Israel would like to control the whole of the Middle East. They want to reshape the Middle East.
They want actually also want to destroy the Iranian infrastructure, military infrastructure, and also the nuclear infrastructure. So I think we should, we have to be very careful when we look at this. Israel attacked Iran, and the US actually bombed the nuclear establishment of Iran. So we have to be very careful. I believe that America and Israel are not looking for peace. They are expert in destruction, not construction. And they are expert on imposing sanctions against people and creating internal problems to the most of Middle Eastern countries, including Iran and Lebanon and Syria, and Egypt. We know what happened to these countries, and we have to be extremely cautious, extremely alert to face any Israeli plan to occupy the whole of the Middle East and to establish a greater Israel.
4. When the dust settles, is there a realistic possibility that Israeli political leaders face accountabilty for war crimes?
Israel’s leaders aim to eliminate all Palestinians. As Trump said, they want to establish a “Middle Eastern Riviera” on Gaza. Gaza is very rich of also oil fields. And Israel and the Trump are looking to make billions and hundreds of billions of dollars from Gaza, and they want to actually evacuate all the residents of Gaza in order to establish this Riviera.
So I believe they are going to carry out this wicked plan in installments, gradually. So now they are saying to the Palestinians that we have a ceasefire. After that, they will find excuses in order to violate ceasefire. And after that, they use these excuses in order to break the isolation that is imposed on Israel by the international community. I think Trump is working for the interest of Israel and also for his own interest, as a broker, as a real estate broker. So I think it is an an opportunity for him or for his companies and for his entourage to evacuate the people of Gaza and to create a huge business there. They are looking for real estate business. They want to make money out of the Arab world and also on the account of the people of Gaza.
Final remarks
I believe the Middle East is still on the edge of war. As long as this American president actually is there, he is not a president of peace. He is a president of war, and he came in order to make Israel greater both inside and also in power. He gave Israel 26 billion dollars and he removed all the embargo on sophisticated weapons. This means more war to come. And as I said, he has actually planned executing and carrying out his plan gradually. So we have to be again very aware and very careful. And those people, once they believe that there will be a Middle Eastern force which can counter them, which can actually punish them, I believe they will turn to negotiation. But as long as now they know actually there is no force to confront them, I think the Middle East will be unstable, maybe for tens of years, maybe hundreds of years to come.
Re: Israel vs Palestine/Lebanon/Iran/Yemen/Syria: a New Middle East War
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