Heating Up the Region

It is no coincidence that the Middle East is witnessing the escalation we are seeing today. Once it became known that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet U.S. President Donald Trump the day after tomorrow—as announced by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office—the mounting tensions appeared almost as though they were setting the stage for that meeting.

As if the region's unprecedented summer heat were not enough for its weary peoples, political and military tensions have now added another layer of unbearable pressure. The escalation is no longer confined to Iran's indiscriminate missile attacks targeting Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan. It has expanded far beyond the confrontation between Tehran and those three countries, all of which continue to face what can only be described as reckless Iranian aggression.

The Houthi movement, acting under the direction of the Supreme Leader's government in Tehran, has intensified its attacks against Saudi Arabia with remarkable confidence, as though it had received a green light from a powerful sponsor. After the Saudi-led coalition struck legitimate Houthi military targets in Yemen's port of Hodeidah, the Houthis retaliated by attacking targets inside the Kingdom, declaring that any escalation would be met with an equivalent response.

This raises unavoidable questions. Where do the Houthis obtain the missiles they use to strike their targets? Who, precisely, has provided them with the capability not only to threaten Saudi vessels, but to actually attack one in the Red Sea and set it ablaze? And why has all of this occurred at this particular moment?

The escalation extends to the occupied West Bank, where a large-scale Israeli military operation continues to unfold. Palestinian casualties have mounted, with settlers killing and injuring increasing numbers of civilians. The situation has become so extreme that Israel's far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has openly called for replicating in the West Bank what has taken place in Gaza.

The wave of tension has also spread westward toward Tunisia, where developments increasingly suggest that unseen hands are deliberately fanning the flames and pouring fuel onto the fire. Wherever one looks across the region, the same pattern emerges: escalation has become the defining dynamic, spreading from one hotspot to another like a contagion that recognizes neither borders nor restraints. The examples cited here represent only a fraction of a much broader picture.

Against this backdrop, the forthcoming meeting between Trump and Netanyahu appears closely intertwined with the current wave of regional escalation, as though the mounting tensions themselves are preparing the ground for its outcomes.

For anyone willing to observe objectively, one conclusion becomes increasingly evident: countries that have relied on external powers for their security have repeatedly discovered the limits of such expectations. No nation can ultimately be protected except by its own people, and no government can rely on a stronger source of legitimacy than the support of its own citizens. Everything else is little more than a mirage—one that inevitably fades away.

Time will tell.

Originally published in Al Masry Al Youm