Despite being on the receiving end of attacks for three weeks and counting, Gulf Arab leaders are making headlines after making it unmistakably clear they have no intention of seeking a ceasefire with Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has laid mines in the Strait of Hormuz, threatening a chokepoint through which roughly 20 percent of the world's oil supply flows, while simultaneously launching missile and drone strikes against Muslim-majority neighbors across the region. The Gulf states' refusal to stand down reflects a hard-won recognition: Iran's jihadi rulers maintain a hit list far beyond Israel and America, including the model for a peaceful Middle East pioneered by the Abraham Accords.
As a Muslim woman from Egypt, I know the jihadi agenda that Iran represents, having been driven into exile from my home country by the Muslim Brotherhood. Dubai and Tel Aviv represent a different model for the region, one of tolerance and economic opportunity, and important voices in Saudi Arabia have flirted with a similar opening. Unfortunately, I know these forward-looking achievements have one terrible enemy in the region: Tehran.
Iran is proving that far from eternal enemies, Israel, Arab, and Muslim countries must work together as allies to defeat Iranian imperialism and the radicalism of its vanguard, the Palestinian extremist cause, which opposes the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East and endangers any peaceful future for our peoples.
In the first few days of the war, Iran launched thousands of projectiles at surrounding nations, overwhelmingly targeting Muslim countries. Despite occasional rationalizations, the IRGC has since attacked civil infrastructure, including municipalities and utility systems in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Cyprus.
History repeats itself. The last dictator to attempt military domination of the Persian Gulf was Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, with an invasion of the peaceful state of Kuwait in 1990, which, like Iran’s aggression over the last two weeks, was unprovoked. Saddam had previously posed as the defender of the Arabs, just as Iran poses as the protector of the Muslim “resistance” today, despite funding terror proxies that have destabilized the entire region. These attacks on Iran’s neighbors, however, are not just intended to strike American bases in the region. Iran’s blatant aggression against its Muslim neighbors has proved that when the chips are down, the Ayatollahs - like Saddam - seek not to aid, but to control the rest of the Gulf States.
Back in 1990-91, the Arab League rallied to the defense of embattled Kuwait, with the coalition against Saddam endorsed by every member except the unstable Libyan leader Moammar Ghaddafi, and the bête noire of the Middle East, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Once again, the extremist leaders of the Palestinians, freed by their statelessness from the need for responsible politics, have shown themselves not to be friends to their fellow Arabs. In contrast, Israel, seen by previous generations as an “eternal enemy,” has provided technological assistance vital to the Arab nations resisting Iranian aggression, and is actively fighting for the future freedom of the Iranian people.
We know for a fact that Iran’s proxy, Hamas, launched the horrific October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel in order to derail ongoing peace negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Hamas massacred over a thousand civilians, raped women and girls, and took 254 hostages (including 12 Americans), specifically in order to provoke an Israeli military response that would inflame Arab and Muslim opinion against Israel.
The regime of the Ayatollahs is committed to rejecting the modern world and prosperity for their own people, in favor of endless jihad against Israel and the West, exemplified by the official chant, “Death to America.” There is a better path. Since the adoption of the Abraham Accords in 2020 with Bahrain and the UAE as its first signatories, the world has witnessed a better alternative.
The Accords are already well on their way to establishing the projected 4 million new jobs and $1 trillion in economic growth. Gulf nations have become more moderate and peace-seeking, adopting policies and reforms that promote multiculturalism and tolerance and counter religious violence. These changes led to better outcomes, and as moderate Gulf states embraced diplomacy and international commerce, they reaped significant economic gains, improved the quality of life for their citizens, and gained invaluable defensive capabilities from Israel and the United States.
So who has stood with the Arab countries so undeservedly attacked? Israel has been our most effective military ally. Even Qatar, which has posed as a friend to Hamas in the past, has been forced to expel the terror group’s leadership over its pro-Iran stance.
The global pro-Palestinian movement? We find them chanting “hands off Iran,” even screaming this phrase while committing hate crimes against Jews. But they have nothing to say in support of the eight Arab countries, plus Turkey and Azerbaijan, which were attacked by Iran, even though they had taken no action against it.
Far more unites than divides Muslims and Jews. We are both descended from Abraham, the prophet of loving kindness, and it is fitting that the peace efforts that Iran so fears would be named in his honor.
There are two possible futures facing the region. One, the path of the Ayatollahs, involves rejectionist, hateful politics and aggression against smaller countries. The other, the path of Abraham, involved peace, prosperity, and new beginnings. This is the time for the United States to throw its weight behind peacemaking between Israel and its frontline Arab allies. Only together can we end the cycle of violence and build a better future.