Why Does the Middle East Need an Inclusive Regional Paradigm?


Why Does the Middle East Need an Inclusive Regional Paradigm?

posted on: Jun 25, 2025

By: Ghassan Rubeiz / Arab America Contributing Writer

President Trump’s decision to join Israel in military strikes against Iran has significantly altered the regional geopolitical landscape, but eventually not in the way Washington intended. Rather than forcing Tehran into submission through the surgical destruction of three nuclear facilities with bunker-busting munitions, these attacks may, in the long run, have intensified an already dangerous cycle of escalation that threatens to consume the entire Middle East. Despite the sudden emergence of a Trump-imposed shaky ceasefire between Iran and Israel, the prevailing strategy of Israeli military dominance represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what this volatile region actually needs to achieve enduring stability.

The current approach treats Iran as a pariah state that must be punished and isolated until it capitulates to Israeli and Western demands:  abandoning its nuclear program, dismantling its missile capabilities, and severing ties with allied groups in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen. This strategy assumes that military pressure alone can force a proud nation with millennia of history and culture to abandon what it considers its legitimate security interests. Such thinking is not merely naïve; it is dangerously counterproductive.

Iran’s resilience should not be underestimated. Despite suffering much loss through the defeats of its allied resistance groups, and direct confrontation with Israel, Tehran has been humbled but not broken. The regime will likely regroup and remobilize. Peace is not on our doorsteps.

Equally troubling is the growing speculation about regime change in Tehran, while similar discussions about Israeli leadership have apparently vanished from diplomatic discourse. The obsession with changing individual leaders or political systems misses the fundamental point: sustainable stability cannot be imposed through force, nor can it emerge from the hegemonic dominance of any single state, regardless of its military superiority or technological advantages.

What the Middle East desperately needs may not be the smartest leaders or much improved political systems, but a comprehensive regional security framework that includes all nations of the region, without exception. The illusion that Iran’s tactical defeat will smooth the path for Israel to expand the Abraham Accords—creating a Sunni-dominated coalition that deliberately excludes Shiite Iran—represents a dangerous miscalculation that will only deepen sectarian divisions and guarantee future conflict.

Effective regional security systems need not demand perfection from member states. Instead, they should provide a framework within which each nation can evolve at its own pace, addressing internal challenges while contributing to collective stability. In today’s Middle East, the paralyzing fear of implementing necessary reforms—whether citing religious convictions, cultural sensitivities or concerns about regional reactions—has become a primary obstacle to meaningful progress toward democracy.

Washington’s strategy of transforming Israel into a regional superpower capable of reshaping the Middle East through technological superiority is morally and politically flawed. Despite its military prowess, Israel remains a geographically small and internally divided state. Ironically, it is the threat of its neighbors, rather than a common national vision, which keeps it united and militant. Israel’s actions have rendered Gaza uninhabitable and ungovernable, yet it cannot escape responsibility for the humanitarian, demographic and political reality of the Palestinian question.

Moreover, Israeli leaders cannot take for granted indefinite and unwavering US support. The United States faces its own mounting ideological, domestic divisions and a spiraling national debt that will increasingly constrain its ability to project power globally. Both Israel and the United States may face their own political reckonings, just as Iran confronts rising internal and external pressures.

The region will continue its destructive spiral as long as it rejects the fundamental principle of inclusive regional security. The time has come to abandon the demonization of both Iran and Israel—not because either state is without fault, but because both are pursuing security through mutually exclusive strategies that encourage perpetual conflict. Iran views Israel as an illegitimate, settler- colonial entity that should never have been founded, while Israel sees Iran as a tyrannical, hostile, regime that must be dismantled. Each side possesses enough dysfunction to convince itself that eliminating the other is both necessary and possible. Each side claims to have the solution and the problem is caused by the enemy. Yet neither side has the capacity to achieve its narcistic goals.

The harsh reality is that competitive, zero-sum strategic thinking has reached its limits. No amount of military pressure, economic sanctions, or diplomatic isolation will force either side to abandon what it considers to be its existential interests. The answer lies not in the pursuit of individual strategic dominance, but in the recognition that true security can only emerge from a regional, collective framework that acknowledges the legitimate security concerns of all member nations.

This requires a pronounced paradigm shift from the current approach of exclusion and confrontation to one of inclusion and collective security. Such a transformation will demand enormous political courage from leaders who have built their careers on conflict and mutual antagonism. The question remains whether Trump, Netanyahu, and Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei possess the vision and will to break free from the destructive patterns that have defined their respective approaches to regional security. The alternative—continued escalation toward a potentially catastrophic regional war—makes this transformation not merely desirable, but essential for the survival of the Middle East as we know it.

Ghassan Rubeiz is the former Middle East Secretary of the World Council of Churches. Earlier, he taught psychology and social work in his country of birth, Lebanon, and later in the United States, where he currently lives. He has contributed to political commentary for the past twenty years and delivered occasional public talks on peace, justice, and interfaith subjects. You can reach him at rubeizg@gmail.com

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America. The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.

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