How to deradicalize Gaza

Muslim countries have a key role to play in deradicalizing the strip

Defeating Jihadism is essential if rebuilding Gaza is to be a success.

Mainstream media is focused on Israel’s diplomatic isolation, but the real story is not how upset Western leaders are with the Jewish state, but how pragmatic key Arab ones are.

Diplomacy takes place behind closed doors more than on the floor of the ineffectual United Nations. While Western leaders are having performative seizures, modernizing Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are talking a different game. They may be dismayed at the death toll in the Israel-Gaza War, but they have told Israel clearly that they would like to see Hamas destroyed, and that they will help rebuild Gaza after the war, including financing it.

It has hardly been remarked upon, but Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy is now more modern, moderate, and forward-looking than the Dominion of Canada, the Republic of Ireland, the Federative Republic of Brazil, and the Failed State of South Africa.