“Promoting Chaos and Sustaining Occupation”: The US-Israeli Hegemony Project in the Middle East

All eyes continue to be on the Middle East, where events are intertwined in a way that reflects a long-term project aimed at redrawing the geopolitical map of the region, especially what is happening today in Idlib and Aleppo, with the escalation of holocausts in Gaza, and after what happened to Lebanon, in a way that serves the interests of the United States and Israel. This project, which is based on sustaining chaos, destabilizing nation states, and liquidating our national cause, is gaining new momentum in light of the rapid developments in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, with the direct threats they pose to other countries such as Jordan.

What is happening today is not just a passing escalation or a set of separate events, but rather an extension of an intertwined American-Israeli strategic vision that seeks to create a new Middle East, based on fragmenting countries and transforming them into fragile entities that are unable to resist hegemony. This vision is not a recent one, but was entrenched with the announcement by the United States and Israel of previous projects such as the so-called Arab Spring, and what Condoleezza Rice announced two decades ago regarding the new Middle East and organized chaos, then the “Deal of the Century,” and later the Middle East NATO, and last but not least, it seems, the aggression against Lebanon and the crimes taking place in Palestine. All of these projects aimed and continue to aim to liquidate our Palestinian national cause in a way that serves Israeli hegemony and the Zionist project, and normalization with Arab countries at the expense of the essence of our cause, which is considered a fundamental step towards reshaping the regional balance of power.

In Gaza, the features of this vision are still evident in its ugliest forms. The genocidal operations and the total destruction of infrastructure are not merely military responses to what happened on October 7 a year ago, but rather reflect a deliberate strategy aimed at exhausting and aborting the Palestinian resistance, and creating a new reality that turns the Strip into an isolated and unlivable area.

Through its aggression, Israel seeks to achieve several strategic goals. On the one hand, it aims to perpetuate the internal Palestinian conflict, and on the other hand, it seeks to re-establish direct occupation and settlement or impose strict control that excludes any resistance presence in Gaza and works to divide and isolate it. This aggression cannot be separated from Israel’s desire to use the Strip as a pressure card to impose its vision in the region, whether through attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause once and for all or to turn the people of Gaza into refugees pushed towards Sinai or what Israel calls the “alternative homeland” in Jordan.

In Syria and Lebanon, the signs of the directed chaos that the United States and Israel are working to ignite and support are clearly evident. The return of support for the armed Takfiri and terrorist groups in Idlib, Aleppo and northern Syria now, and the almost daily Israeli attacks on their territories, aim to cut off Iranian supply lines to Syria and Lebanon, and keep the Syrian state in a state of permanent weakness, which prevents any return to its stability or the restoration of its full sovereignty over its lands or its supposed role in the region after the official Arab regime returned to it and it regained its position in the Arab League.

In Lebanon, the recent Israeli aggression reflected an attempt to undermine the Lebanese resistance represented by Hezbollah, which is one of Israel's most prominent strategic challenges in the region. Israel realizes that any stability in Lebanon may strengthen the position of the resistance and the unity of the Lebanese national position, so it seeks to keep the country in a state of political and economic tension, stir up internal unrest among the political parties, and play on the sectarian chord after failing to achieve its declared goals and suffering heavy human, military, and economic losses.

With the escalation of chaos in the region, Jordan emerges as a potential target in the American-Israeli project. Jordan’s geographical location, its strategic role in the Palestinian cause, and its support for it make it a sensitive axis in any plan to reshape the region.

The economic and political pressures that Jordan is facing, in addition to attempts to incite Takfiri groups to threaten internal security, are not isolated from this project. The United States and Israel realize that destabilizing Jordan may serve multiple goals, including increasing pressure on us Palestinians, and attempts to push us towards political options that serve an Israeli Zionist and religious vision of what is known as the “alternative homeland,” especially after the recent talk about a Palestinian state in northeastern Jordan and part of Iraqi territory by religious Zionist extremists.

In this context, the question arises about the role of the various American administrations in promoting this vision. The Trump administration, in particular during his previous term, showed a clear bias towards Israel, and a distinct dedication to strengthening the strategic partnership, and sought to accelerate the implementation of the New Middle East Project. By recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, pressing for the normalization of relations with Arab countries, and implementing the "Deal of the Century", the Trump administration provided unprecedented support for achieving Israel's goals in the region.

Now, Trump is likely to continue these policies through the Deal of the Century 2, and the unprecedented push to implement Saudi-Israeli normalization, but in a more aggressive manner, as he believes. Trump believes that promoting chaos and supporting Israel absolutely are the way to ensure American hegemony in our region in the face of rising Chinese and Russian influence and to contain the Iranian role in the absence of a unified Arab project.

Israel, for its part, is exploiting this chaos to achieve long-term strategic gains. It seeks to transform areas into permanent bases of influence, as is the case in Iraqi Kurdistan and Azerbaijan, where it is working to build new alliances that will strengthen its regional presence.

This strategy relies on transforming the countries of the region into weak and divided entities, allowing Israel to establish its hegemony and expand its influence without facing major threats.

But this strategy carries with it great risks, not only for the stability of the region, but also for international peace and security. Systematic chaos may lead to the escalation of conflicts and their transformation into comprehensive wars that are difficult to contain, especially with the ongoing proxy war against Russia through Ukraine.

Therefore, this stage requires a unified regional vision and a strong Palestinian and Arab political will to confront this project to impose a cessation of aggression on Gaza as part of the one Palestinian homeland. The countries of the region must adopt a counter-strategy based on resisting these projects and strengthening regional Arab and Islamic alliances, and even with friendly countries, especially China and Russia, and supporting the Arab countries targeted by these wars and chaos, and what the occupation will work on in terms of the annexation project of most of the West Bank. Only through this approach can the vicious cycle of chaos be broken and the plans aimed at changing the political and geographical maps of the Middle East be thwarted.