Loading ...We Need Justice-Based Peace, Not Diplomatic Accords
By: Ghassan Rubeiz / Arab America Contributing Writer
The dust has barely settled over Iran’s bombed nuclear facilities, yet voices are already heralding a “new opportunity” for Middle East peace. In a troubling example, renowned British journalist Adam LeBor argues that “the humbling of Iran” opens pathways for peace agreements. Such analysis reveals a dangerous blind spot in Western discourse: the assumption that removing one “awful” adversary will solve the region’s deeper structural injustices.
LeBor’s argument positions Iran as the primary obstacle to peace while sidestepping Israel’s aggressive conduct in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. The Palestinian struggle — the region’s longest-running and most destabilizing conflict — is reduced to a sideshow.
This “what next for the Middle East” analysis demands correction: what is needed is attention to root causes, promotion of coexistence, respect for international law, and inclusion of all regional states in peacemaking.
The Palestinian question cannot be wished away through military force. Gaza has shown that Palestinians will not be ethnically cleansed—they remain steadfast on their land, regardless of Israel’s military supremacy or Iran’s weakened position. Arab solidarity with Palestinian resistance transcends Hamas or any single organization.
Even if Hamas were completely defeated, Palestinian resistance would evolve, potentially focusing more effectively on civil disobedience and international law advocacy. From university campuses to workplaces across the Arab world, Europe, and the United States, the movement to hold Israel accountable to international humanitarian law will persist and grow.
Since 1978, peace efforts have produced successive pacification accords rather than genuine justice-based agreements: Camp David, Oslo, and the Abraham Accords. These deals managed conflicts without resolving root causes. The region desperately needs peace agreements that address fundamental injustices.
The occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem has brutalized Palestinians and morally and politically embroiled Israel itself. This occupation alienates Israel from the Arab world and increasingly from the international community, creating a festering wound that time cannot heal. It fractures Israeli society between peace advocates and territorial expansionists while empowering fundamentalists on all sides. A process enabling Palestinians to exercise their human rights would simultaneously liberate Israelis from their moral and political shackles.
The emergence of Israel and Iran as rival regional hegemons has created a destructive cold war dynamic, splitting Middle Eastern states into competing spheres of influence. True regional stability requires not the humbling of Iran or humiliation of Israel, but establishing peace between them. A secure Iran has no desperate need for regional intervention; similarly, a secure Israel would be satisfied with reasonable borders and political ambitions.
Iranian democratization is likely to occur through engagement, not isolation. Paradoxically, Iranian society could more easily challenge its authoritarian system once external pressures diminish through peace with Israel. An angry, punished, and isolated Iran strengthens revolutionary hardliners while weakening moderate voices.
Iranians yearn for democratic governance and may envision eventual peace, but with a progressive Israel. The recent bombing campaign may have temporarily set back Tehran’s nuclear capabilities, but it has done nothing to address the fundamental injustices that destabilize the region. In fact, some argue that after the Israel- Iran war we are closer to a nuclear threat than before.
The choice before policymakers is stark: continue the cycle of military interventions and hollow peace processes that have failed for decades, or finally commit to building agreements based on human rights, international law, and preservation of dignity. The former path leads to more suffering; the latter leads to genuine peace. The question is not whether Iran has been sufficiently “humbled,” but whether the international community has finally learned that lasting peace cannot be bombed into existence—it must be built on foundations of justice.
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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