If war is the continuation of politics by other means and every conflict is a symptom of a deeper unresolved contradiction, the violence of the past year – as well as the current direct confrontation between Israel and Iran – are the result of two deep and unresolved political problems.
These are the denial of Palestinians’ basic rights amid long-term Israeli occupation and Iran’s rejection of the basic rules of international law, as well as its insistence on maintaining a string of militias in broken Arab states from Lebanon to Yemen.
A Middle East in which a secure Palestine and Israel live side by side, embedded in a harmonious Arab and Muslim world, as well as an Iran that has pivoted away from its interventionist foreign policy to focus on the security and welfare of its own people, is a Middle East that would be on the road to true stability and prosperity.
Is this a pipe dream, or does every crisis indeed create an opportunity? Are these goals too big to pursue, or the only ones worth pursuing? Can leaders pursue such large visions? I believe they can and many in the region have done so before. Indeed, what the region needs is a Vision 2030 for the Middle East. Below are two key elements of a bold way forward.
A two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was largely dead before October 7, and had only minority support in Israel. After October 7, Israeli public opinion has dramatically hardened against it. At the same time, the devastation of the past year has brought the Palestinian issue back to the forefront of regional public opinion; Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan recently made clear that the kingdom would not proceed with normalisation without a resolution to it.
Although Israel has been scoring battlefield victories – at great human cost – against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, it also does not have a rational or sustainable plan for the day after in Gaza and the West Bank, other than reinforced occupation and oppression. But this is not a secure and successful plan for Israel in the 21st century, let alone for Palestinians who will not leave their ancestral lands.
Israel can use its reinforced military superiority to re-establish and intensify the unsustainable conditions of the status quo, or it can forge a new way from a position of confidence and regional partnership in which the Palestinians are offered a political path forward rather than the destructive options of repression or extremism.
Progress requires regional engagement with Israeli figures of all stripes to emphasise the alternative future that lies before us, and engagement with Palestinians to find a route to rebuilding political legitimacy and institutions
Such a pathway will not come from Washington or other global capitals – it must be built in this region. It requires regional engagement with Israeli figures of all stripes to emphasise the alternative future that lies before us, and engagement with Palestinians to find a route to rebuilding political legitimacy and institutions. This is critical to building the framework for a Palestinian state, one that is not penetrated by Iranian or other armed non-state actors outside legitimate Palestinian institutions.
Up until three weeks ago, Iran was doing well. One of its minor proxies, Hamas, had dealt Israel the most crushing blow in its recent history, and Hezbollah – its main ally – was holding Israel to a prolonged retaliatory war across the Lebanese-Israeli border. But since September 17, Israel has dealt a staggering blow to Hezbollah, robbing Iran of its main proxy deterrent; Israel is now taking the war directly to Tehran.
Since the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, Tehran has fought its battles far away from its borders through proxy wars in Arab lands. With Israel’s blow against Hezbollah, and the rage in Israel since October 7, that strategy is failing. There are two pathways ahead: either the war between Israel and Iran escalates out of hand to engulf both countries or the crisis creates an opportunity for political exits that would avoid further escalation and put the region on a sounder footing.
Iran has no interest in an all-out war with Israel, especially one in which US forces are already deployed to play a strong supportive role. It has already largely lost both Hamas and Hezbollah as effective deterrents against Israel. President Masoud Pezeshkian and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are aware of young Iranians’ sentiment and their need for a positive future.
As with Israel, there is scope for continued regional engagement with Tehran to show that Iran has a secure and prosperous future in the Middle East, but that maintaining its policies of permanently violating the sovereignty of Arab states and open-ended hostility to Israel and the US – with or without a two-state solution – is neither working nor sustainable.
Big conflicts require big solutions and big solutions require long-term vision and commitment. Israel and the region will not know long-term security and prosperity without according the Palestinian people their rights. Iran will not know security and prosperity without respecting the rights of Arab states and international law. Nor will it build a future for its people with the dreams of ideological or imperial fanatics. The region has thought big before; now is the moment to do so again.
Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
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The specs
Engine: 8.0-litre, quad-turbo 16-cylinder
Transmission: 7-speed auto
0-100kmh 2.3 seconds
0-200kmh 5.5 seconds
0-300kmh 11.6 seconds
Power: 1500hp
Torque: 1600Nm
Price: Dh13,400,000
On sale: now
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
Ten10 Cricket League
Venue and schedule Sharjah Cricket Stadium, December 14 to 17
Teams
Maratha Arabians Leading player: Virender Sehwag; Top picks: Mohammed Amir, Imad Wasim; UAE players: Shaiman Anwar, Zahoor Khan
Bengal Lions Leading player: Sarfraz Ahmed; Top picks: Sunil Narine, Mustafizur Rahman; UAE players: Mohammed Naveed, Rameez Shahzad
Kerala Kings Leading player: Eoin Morgan; Top picks: Kieron Pollard, Sohail Tanvir; UAE players: Rohan Mustafa, Imran Haider
Pakhtoons Leading player: Shahid Afridi; Top picks: Fakhar Zaman, Tamim Iqbal; UAE players: Amjad Javed, Saqlain Haider
Punjabi Legends Leading player: Shoaib Malik; Top picks: Hasan Ali, Chris Jordan; UAE players: Ghulam Shabber, Shareef Asadullah
Team Sri Lanka Cricket Will be made up of Colombo players who won island’s domestic limited-overs competition
So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
'Panga'
Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill, Yagya Bhasin, Neena Gupta
Rating: 3.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
2020 Oscars winners: in numbers
- Parasite – 4
- 1917– 3
- Ford v Ferrari – 2
- Joker – 2
- Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood – 2
- American Factory – 1
- Bombshell – 1
- Hair Love – 1
- Jojo Rabbit – 1
- Judy – 1
- Little Women – 1
- Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl) – 1
- Marriage Story – 1
- Rocketman – 1
- The Neighbors' Window – 1
- Toy Story 4 – 1
Score
New Zealand 266 for 9 in 50 overs
Pakistan 219 all out in 47.2 overs
New Zealand win by 47 runs
New Zealand lead three-match ODI series 1-0
Next match: Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi, Friday
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
'The worst thing you can eat'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
PROFILE OF CURE.FIT
Started: July 2016
Founders: Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori
Based: Bangalore, India
Sector: Health & wellness
Size: 500 employees
Investment: $250 million
Investors: Accel, Oaktree Capital (US); Chiratae Ventures, Epiq Capital, Innoven Capital, Kalaari Capital, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Piramal Group’s Anand Piramal, Pratithi Investment Trust, Ratan Tata (India); and Unilever Ventures (Unilever’s global venture capital arm)
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
