Peloni: Herein lies the truth about the Saudi shift against normalization with Israel, but it also demonstrates a real and substantive flaw in the Abraham Accords. The AA were intended to bring about peace by ignoring the Israeli-Pal issue, making bilateral peace agreements between Sunni states and Israel the focus rather than waiting for the situation with the Pals to be rectified first, something which is impossible due to the terror based leadership and all of society effort at blocking any form of peace with Israel among the Pals. But the Arab street was always something which has and continues to drive the policies of the Sunni states. This dependency of the Sunni states on the Arab states is why Bahrain cut its diplomatic ties with Israel shortly after October 7, and why the UAE argued that Israel should not invade Gaza after October 7 and continues to argue that Hamas should not be destroyed today. It is also why Riyadh will not formalize a commitment to the future upon which MBS has focused the future of his country. Recognizing these facts is useful to the stability of these Sunni states, but it is also useful towards understanding the real obstruction which exists between a more stable region and what exists today, and that is the need to eradicate the control which the Muslim Brotherhood has on the Sunni states. So, as Jonathan Feldstein noted previously, Trump’s move to ban only part of the Muslim Brotherhood is a good start, but it needs the subsequent steps to ban all the Muslim Brotherhood, not just those of less useful powers than Qatar and Turkey.
By: A. Savyon and Yigal Carmon | MEMRI | Feb 17, 2026
25th anniversary of Hamas celebrated in Gaza. By Fars Media Corporation, CC BY 4.0, Wikipedia
In his December 2, 2025 column in the London-based daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Lebanese journalist Nadim Koteich responded to U.S. President Trump’s executive order seeking to designate certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as terrorist organizations. Highlighting the connection between this executive order and the October 7 attack perpetrated by Hamas, which is the Palestinian branch of the MB, Koteich writes that “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” as Hamas calls the attack, did not harm only Israel.
Rather, it harmed the entire region, which was heading towards normalization agreements and collaborations, and thus “shattered the hope” for regional peace and strengthened the movements of political Islam (i.e., the MB) and their efforts to incite against and weaken the Arab nation states. As examples of this, Koteich presents Jordan, which recently uncovered an MB terror infrastructure that fought the country from within, as well as other Arab countries that are targets for MB incitement and accusations of treason. The MB, he writes, does not really want to save the Palestinians, but is merely using their cause to advance its objectives and wage a battle against the Arab nations states, in collaboration with the resistance axis, led by Iran.
The following are translated excerpts from his article:[1]
“President Trump’s executive order designating the branches of the MB movement in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon as terrorist organizations marked the end of a chapter, one that the Western capitals have been refusing to end for decades. The order, which officially drew a connection between the parent organization and its armed branches, is no more than a belated recognition of what the region already knows and has been constantly saying to the world: that the MB is not a reform movement misunderstood by the Arab regimes, but rather a cross-border organization that, along with its allies, uses chaos as a survival strategy and threatens the very foundations of the nation-states in the Arab and Muslim world.
“The important aspect of Trump’s decision is its timing, ahead of the second anniversary of the earth-shattering [outbreak of] the Gaza war and the emergence of the far-reaching region-wide consequences of [Operation] Al-Aqsa Flood – especially the undermining of the possibility of comprehensive regional peace, which the American administration is [now] trying to revive…
“Researchers and historians will argue whether the planners of the October 7, 2023 attack adopted the narrative of resistance and of Palestinian rights in order to thwart [the possibility of] regional peace, which threatened the so-called resistance axis, and whether those events were a strategic mistake that eliminated any change of [achieving] either a Palestinian state or comprehensive peace. But what is certain is that the political climate in the weeks leading up to October 7, 2023 was conducive to regional peace plans involving a strategy of economic normalization and projects for integrating infrastructures and transportation routes spanning Israel, the Arab region, Europe and India.
“Saudi Arabia was not seeking a bilateral agreement [with Israel] but rather the creation of a political and economic turning point to reshape the Middle East based on economy, development and interests, while curbing [extremist] ideology, in order to put the Palestinian cause on a reliable diplomatic path toward a permanent solution, and in order to stop [various parties] that use it for endless indoctrination [efforts]…
“The Al-Aqsa Flood has shattered these hopes for the foreseeable future. Riyadh has not discarded its position that peace with Isael depends on a clear path toward a Palestinian state… What has changed is that normalization, which used to be within reach, is now very distant, and that the leaders of the region are no longer pursuing peace, but rather trying to prevent the MB forces of destruction and the armed organizations, which are [all] supported by [Iran’s] Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, from resuming their exploitation of the Palestinian cause as [a tool for] recruitment and the sowing of discord.
“We must remember that Hamas is not an independent Palestinian faction. It is the Palestinian branch of the MB and the main link between the MB and the regime in Tehran. That is a well-known truth…
“The Al-Aqsa Flood, whether its planners wanted this or not, did not just harm Israel but dealt a severe blow to the regional track which, if successful, would have undermined the validity of political Islam [i.e., the MB] as a discourse and a means. Under the slogan of reviving the Palestinian cause, the architects of the Al-Aqsa Flood revived the [climate of] frustration and discrimination in which the MB flourishes. They exploited the rage and fostered helplessness, using them as a platform for taking political revenge on their traditional enemy: the Arab nation-state. For them, the Palestinian cause is not an end in itself, but a means to shatter the bond between citizen and state and to accuse all the governments of treason.
“What happened in Jordan may be the clearest and most dangerous example of this. In that [country], the protests for Gaza soon turned into calls by the [MB’s political party], the Islamic Action Front, against the regime, which bluntly reflected the essence of the MB strategy: turning every external crisis into a tool for destroying internal stability. In early 2025, Jordan uncovered MB-affiliated cells that had been trained and funded [by elements] in Lebanon. These cells were caught manufacturing rockets and drones and stockpiling explosives to attack targets inside Jordan – not inside Israel – under the pretext of supporting Gaza.
“Other Arab countries were not spared the MB’s incitement efforts either, even countries that extended humanitarian aid to Gaza. Thus, the ones who fed Gaza became traitors against its people, whereas the ones who starved it became the champions of the [Palestinian] cause. This may seem like lack of understanding [on the MB’s part], but it is actually consummate logic. The MB does not want to save the Palestinians; it benefits from keeping them as fuel for its projects.
“In this context, Trump’s decision is not just an American issue. It constitutes recognition that the MB is a built-in obstacle to any reshaping of the region. This obstacle grows [even] more challenging given the shared interests of the MB and the so-called resistance axis. Despite their differing ideologies, both are fighting the same enemy: the stable Arab nation state.”
[1] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), December 2, 2025.
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