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Source: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/hussein-aboubakr/post-palestine-middle-east/
A Post-Palestine Middle East
(Commentary) Hussein Aboubakr - When I was a 14-year-old jihadist wannabe in Cairo in 2013, all I needed to hear was the word "Palestine" in order to pledge my immediate unconditional loyalty to whoever was speaking. Palestine was never merely a disputed geographical territory; it was the Arab dream, the beating heart of Islam. To evoke Palestine was to evoke Islamic brotherhood and Arab honor. Much has changed in the past decade, however, and we are now entering the age of a post-Palestine Middle East. The United Arab Emirates has inaugurated the end of the long Arab march toward self-destruction and catastrophe that has devastated the region. Into a post-Islamist future, Islamism and its ideological and theological foundations will gradually become obsolete along with the fantastical cause that Islamists once so highly revered. This transition will be painful and it will take time. Remnants of Palestine-era politics will continue to live on; the two largest examples are the bellicosity of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the hegemonic ambitions of Turkey. But as the emerging Middle Eastern order develops strategies for mutual security, it will be better able to isolate and contain the threats posed by both countries. Political reality is merely catching up to what is already understood in Middle Eastern society. Palestine lost its centrality with the advent of the Arab Spring and the Syrian civil war.