12-Day Israel – How Iran War Rebuilds the Middle East

The “12-day war” between Iran and Israel created by President Trump may mark the end of Israel’s longest war. But true victory is not measured by what is destroyed. It will be measured by what we build next.

For decades, Iran’s killing in the Middle East has been broken. The Iran-backed network almost successfully surrounded Israel – Hezbollah, Hamas, Hotis, Iraqi militia and Assad’s Syria – and broke down. Israeli-American strikes have been shaken off Iran’s nuclear program.

As Israeli Arab Mega-Influencer Nas Daily put it, it is “the most silent celebration in the world. Hundreds of millions of dollars are safer, even if they can’t speak out loud.”

Now, President Trump is building on a new normalization effort to end the Gaza war while striving to reach an agreement with Syria, Saudi Arabia and others.

However, here’s the problem: Arab public opinion is moving in the opposite direction. Among the seven Arab countries, support for standardization of Israel has dropped to less than 13%. Even in Morocco, support fell from 31% to 13% in 2022 after October 7 of the terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023. If we cannot win peace, military victory will not matter.

Why disconnect? Because standardization is still too elite, it is top-down. If Israel and its neighbors want lasting peace, it must be built on a common threat. It must be based on a common interest, a common goal and a common life. The current moment calls for a fundamental shift from managing conflicts to actively building peace.

The Abraham Agreement initiates this process by establishing diplomatic ties between governments. However, civic relations between students, educators and entrepreneurs have not kept pace.

Critics believe that past Israel-Palestine dialogue failed because of their lack of political infrastructure to support them. But that’s what makes this moment unique. The Abraham Agreement could provide a stable political framework for the success of these initiatives.

True normalization requires three pillars: security integration, economic partnerships, and most critical human connections. The first two pillars have been largely maintained since October 7, but the third pillar is the infrastructure of human peace, the first casualty of the war. But when a rocket is flying, that is when we need to see each other as humans rather than abstract people.

Consider: Where Israel, UAE, Saudi Arabia and U.S. students are dealing with challenges such as water scarcity or clean energy, where. School trips that bring the Middle East across the normal borders of teenagers. Jewish Muslim educators exchange anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

These are not good plans, they are strategic necessities.

Before the Gaza War, we saw possible possibilities. Saudi Arabia and Egypt removed anti-Semitic content from textbooks. The United Arab Emirates introduced Holocaust education. The Israel Youth Movement brought the delegation to Morocco. These changes prove that education can develop when politics exists.

The United States must lead this effort, but unlike before, from a peacemaker to a builder. Large-scale regional education should receive the same funding and focus as the defense system. If the next generation only knows that each other is a threat, we won’t be surprised when peace fails.

When the war is over, Israel will face internal fractures: healing the social divide and restoring trust in institutional and national trauma. But the path forward is not isolation. It is extending its declaration of independence to Israel to “all neighboring countries and their peoples.”

Prince Bin Salman of Mohammed once envisioned the Middle East as a “new Europe.” After World War II, Europe not only rebuilds cities, but also rebuilds interpersonal relationships and identities.

Large-scale human-to-human efforts such as the EU’s student mobility program, Erasmus, have created a generation of Europeans who see themselves as part of something bigger than the individual countries. Now, this is the challenge for the New Middle East.

Many people are talking about Gaza, which “deprecated” Gaza, but after the war, Germany achieved greater success besides taking root in extremism. It establishes a strong center of democracy through education and civic participation. The Middle East needs to be re-humanized, not just residents. It is not only the “next day” in Gaza, but the entire region.

This conversion window will not last long. Iran’s regional influence has been weakened. Arab countries recognize the value of Israeli technology and security cooperation. The United States maintains strong ties throughout the region. But the Middle East opportunity ended quickly at the pace of opening up.

Success requires a cycle of transcending traditional conflict and temporary calm. This means investing in education, communication and economic integration without a chance to work. This means recognizing that sustainable peace requires not only government agreements, but also mass support.

Another option is to return to the old mode. Iran will rebuild its proxy network. New extremist groups will emerge. The violence cycle will continue.

The next generation should be better than inheriting our war stories. They should inherit opportunities, not only through pipelines and defense protocols, but also through classrooms, laboratories and shared dreams.

Let this be the last war in the old Middle East and the first step towards a new war.

Barak Sella is a Middle East Initiative Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

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