After Gaza, no alliance is permanent: Justice and the reordering of West Asia
The Gaza war has altered West Asia not merely by unleashing another cycle of destruction, but by exposing the fragility of the region’s political and justice architecture. What collapsed in Gaza was not only restraint, but the credibility of a global order that claims fidelity to international law while suspending it when inconvenient. In this sense, Gaza represents a justice rupture. It has forced states, movements, and societies to reassess relationships not through sentiment or inherited ideology, but through the political costs of visible and sustained injustice.
For decades, West Asian alliances appeared rigid, shaped by Cold War loyalties, oil security, and the strategic umbrella of the United States. Enmities were presumed permanent, friendships unbreakable. Gaza has shattered that illusion. It has revealed that power detached from justice does not stabilise the region; it corrodes it. As images of civilian devastation circulated globally, the gap between declared principles and applied practice became impossible to ignore. This exposure has accelerated a quiet but decisive recalibration across the region.
Saudi Arabia’s current trajectory illustrates this shift with particular clarity. The Kingdom is no longer operating within the certainties that once defined Gulf politics. Vision 2030 has tied Saudi Arabia’s future to economic diversification, foreign investment, tourism, and regional calm. All of these depend not only on security, but on legitimacy—especially in the Arab and Muslim worlds. After Gaza, overt alignment with Israel would place Riyadh in direct contradiction with widely held justice claims regarding occupation, civilian protection, and accountability. This is not a matter of rhetoric alone; it is a question of political sustainability.
Saudi Arabia’s recalibration should not be mistaken for ideological conversion. It is pragmatic and........© Middle East Monitor





















Toi Staff
Sabine Sterk
Penny S. Tee
Gideon Levy
Waka Ikeda
Tarik Cyril Amar
Grant Arthur Gochin
Rachel Marsden