Ep 12: Reshaping the Middle East - Part 2

This episode uncovers the hidden connections behind today’s headlines in the Middle East, revealing how wars, peace deals, and shifting alliances are all part of a larger strategy reshaping the region. From Gaza to Yemen, it traces the real-world impact of policies that have moved from the political fringe to the center of power. You’ll hear how international support and silence have enabled dramatic changes on the ground—and why understanding these patterns matters now more than ever. Tune in to see how the dots connect, and what’s at stake for the future.

Transcript

Raheel Khan: 0:00

Welcome back to Khannecting the Dots. This is the conclusion of my two part series on Netanyahu's efforts to reshape the Middle East. Last week, the headlines were all about possible ceasefire negotiations, peace talks, and diplomatic breakthroughs. Trump and Netanyahu were shaking hands at the White House. The EU announced new humanitarian deals. Everyone was talking about how to end the war in Gaza. But while those handshakes and press conferences were happening, Palestinians continued to die by the hundreds. While diplomats discussed humanitarian access, plans moved forward to relocate all Palestinians to one area of the Gaza Strip from where they can't leave. While leaders spoke of peace, almost 800 people have been killed just because they were seeking aid to survive. There's a disconnect here that should make us all pause. When you look beyond the diplomatic theater to what's actually happening on the ground, a different story emerges. In my last episode, I covered the 12 day war between Israel and Iran. Today I wanna show you how that conflict, the ongoing situation in Gaza, the escalating violence in the West Bank and military operations across Lebanon. Syria and Yemen aren't separate stories. They're chapters in the same book, and that book is about reshaping the Middle East, in ways that go far beyond what most people are aware of. So let's start where the disconnect is most obvious, Gaza, where the gap between what we're told and what's actually happening is impossible to ignore. What does it take to get food in Gaza nowadays? The answer, reveals a horror so methodical, so deliberately cruel that it's hard to imagine. Until you hear from the people living through it every day. NPR released a news report last week in which their Gaza producer, Anas Baba, detailed his harrowing efforts to get food from a Gaza humanitarian food distribution site. In the story he says."I have lost a third of my body weight after nearly 21 months of war in Gaza. People are pale and weak. They walk supporting themselves by grabbing onto walls and fences, women and children faint in the street." This is a desperation that drives thousands to risk their lives for a bag of flour On Baba's journey, he says he"faced Israeli military fire. Private US contractors pointing laser beams at my forehead, crowds with knives fighting for rations and masked thieves, all to get food from a group supported by the US and Israel." He explained that the GHF sites don't have fixed opening hours. They often open and close the site within minutes. If Palestinians approach a site and it's still closed, they come under fire. Continuing his account. He stated,"when we reached closer to the site, we were surprised to find an Israeli tank. The crowd was wrong. The food site was not yet open. Every single person started to retreat and run. The tank immediately opened fire. I heard people screaming that were injured, others cried out. My brother died. My cousin died... Finally at 2:00 AM the gunfire stopped. We took it as a sign that the site had opened. I ran with the crowds toward the food distribution site, stepping over bodies." This isn't a random incident, it's systematic policy. In June, 2025, one of Israel's own newspapers, the left-leaning Haaretz, published an investigation titled,"it's a Killing Field: iDF soldiers ordered to shoot deliberately at unarmed Gazans waiting for humanitarian aid." Israeli soldiers speaking anonymously described being ordered to fire at unarmed crowds waiting for food aid, even when those crowds pose no threat. One soldier called these sites killing fields where they use heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, and mortars against hungry civilians. But it goes deeper. In the same article, one veteran fighter talked about private contractors making fortunes while civilians die. He explained"any private contractor with engineering equipment, receives 5,000 shekels, roughly$1,500, for every house they demolish." These contractors and their armed security often go where Palestinians are allowed to be, to destroy their homes, and if they feel threatened in any way, they're allowed to shoot to kill."So for a contractor to make another 5,000 shekels and take down a house, it's deemed acceptable to kill people who are only looking for food." The BBC uncovered further disturbing details about Gaza Humanitarian Foundation contractors. One contractor described an incident when a Palestinian civilian seeking food fell to the ground after gunfire. He stated"a Palestinian man dropped to the ground, motionless, and then another contractor standing there was like, damn, I think you got one. And then they both laughed about it." GHF team leaders have even referred to Palestinians as"zombie, hoards", behaving as if they're playing a video game, not dealing with actual humans who have lives and families they're trying to feed. Even if one survives the gunfire and is able to get some food, they're still not safe. The NPR producer continued his story. Leaving the site, we were stopped by four masked thieves holding big knives. They told us we had two options, give them half of our loot or we would be harmed." He and his cousin threw two bags of food at the thieves and ran. Baba was one of the lucky ones. He got food and made it back relatively unharmed. There's countless that don't. He recounts"At 4:30 that morning. I went to the hospital to a scene of screaming and blood. The hospital had run out of white shrouds to cover the deceased. The dead bodies lying in the hospital floor were covered by the same empty sacks once filled with flour given out as international aid that they had taken with them in the hopes of filling them up with food." Since these US backed sites opened in May of this year, almost 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food. Over 600 at the GHF sites and another 180 at routes for aid convoys. Just last week alone, there were at least 30 people killed, several of them children. This is in addition to the hundreds that have been killed by Israel's bombs, including eight children at a school. All while ceasefire negotiations supposedly continue. The killings have reached a point, that the head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Aid has said that Israel is turning Gaza"into a graveyard of children and starving." When Haaretz published its piece on the Killing Fields, Netanyahu called them"Blood Libel" labeling firsthand accounts from his own soldiers as"malicious falsehoods, designed to defame the IDF, the most moral army in the world." Yet since then, major outlets like NPR, BBC, and PBS have documented firsthand accounts of Palestinians risking death while trying to collect food from aid sites. The pattern is clear. Unarmed civilians, desperate for aid are routinely met with deadly force. Shot and killed by"the most moral army in the world." The daily killings are only part of a broader strategy that's been months in the making. This isn't just about stopping Hamas, it's about emptying Gaza entirely. The plan became public back in February of this year when Trump had proposed that the US"take over Gaza" and turn it into the"Riviera of the Middle East", displacing its 2.2 million residents. Within days Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that Israel would prepare plans for the"voluntary departure" of Palestinians from Gaza. But the mask slipped quickly. Just two weeks later, communications minister Schlomo Karhi openly called this a"deportation plan", contradicting Netanyahu's euphemistic language about"voluntary migration". By March, Israel had established an entire government agency to oversee Palestinian"voluntary departure". In the past week, on July 7th, Katz announced a specific implementation plan, a humanitarian city built on the ruins of Rafa that would initially house 600,000 Palestinians from the Al-Mawasi coastal area, with the eventual goal of concentrating all the Gaza's residents in this single enclosed zone. Many critics around the world are calling this plan a concentration camp. It's a loaded term, but that's exactly what this is. The Israeli government plans on concentrating the entire population of Gaza in one enclosed area. The Palestinians would undergo security screening before being allowed in, and once inside they would be as Katz himself stated,"not be allowed to leave the zone." The only way they could leave is to deport to another country. What Israel is proposing is a concentration camp and ethnic cleansing all tied up together in one neat package Against this backdrop of starvation, murder, and plans for mass displacement, we have ongoing ceasefire negotiations. Hamas submitted a positive response to recent proposals on July 4th, but Netanyahu called their conditions"unacceptable to Israel", but still authorizing the negotiators to continue talks. Last week, Netanyahu was in Washington where he met with Trump twice as well as other lawmakers. Trump has expressed optimism about reaching a deal, saying that the two sides are probably just weeks away. The times of Israel even recently reported that the Trump administration is assuring mediators. It won't let Israel resume the Gaza war after the 60 day ceasefire. But here's the fundamental dishonesty of it all. Even as Trump is pushing for peace and reportedly giving assurances, he approved a new$510 million arm sale to Israel. This while hundreds more Palestinians are being killed on a weekly basis. And let's face it, any supposed personal guarantee from Trump doesn't really mean much, especially in this context. He has never cared about the Palestinian issue. Remember. This is the same guy locking up and deporting pro-Palestinian protestors and insulted Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, by referring to him as a Palestinian. He just wants his name on a peace deal so he can claim credit and move on. He doesn't care what happens afterwards. And what about this peace deal? Let's take a closer look at what's happening. The original proposal that Israel supposedly accepted: a 60 day pause in the fighting; phased release of the hostages over 50 days in exchange for Palestinian prisoners; resumption of aid into Gaza, handled by the UN and Palestine Red Crescent; Israeli forces would pull back to a buffer zone along Gaza's borders. Hamas responded a few days later, seeking: a permanent cease fire guarantee, not just a temporary pause; complete withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza, not just the buffer zones; unrestricted humanitarian aid without Israeli interference; and release of all hostages and prisoners as part of a comprehensive deal, not in stages or with uncertain timelines. In just the past few days, the war of words between the two sides has escalated, dimming hopes for a peace deal. Netanyahu spelled out Israel's minimal requirements. Hamas must disarm be dismantled militarily and politically, and disappeared from Gaza entirely. He warned that this isn't achieved through talks, israel will do it with force. Meanwhile, he apparently told hostage families that releasing all captives at once was impossible leading Hamas to condemn this as proof of his"malicious intentions." Now, I know that as a terrorist organization, many people will find it hard to take what Hamas says at face value. But Netanyahu's"malicious intentions" have been described by more credible sources as well. An editorial in Haaretz also warned that if Netanyahu is in charge of brokering any peace deal, it's bound to fail. They argued that he's repeatedly sabotaged peace processes when they threatened his political survival. His entire strategy depends on maintaining perpetual crises. Keeping the conflict going to avoid corruption trials and potential state inquiries. In October 7th Failures, they stated"that unless Trump forces the Prime Minister's hand, there might be no ceasefire and no hostages released." But there's an even deeper problem with these negotiations. The Palestinians are being faced with the ultimate devil's bargain. Continue with the mass starvation, daily bombings and killings, or agree to a peace deal during which time they may be forced into a concentration camp and eventually expelled from the land they have always called home. If Gaza represents the most visible horror, the West Bank reveals the growing pervasiveness of that horror. Since October 7th, 2023, at least 1000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, the deadliest period since UN record keeping began. There have been over 1800 documented settler attacks, an average of four per day. Since October 7th, the Israeli military has called up 5,500 settlers into regional defense battalions and distributed 7,000 guns to settlement security squads. We're watching the official militarization of settler violence. Just over a week ago, settlers set fire to Palestinian property and soldiers killed three Palestinians in the village of Kafr Malik. And on July 11th, Israeli settlers beat an American citizen to death. Seif al-Din Muslat, a Palestinian American from Florida visiting his family in the West Bank. Each story of violence is a tragedy. But let's talk about one particular incident that captures the essence of what's been happening in the West Bank. On March 24th, 2025, just three weeks after winning an Oscar for"No Other Land", Palestinian filmmaker, Hamdan Ballal was attacked by armed Israeli settlers outside his home in the village of Susya in the West Bank. It started when a group of settlers arrived to his village and started to attack his neighbors, two farmers in their sixties. When he tried to document the violence, three masked settlers, including one who had previously attacked him and was known to authorities, came after him beating him outside his front door as his wife and their three small children screamed in fear for his and their lives. Israeli soldiers soon arrived outside his home where they shot live rounds into the air. Then one soldier pushed his rifle into his leg and told him,"I will put the shot in your body." After the attack, Ballal and two other Palestinians were taken away by Israeli soldiers and detained in the military facility where he said he was handcuffed, blindfolded, and beaten. His attackers were left to walk free. After his release still bloodied from his ordeal. Ballal described his experience."I was blindfolded for 24 hours. All the night I was freezing. I heard the voice of soldiers laughing about me." Describing the incident with the settlers. He said one settler kicked his head"like a football". He went on to say."I told myself, if they will attack me, if they killed me, I will protect my family. His wife stated,"of course, after the Oscar, they had come to attack us more, I felt afraid." Think about the depravity of this incident. An Oscar winning director beaten nearly to death as his wife and children cower in fear. Why? Because he had the audacity to expose Israeli settler violence, to a global audience. This fits a pattern that Haaretz has been documenting with increasingly urgent language. In April, they published an editorial titled"Pogromists Rule The West Bank." By June,"Quiet West Bank, Pogrom in Progress". The word pogrom traditionally used to describe the massacre and ethnic cleansing of Jews is being used by an Israeli newspaper to describe what Jews are doing to the Palestinians in the West Bank. While Gaza Burns and the West Bank faces Pogroms, Israel has steadily expanded military operations across the region. Each front serves the same strategic purpose, eliminating obstacles to Israeli regional dominance. In Lebanon, despite the November 2024 ceasefire agreement. Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on different parts of Lebanon, killing at least 250 people and injuring over 600. Israel is also still holding five strategic posts inside Lebanon that it's refused to withdraw from. Even last week, Israel continues to launch airstrikes into Southern Lebanon and had a limited ground incursion. This while the US attempts to broker a more permanent ceasefire between the two countries. Here's the catch, though. Israel is demanding the complete disarmament of Hezbollah. While Hezbollah's leaders insist the group needs to keep some weapons to defend Lebanon from Israel. Israel's message is clear, complete surrender, or continued occupation. And amid all of this, the US is allegedly floating the idea of getting Lebanon to sign on to the Abraham Accords. Let's look at Syria, which represents the clearest example of opportunistic territorial expansion. When Assad's government collapsed last year in December, Israeli forces moved within hours, launching Operation Arrow of Bashan with over 600 strikes in eight days, destroying 70 to 80% of Syria's strategic weapons. Israel has expanded its territory in Syria by several hundred square miles and claims the 1974 Disengagement Agreement has collapsed. This was supposed to be temporary, but Netanyahu later declared the occupation indefinite. Since then, they have built at least nine military posts in Syrian territory. In February of this year, Israel escalated its invasion of Southern Syria while conducting a wave of airstrikes there and in Damascus just one day after demanding the complete demilitarization of Southern Syria. Now Israel and Syria are engaged in US brokered advanced talks aimed at normalization with the US hinting at Syria's potential inclusion in the Abraham Accords. All the while Israel maintains its expanded, territorial control. Now let's turn to Yemen. Because what's happening there is yet another example of the bigger pattern we've been tracing throughout this episode. The Houthis backed by Iran are another piece of what's often called Iran's axis of resistance. They're one of the groups that could stand in the way of Israeli dominance in the region. In late 2023, the Houthis started attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea saying they were doing it to support Palestinians under Israeli bombardment. Since then, they've targeted over a hundred ships causing chaos for global trade and sending Suez canal traffic plummeting by more than 60%. That's not just a regional problem, that's a shock wave felt around the world. The latest U.S. response was"Operation Rough Rider" launching more than 800 strikes on H targets; command centers, air defenses, weapon depots, even factories and ports. Civilian areas got hit too, according to some reports. By May the US and the Houthis agreed to a ceasefire. But here's the catch. Israel wasn't part of that deal. That wasn't an accident. It meant Israel could keep striking Houthis targets while the US stepped back. And when the Houthis ramped up again recently, sinking two ships, killing several crew members, and reportedly taking hostages. Israel responded by bombing at least three Yemeni ports and a power plant. Each new round of attacks and retaliation pulls Israel deeper into the conflict, all under the banner of security. But if you zoom out, you see the same logic at work as in Lebanon and Syria. Systematically weakening any Iranian back group that could challenge Israeli power in the region. This isn't just about defense, it's about making sure no resistance, no matter where it comes from, can threaten the new regional order Israel is trying to build. Israeli officials frame these operations as defensive, eliminating terrorist organizations that have attacked Israel. But this narrative obscures a crucial irony. Many of these groups form specifically as resistance to previous Israeli actions. Hezbollah emerged in 1985 during Israel's 18 year occupation of Southern Lebanon. The group's legitimacy and support grew as it positioned itself as the primary force resisting Israeli occupation. Hamas was founded in 1987 as a direct response to Israeli military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. They were initially tolerated and even indirectly encouraged by Israeli authorities as a counterweight to the secular Palestinian Liberation Organization. One of Netanyahu's own associates, Israeli General Gershon Hacohen, once said,"Netanyahu's strategy is to prevent the option of two states. So he's turning Hamas into his closest partner. Openly, hamas is an enemy, covertly, it's an ally." Israel's head of Religious Affairs in Gaza's said back in 2009,"Hamas, to my great regret is Israel's creation." And the Houthis, as I mentioned above another Iran backed proxy, while not directly created by Israeli actions, escalated their attacks against Israel, specifically out of solidarity with the people of Gaza. The pattern is clear. Israeli military actions create resistance movements, which then become justification for expanded military operations. Which create new forms of resistance. It's a cycle that ensures perpetual conflict, exactly what Netanyahu's political survival requires. Each military victory removes another obstacle to further expansion. As you heard above, the Abraham Accords keep being teased as a way to end Israeli aggression. Before I dive further into this issue, let's first talk about what the Abraham Accords actually are. In 2020, the Trump administration brokered agreements between Israel and four Arab countries; the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. These countries agreed to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, something that had happened with only two Arab nations prior- Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. But here's something that's not talked about much. For decades, most of the Arab world maintained a unified position called the Arab Peace Initiative. Launched by Saudi Arabia in 2002. It offered Israel peace and normalization with all 22 Arab League countries, but only in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied Palestinian Territories and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Abraham Accords shattered that consensus. These four countries normalized relations with Israel without requiring any meaningful concessions on Palestinian rights. Palestinians weren't even consulted. The message was clear. Palestinian liberation was no longer a prerequisite for Arab Israeli peace. Sadly, some if not many Arab leaders had given up on the Palestinian cause already. Just last year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, allegedly told then Secretary of State Blinken."Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don't, but my people do." His main reason for not normalizing ties with Israel, fears of assassination. He didn't want to end up like Anwar Sadat, the leader of Egypt after the 1979 Peace Treaty. The Abraham Accords represent the fundamental shift from a Middle East where Palestinian rights were central to regional peace, to one where those rights have become an obstacle to regional integration. And now these very same accords are being used as a carrot, a way to stop Israeli aggression. The message, stop caring about the Palestinians, normalize ties with Israel, and we'll stop bombing you and killing your civilians. To understand where this is all heading, we need to only listen to what Israeli leaders are saying themselves. In September, 2023, Netanyahu presented to the UN a map showing the new Middle East with Israel encompassing all of historic Palestine. No West Bank, no Gaza. Just Israel from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. This wasn't a mistake. This was Netanyahu presenting his vision. A Middle East where Palestine simply doesn't exist."From the river to the sea. Israel will be free", is a slogan. Israeli leaders are apparently okay with. But listen to what is coalition partners, the people he depends on to stay in power are saying openly. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, convicted in 2007 of racist incitement now controls West Bank border police. He has handed out thousands of assault rifles to West Bank settlers and boasted about worsening the conditions of Palestinian prisoners. He has also stated that it's a"moral obligation for Jews to return to the Gaza Strip" and encouraged the voluntary departure of the residents of Gaza. Finance Minister Bezalal Smotrich declared,"there's no such thing as a Palestinian nation. There never was a Palestinian people." He controls Israel's Settlements Administration, and has stated, Israel's goal is"destroying everything that's left of the Gaza Strip". Promising total destruction,"which has no precedent globally". Under his authority, Israel in 2024 confiscated more Palestinian land in the West Bank than in the previous 20 years combined. He has also displayed maps of something known as"Greater Israel" while publicly speaking. This concept's roots go back to a biblical passage describing a land promised to the Jewish people from"the river of Egypt to the Euphrates". This has been discussed by far right groups for over a hundred years. Modern day interpretations range from land Israel currently controls, occupied Palestine and Golan Heights, to territories in neighboring countries such as Jordan. Syria and Lebanon. There's an even more extreme version that comes from Israeli writer and politician, Avi Lipkin, who laid out his vision of territorial goals, in a January, 2024 video that went viral across the Arab world, this is what he said. Let's stop for a moment and think about what he's saying there. This is the most extreme vision of Greater Israel. Territory that goes far beyond occupied Palestine and the Golan Heights. He wants parts of Lebanon. Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. He believes Israel would take the holiest sights in Islam. So why are we listening to this guy? He's surely fringe even by Israeli political standards. But so were Ben Gvir and Smotrich up until recently. In Israeli politics today, what was once fringe has taken center stage. Those once considered far outside the political norm are now king makers. It's a pattern we've seen elsewhere too. In the US beliefs that once belonged to the political fringe, now set the agenda wielding influence, and shaping decisions at the highest levels of government. Okay. Let's take a step back for a second. I've covered a lot in this episode. It's easy to get lost in all the details. The point I wanna make here, my take home message is that what we're witnessing across the Middle East are not a random series of events. When you start connecting the dots, it becomes clear this is a coordinated strategy, enabled by international support and indifference, that treats Palestinian existence and Arab resistance as obstacles to be removed. Ideas once confined to the fringes are now shaping real policy. The results of this almost 800 Gazan's killed trying to access aid, a dramatic rise in settler violence in the West Bank, hundreds, if not thousands, killed the across Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran. All in the name of Israeli security, but as we've seen, it's about more than security. It's something far more wide reaching. Then there's the Abraham Accords. Once hailed as Peace Deals now functioning as a framework for coercion. Countries face a stark choice. Accept Israeli territorial gains and strategic dominance through normalization or face increasing military attacks that destroys infrastructure and kills civilians. And this transformation is happening with American weapons, American diplomatic cover, and American silence. Every bunker buster bomb, every artillery shell, every UN veto. Enables not just the immediate violence we're witnessing, but the broader project of reshaping the Middle East according to this vision of Israeli hegemony. But American involvement also means we have the power to stop it. If we choose to use that power. American public opinion is shifting. Favorability towards Israel is on the decline. Now is the time to make our voices heard. Support organizations that advocate for justice and peace. Contact your representatives and tell them to stop supporting Netanyahu's vision of a new Middle East. If this episode has opened your eyes to the connections you hadn't seen before, don't let that awareness fade. Share this episode. Talk about it. Follow the podcast wherever you listen. Leave a review and remember, staying informed is a great first step, but now we should act on what we learned. The world won't change because we hope it will. It changes when we refuse to accept the unacceptable. Until next time, stay curious, stay critical, and stay connected.