The emerging defense pact with the United States, will be a decisive moment for Saudi Arabia and for broader Middle Eastern politics. Until it is ratified, the kingdom will likely strive to maintain defense partnerships with both the U.S. and China.

Increasing isolation is making it difficult for the Netanyahu government to secure support from the United States, which faces a dilemma: It can continue to back Israel, or it can distance itself from Netanyahu, either of which could have serious electoral consequences for President Joe Biden.

The recent act passed in the U.S. House of Representatives — even if endorsed by the Senate and signed into law by the president — is unlikely to be effective in eliminating antisemitism in the United States. A kind of national reconciliation will be required.

China is deeply intertwined with Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries. It is contributing to regional security and will be one of the major sources of the region’s future wealth. And, unlike the West, it will always respect the way of life in the region, including the dominant religion.

Sustainable peace in the Middle East — in particular between Israel and the Palestinians — will require meaningful change in Palestine’s status: Its sovereignty must be established and recognized. A unified push by China and the United States to that end would be an important guarantor of success.

The international system seems unable to curb hegemonism and Cold War thinking, but China-Russia strategic coordination can mark a new path. As the two nations achieve win-win cooperation through the “five always” standard, the fundamental interests of the Chinese people will be served in the process.

Washington does not want the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to escalate, as that would undermine its “pivot to Asia” strategy. But it doesn’t mind so much when Israel attacks Iran because that serves as a sort of proxy warning to other hostile forces in the Middle East.

The protracted conflict may force the U.S. president to alienate Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to the point of jeopardizing the special relationship, thereby causing powerful Jewish voters and lobbies to withdraw their support. Other traditional Democratic constituencies, such as Muslim-Americans, may follow suit.

The youth will be crucial for President Joe Biden’s bid for re-election, as it was in 2020. But Biden’s continued support for Israel is cooling their ardor. To make matters worse, support for Biden among Muslim-Americans — a key voting bloc in some swing states — has taken a nosedive.

The latest Palestinian-Israeli conflict has lasted four and a half months since its outbreak in October and resulted in nearly 30,000 Palestinian deaths, the destruction of nearly all infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and more than 2 million people left homeless, as well as a severe shortage of food, drinking water and medicine. The humanitarian disaster is intensifying with each passing day.