When Israel’s war on Gaza began, the political situation in the Middle East was already far from stable. Iran faced mass protests, and Egypt was wrestling with Ethopia over the waters of the Nile. Elsewhere, Arab-Israeli relations were beginning to thaw, as the Gulf monarchies sought to expand their political and economic reach through free-trade agreements and diplomatic normalization.

In this conversation, the Egyptian Marxist Mohamed Naeem discusses how the strategic interests of these powers may inform their response to the ongoing war, and what Israel’s all-out assault will mean for the region’s future. A longer version of this interview previously appeared, in Arabic, in the Lebanese magazine Al-Morasel.