Some obscenities are so stark that no language of diplomacy can disguise what they are. For three years, Gaza was destroyed in full view of the world. Children were buried under concrete. Hospitals were bombed. Hunger was weaponised. Entire neighbourhoods disappeared. Palestinians were slaughtered while the Muslim world’s most powerful governments issued statements, convened summits, condemned “escalation,” and perfected the art of looking outraged without doing anything that might actually matter.

They had armies, aircraft, missiles and money. What they did not have was the will to use any of it for Gaza.

Then Saudi Arabia came under attack, and suddenly the Muslim world discovered urgency. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye moved toward the practical implementation of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, including the rapid deployment of military forces and capabilities to the kingdom.

So now the hierarchy of priorities is impossible to disguise. Gaza could be starved, bombed and demolished without triggering meaningful collective military action. But once Saudi vulnerability became the issue, restraint gave way to mobilisation.

So now the hierarchy of priorities is impossible to disguise. Gaza could be starved, bombed and demolished without triggering meaningful collective military action. But once Saudi vulnerability became the issue, restraint gave way to mobilisation.

And the enemy worthy of that mobilisation is Ansar Allah — the force that did what the region’s richest and best-armed states refused to do: impose an........

© Middle East Monitor