- Jon Stewart proposed on Monday that an Arab organization similar to NATO create a demilitarized zone between Israel and Gaza.
- Experts told BI that while it’s feasible on paper, the likelihood of it happening in reality is slim.
- They said that Stewart’s “METO” was just wishful thinking.
“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart Monday night outlined a bold solution to halt the conflict in Gaza, a demilitarized zone governed by the Arab League.
His proposal was the last in a comedic summary of potential answers to the region’s raging violence (his first two suggestions were to “ask God” or hold summer camps for Israelis and Palestinians.)
“Well, here’s another one,” Stewart said seriously. “God willing, I actually think that last one will work.”
“Arab countries that claim Palestine is their top priority come in and form a demilitarized zone between Israel and a free Palestinian state,” he said.
Stewart said earlier in the foreword that Israeli and Hamas leaders seemed bent on “thinking that one of these groups is going to disappear.”
“But that is not the case. If we want a safe and free Israel and a safe and free Palestine, we have to acknowledge this reality,” he said.
Stewart said the demilitarized zone would be enforced by the Arab League, like the North American Treaty Organization.
He gave the organization a witty name: the Middle East Treaty Organization (METO). This is pronounced “me Too” and is likely a reference to the “Me Too” movement.
“Let’s tweet it! Tonight, friends, let’s make this region METO’d!” he said.
Will “METO” work?
Middle East experts told Business Insider that while Stewart’s solution was tongue-in-cheek, it’s not a new concept. Most say an “Arab NATO” is unlikely to take hold – even if it might work wonders for the region.
“Every U.S. administration going back decades has discussed some version of this problem,” said Jonathan Lord, director of the Middle East Security Project at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C. “Under Trump, that problem is the Middle East Strategic Alliance. .”-based think tank.
Lord said distrust among Gulf states and their reluctance to share their military secrets has largely dampened hopes for such a group.
“But in reality, Jon is conflating ‘NATO’ in the Middle East with something else. You don’t need a formal alliance of Arab states to implement his proposal,” Lord added.
Anna Jacobs, senior Gulf analyst at the Belgium-based International Crisis Group in Qatar, said forming a “METO” alliance would also risk angering Iran, which is a major concern in the region.
“Gulf Arab states are focused on de-escalating the situation in the region and building broader cooperation with friends and adversaries in the region,” Jacobs said. “A NATO-like alliance would send the opposite message.”
William Wexler, senior director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Program at the Atlantic Council, said the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt were among the countries that could consider working with Israel and the Palestinians. .
But he added that there was no clear candidate to lead such a coalition, which is key to the success of such an organization.
“Transnational military alliances are uncommon. They are difficult to establish and maintain, and certainly difficult to have any effect,” Wexler said.
NATO, for example, was created in the specific context of the United States’ emergence as a superpower after the devastating Second World War, he said.
“Then the question is, who’s responsible? Who’s leading this?” Wexler said. “It won’t be the United States and certainly not the United Nations, because Israel understandably has zero confidence in the United Nations. So who? Which Arab country will step up?”
Mohamed Chtatou, a Middle East political analyst and professor at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, supports the idea.
“Such an alliance is necessary and a viable initiative for peace and stability in the region,” Chattogram said, urging the United States, Europe and NATO to push for the measure.
Chattogram said that the “Northeast Pact” will serve as a diplomatic shield to resist cultural barriers to hate speech, ease communication, avoid crises, and promote economic development in the region.
“Israelis and Palestinians have much in common and can coexist peacefully, but these important characteristics pale in comparison to the insidious language of fundamentalists on both sides,” Chatattoo said.
DMZ has no starting point
Could a Korean-style demilitarized zone between Israel and Gaza work? Chattogram said it was possible.
“The ‘demilitarized zone’ does a lot to keep a bellicose and combative North Korea under control, and this Middle East alliance is likely to do the same,” he said.
Wexler said that technically a demilitarized zone could be created and administered by the Arab League, without the need for a permanent alliance.
But this will only work if Israel agrees to a two-state solution.
“The Arab world is very clear that as a precondition for their collective action in Gaza, they need to see a path from Israel to a Palestinian state that is time-framed and irreversible,” Wexler said.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution. Ironically, Lord said, the very concept of a two-state solution could extend his political life.
“The vast majority of Israelis want Bibi to step down at the first opportunity, but Bibi can tell an Israeli public shocked and traumatized by Hamas’s October 7 attack that he alone can reject Washington’s establishment of an “Arab terrorist state” efforts. At our border,” Lord said.
Jacobs agreed. “Some Arab countries may consider sending peacekeepers,” she said. “But this is only as part of a credible political process committed to a two-state solution, which, unfortunately, is what the Israeli government rejects.”
If Hamas is toppled and the Palestinian Authority continues to rule in the West Bank, there are also doubts about whether its unpopular leader Mahmoud Abbas can effectively forge a path to peace, Wexler said.
“Given Abbas’s lack of support from the Palestinian people, it is difficult to see how an Abbas-led Palestinian Authority could be part of a two-state solution,” Wexler said.
Still, Lord said if Gaza continues to suffer under Israeli military and policy repression, Hamas will continue to fill its ranks with desperate Palestinians. He said that when the government is worried about the “every other day” situation, the creation of “METO” will be an “another day” solution.
“Unless someone can develop a viable plan to provide security, services and assistance to the two million Gazans currently displaced, Israel will not achieve its goal of defeating Hamas,” Lord said.
Stewart’s representatives on “The Daily Show” did not immediately respond to BI’s request for comment outside normal business hours.
