Gaza war no longer main arena for Iran-Israel tensions

Meir Javedanfar

Palestinian Hamas supporters enact a scene simulating the killing of Israeli soldiers by Hamas militants during a rally celebrating what organizers say was a victory by Palestinians in Gaza over Israel following a ceasefire, in the West Bank city of Nablus August 29, 2014. An open-ended ceasefire, mediated by Egypt, took effect on Tuesday evening. It called for an indefinite halt to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza's blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt, and a widening of the territory's fish — Palestinian Hamas supporters enact a scene simulating the killing of Israeli soldiers by Hamas militants during a rally celebrating what organizers say was a victory by Palestinians in Gaza over Israel following a cease-fire, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Aug. 29, 2014. — REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini

The recent 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas will not have much impact on tensions between Iran and Israel. At least not in the short term.

That is because the Middle East is going through a post-Arab Spring period.

The Arab Spring was like a political earthquake. It created new fault lines in the geopolitical map of the Middle East. And as much as the Israeli and Iranian governments each insist that the other is their biggest threat, the new fault lines that have appeared on the region's new geopolitical map tell a different story.

Let's start with Iran.

Gaza war no longer main arena for Iran-Israel tensions

The 50-day war in Gaza was about more than a confrontation between Iran and Israel and leaves all the current dynamics between Hamas, Qatar, Israel and Iran unchanged.

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