The Battle for the Corridor: Israel can prevent Iran and Turkey from displacing it from the new Middle East | Gidon Bromberg
The corridor connecting India, the Middle East, and Europe is the most important opportunity for establishing regional stability based on economic partnership.
Much remains hidden regarding the recent meeting held at the White House between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, but one issue had to take center stage: the strategic future of the economic corridor connecting India, the Middle East, and Europe (IMEC).
From an Israeli perspective, IMEC is much more than an infrastructure project: it is the most important opportunity in decades to establish regional stability based on economic partnership, rather than just military deterrence. The war and Israel's subsequent diplomatic isolation have led to the promotion of other routes in the Middle East that bypass Israel and take it out of the loop. The actors promoting these alternative routes aim to shift the land connection to Syria and from there to Turkey and Europe — and to leave Israel out of the picture.
A route that bypasses Haifa will not only severely harm Israel and cause it to miss the greatest economic and political opportunity of the last few decades. It will also strip the project of its immense geopolitical benefit — the connectivity and economic cooperation that can promote regional stability.
The IMEC project can provide an answer to one of the most significant strategic vulnerabilities in the world: dependence on the Strait of Hormuz. Every crisis with Iran demonstrates anew how vulnerable the energy market and global trade are to the influence of disruptions in this narrow shipping lane. Developing alternatives for land transport, power grid connections, communications infrastructure, renewable energy, and regional logistics systems will make IMEC a critical alternative that will strengthen the economic resilience of Europe, the Gulf states, India, and Israel alike.
But perhaps the most significant achievement of the corridor is its potential to serve as one of the most effective long-term strategies for curbing Iranian influence in the region. Until now, Iran has managed to use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an excuse to fund and arm proxy organizations across the Middle East. However, this political narrative will lose its power once regional economic integration yields tangible fruits that benefit both Palestinians and Israelis.
IMEC cannot be limited to just an economic artery connecting the Gulf to Israel. Its infrastructure runs throughout the Middle East, which can help build a shared future and thereby create jobs, attract investors to the region, and pave the way for the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state under moderate leadership. Only such a scenario will give moderate Arab countries the public legitimacy and strategic incentive required to take full part in regional integration initiatives. If Trump's goal is to expand the Abraham Accords and shape a more stable Middle East, the IMEC corridor must be a cornerstone of this strategy.
The author is the Israeli director of the "EcoPeace Middle East" organization, which is shared by Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians.
