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As a European, I cannot look at the Middle East and the Levant without being reminded of our own continent’s painful history. For centuries, Europe was defined by rivalry, empire, and bloodshed. The rivalry between France and Germany alone was enough to plunge us into repeated wars. Twice in the first half of the 20th century, these conflicts escalated into world wars, leaving tens of millions dead.
By May 8, 1945, when the guns finally fell silent in Europe, our continent was shattered. Cities were reduced to rubble, economies collapsed, and trust between nations was nonexistent. Many believed that peace would never be possible. And yet, we Europeans did something remarkable: we decided to break the cycle of war by binding ourselves together so tightly that another conflict became unimaginable.
This was not done overnight. It was a gradual process of vision, courage, and institution-building. The Marshall Plan poured resources into recovery, but with a condition: European countries had to cooperate. The Schuman Declaration in 1950 proposed pooling French and German coal and steel production—the very resources of war—under a common authority. The European Coal and Steel Community became the first supranational institution of its kind. Then came the Treaties of Rome in 1957, establishing the European Economic Community, which decades later would evolve into the European Union.
It is easy to forget how radical these steps were at the time. Europe’s leaders had every reason to distrust one another. Just a few years earlier, their countries had been slaughtering each other’s citizens. Yet they made the choice to reconcile, not through words alone, but through institutions that tied their futures together.
Today, a war between France and Germany is not only impossible, it is absurd. Their economies, their infrastructures, their institutions are so interwoven that to go to war would be to destroy themselves. This is the great lesson of Europe: peace was not gifted to us, we built it brick by brick through cooperation.
When I look at the Middle East and the Levant, I see a region with similar choices before it. It is a region rich in history, faith, and resources, but scarred by wars that seem to have no end. Arab against Arab, Kurd against Arab, Arab against Jew, Sunni against Shia, state against state—the divisions are deep, and the cycles of revenge are familiar to any European who remembers our own past.
But Europe’s history also shows that cycles can be broken. And I believe the Middle East can find its own path to peace—if it dares to imagine a future larger than the struggles of the present.
The question is not whether peace is possible. It is how to build it. Europe offers a roadmap—not to be copied blindly, but to be adapted to the unique realities of the Middle East.
1. Recovery through cooperation
Europe’s integration began with reconstruction. The Marshall Plan forced us to work together in rebuilding our economies. The Middle East needs a similar mechanism: a Middle East Recovery Fund. This fund, financed by wealthier regional states like the Gulf countries, supported by Türkiye, Israel, and international partners, should focus on rebuilding war-torn nations like Syria, Yemen, Gaza, and Libya. But the crucial condition must be cooperation. No single nation should control the fund. It must be administered by a regional body, ensuring transparency and shared responsibility.
Imagine what such a fund could achieve: new infrastructure in Aleppo, schools in Sanaa, housing in Gaza, hospitals in Tripoli. Reconstruction would no longer be a battleground for influence but a platform for unity.
2. Institutions of dialogue
The Council of Europe, founded in 1949, was not an economic body but a political one. It created a forum for dialogue, human rights, and the rule of law. The Middle East deserves its own version: a Council of the Middle East, bringing together Arab League members, Türkiye, and Israel. This would not erase differences, but it would provide a permanent forum where disputes could be addressed before they turn violent.
Such a council could work on shared principles of sovereignty, non-interference, and human dignity. It could also be the platform for cultural exchange, youth programs, and academic cooperation—building trust across divides that today seem unbridgeable.
3. Shared resources, shared interests
Just as Europe began with coal and steel, the Middle East can begin with the resources that most often fuel conflict: oil, gas, and water. A Middle East Energy and Water Community could manage pipelines, desalination plants, and shared rivers like the Tigris, Euphrates, Nile, and Jordan. Instead of fighting over these lifelines, nations could profit from them together.
Imagine a Turkish pipeline delivering gas not only to Europe but also to Arab neighbors at preferential rates. Imagine Israel, Jordan, and Palestine managing the Jordan River as a shared resource. Imagine Gulf financing for desalination plants in North Africa, reducing future water wars.
When resources are shared, war becomes irrational. This is the lesson Europe learned by pooling coal and steel. The Middle East can learn it by pooling energy and water.
4. Toward a common market
As trust grows, so too can ambition. By the 1950s, Europe dared to envision a customs union and a common market. The Middle East can as well. A Middle East Common Market would reduce barriers to trade, allow freer movement of goods and services, and eventually workers.
For a region with such vast disparities in wealth and employment, this would be transformative. Syrian and Egyptian workers could find opportunities in Gulf economies. Turkish and Israeli technologies could flow more easily into Arab markets. Saudi capital could fund industries across the Levant.
The benefits would not only be economic. When prosperity depends on open borders and shared markets, the incentive for war diminishes.
5. The long-term vision: A Middle East union
If Europe could go from rubble in 1945 to the European Union in less than fifty years, the Middle East can aim for the same by 2075. A Middle East Union may sound utopian today, just as the European Union did in 1950. However, it would be the natural culmination of recovery funds, councils, resource sharing and common markets.
Such a union would not erase nations or identities. It would not demand uniformity. Rather, it would enshrine the principle that diversity is strength and that cooperation is the only path to sovereignty and dignity in a world of great powers.
Skeptics will say this vision is impossible. But Europeans in 1945 thought the same. Who would have believed that France and Germany—whose rivalry had defined centuries of war—could ever become partners? Yet today they are so deeply integrated that war between them is absurd.
The Middle East and the Levant stand at a crossroads. The alternative to integration is not stability, but endless war. The region will remain a playground for foreign powers, its resources drained, its people exhausted. Or it can choose the harder path: reconciliation through cooperation, building institutions that make peace profitable and war irrational.
As a European, I do not claim to have the answers for the Middle East. Every region must find its own way, its own institutions, its own compromises. But I do know this: Europe once stood where the Middle East stands today—broken, mistrustful, weary of war. And we chose to build a different future. If we could do it, so can you.
In 1945, Europe said “never again.” Out of that resolve grew the European Union, a project that turned historic enemies into partners. The Middle East deserves its own “never again” moment. A moment when Arab nations, Türkiye, and Israel choose integration over division, prosperity over destruction, vision over despair.
The roadmap is there: recovery funds, councils of dialogue, shared resources, common markets, and ultimately a union that guarantees peace through interdependence.
This is not a dream. It is a choice. Europe made it in 1945. The Middle East can make it today. And the world will be stronger for it.
To the leaders of the Arab world, to Türkiye, and to Israel: history will judge you not by the wars you wage, but by the peace you build. You have the power to break the cycle of destruction and leave your children a region of prosperity instead of despair.
Do not wait for another war, another generation lost, another city reduced to rubble. The choice lies before you now, just as it once lay before Europe’s leaders. They chose integration over division. They chose to build rather than destroy.
The Middle East can do the same. And if you do, the world will remember not only the wars of this region, but also the moment when its leaders had the courage to say: never again!
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