Beyond the ‘Art of the Deal’: Why the Levant Needs Climate Realism

Jun 28, 2026 | Carmit Lubanov
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For decades, international diplomacy in the Middle East has followed two equally flawed tracks. On one side are the utopian dreamers, proposing grand, multi-lateral “environmental peacebuilding” summits that assume ecological cooperation will magically pave the way for final-status political treaties. On the other side is the hyper-transactional “Art of the Deal” paradigm—a business-first approach that views complex geopolitical and existential crises as mere commercial transactions, easily brokered over a handshake and just as easily dismantled by a single late-night social media post.

But physics does not negotiate, and climate change is moving far faster than our outdated diplomatic machinery.