Alwaght- Benjamin Netanyahu who is tasked with forming a new cabinet in the occupied Palestinian territories this days talks about his push to normalize and boost ties with the Arab countries, but what is happening in the Arab world is proving opposite to the Israeli claims and agenda.
The Israeli leaders were hopeful that by signing normalization deals, officially called Abraham Accords, with the UAE and Bahrain the taboo of normalization would be broken and that more countries would join the process, but after more than two years, no country has agreed to join what is seen in the Arab world as a “disgrace” and anti-normalization sentiments are on the rise day by day among the public opinion.
In recent days, thousands in countries such as Morocco and Bahrain once again expressed their opposition to the thaw with Tel Aviv by taking to the streets. On the second anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Rabat and Tel Aviv, Moroccans emphasized their opposition to any normalization and declared their support for the Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation. The protesters chanted slogans in solidarity with the holy al-Aqsa Mosque as the first qibla of the Muslims. In Bahrain, Wefaq National Islamic Society published pictures of people’s demonstrations in which the participants chanted slogans against the normalization. Bahraini demonstrations were held in response to arrangement of the Jewish Hanukkah ceremonies, the visit of the Israeli delegation to Manama, and deeper normalization.
Waves of post-World Cup demonstrations
Although Arab world protests at normalization continued as the agreements were signed with the Israeli regime, after a series of incidents during the Qatar World Cup, waves of public anti-Israeli hate encompassed the Arab nations. In Qatar as the host of the World Cup, the global opposition to the normalization was unprecedented. The regional, and even Western, visitors threw their unique support behind the Palestinian cause, to a degree that the Israeli citizens visiting Qatar went infuriated for the humiliation they were exposed to. At the same time, the Israeli officials admitted Tel Aviv’s global isolation in this international tournament. Tel Aviv was optimistic that normalization would break its decades-long isolation but its efforts delivered the reverse and it grew even more isolated.
Although Morocco has diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv, its national team’s players in the World Cup spearheaded the opposition to the process of normalization and support for the oppressed Palestinian people. They did not stop supporting the Palestinian cause until the last days of the tournament, and after the end of each match, the Palestinian flags were waved by them, receiving wide welcome from Arab media and public. Therefore, the intensification of protests against the normalization can slow down this process and even eliminate it from the agenda of pro-compromise Arab leaders forever. After all, any Arab country wishing to step on this path will face popular protests and will not secure the goals it seeks behind the normalization with the Israelis.
Bin Salman’s difficult path
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, who is aspiring to ascend the throne and is seeking to consolidate pillars of his rule, is pushing for normalization with Tel Aviv more than others.
With the US mediation, bin Salman has been working to normalize relations with the Israeli regime to add to the kingdom’s allies in the region, but has so far failed to realize this goal. By normalization, Prince Mohammed seeks support from the powerful Jewish lobby in the West and mainly the US. He even made the preparations for normalization and allocated nearly $2 billion for investment in the occupied territories to pose as a good ally to the Israelis. In recent days, Netanyahu announced that “an important” Arab country would soon normalize with Tel Aviv, with some media suggesting that it is Saudi Arabia. Euronews confirmed these reports on Saturday and claimed that normalization process between Riyadh and Tel Aviv has already begun.
Despite the Saudi and Israeli movement to establishing political relations, there is a big obstacle in the way of bin Salman and it is the anger of public strongly opposed to normalization. The results of polls conducted in July 2022 by the Washington Foundation for American Studies showed that 75 percent of the Saudis are against the thaw, and this issue can be problematic to the king-in-waiting who needs public legitimacy in his way to the throne. On the other hand, possible public protests can provide good opportunity to the rebellious princes to deal blows to bin Salman.
On the other hand, the Saudis are aspiring to sign the normalization which it has so far brought about no achievements to the newest normalizers, the UAE and Bahrain, especially Manama that hoped to recover its economy from the critical situation it is in, but the Israelis have so far made no investments or provided the tiny kingdom with any financial support. The only outcomes of the normalization for Abu Dhabi and Manama are the security pacts which are apparently serving the Israeli interests not theirs as Mossad deployed its officers to these two countries for regional espionage. And this would be the same story for Saudi Arabia. After all, the long-term goal of the Israelis is infiltration of the Arab countries and control of their economic and security affairs. Actually, they seek to weaken the Arabs rather than strengthen them because strong Arab countries pose a serious threat to the Israelis, and pro-compromise Arab leaders should take it into consideration that the Israeli project of “Nile to Euphrates”, which is symbolized by its flag, seeks occupation of Arab countries not signing strategic alliances with them.
Despite vast Israeli efforts to lure the compromising Arab leaders to normalization, massive popular opposition puts obstacles ahead of advancing this extremely dangerous project. After the World Cup public’s show of aversion to the Israelis and the dealing with them, the Arab rulers would take their steps more conservatively to steer clear of public fury. On the other side, Tel Aviv, which is already sustaining defeats from the resistance groups, would sustain a big one in this path and move into deeper regional isolation.
