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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-arab-normalization-has-not-eliminated-resistance">electronicintifada.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel-Arab normalization has not eliminated the resistance
</h1><p class="gmail-node__submitted">
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/tamara-nassar">Tamara Nassar</a></span> -
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">8 October 2023</span></span> </p>
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<p>Palestinians take control of an Israeli tank after crossing the
boundary fence with Israel from the southern Khan Younis area of the
Gaza Strip on 7 October.</p>
<p>Palestinians were always understood to be the sacrificial lambs at the <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/arab-normalization">normalization feast</a> between Israel and Arab states.</p>
<p>The Palestinian question had been the thorn in the side of Arab
states that wished to forge economic, military and political alliances
with Israel.</p>
<p>Some Arab states, in their effort to <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/united-arab-emirates-sells-out-palestine-israel">cloak</a>
their narrow self-interest, have attempted to mollify Palestinians by
securing cosmetic “concessions” to them through those deals.</p>
<p>But Hamas’s <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/hundreds-killed-israel-gaza-after-surprise-resistance-raid">surprise military operation</a>
against Israel on Saturday not only reshaped the strategic equation of
military confrontation with Israel, but also sent a message to states
that had chosen to normalize relations with the occupier.</p>
<p>This message was that any hopes of liquidating the Palestinian question through normalization agreements are entirely in vain.</p>
<p>The Palestinian resistance is immune to economic incentives, <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/trump-peace-deal-israels-apartheid-blueprint">bribes</a> or sporadic statements to keep the fragile lie of a two-state solution believable.</p>
<p>Palestinians want one thing and one thing only: liberation. No change
in the overt alliance between Israel and any country in the region has
been able to alter this fundamental truth.</p>
<p>There’s been no greater proof of that than the events of the past two days.</p>
<h2>The first to normalize</h2>
<p>The al-Aqsa Flood operation “is a message to the Arab and Islamic
world and the international community, especially those seeking
normalization, that the Palestinian issue is alive until liberation,”
Hizballah, Lebanon’s de facto defense and deterrent force against
repeated Israeli threats and aggressions, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2023/10/7/%D8%AD%D8%B2%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A9-%D8%A5%D9%84%D9%89">said</a> on Saturday.</p>
<p>Israel and Hizballah reportedly <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/8/israel-hezbollah-exchange-fire-raising-regional-tensions">exchanged fire</a> on Sunday, stoking fears of a broader military confrontation.</p>
<p>Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ politburo, similarly <a href="https://www.almayadeen.net/latestnews/2023/10/7/%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%A9--%D8%A5%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B9%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%87%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9--%D8%A3%D9%82%D9%88%D9%84-%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84-%D8%B4%D9%82%D9%8A%D9%82%D8%A9-%D8%A3%D9%86-%D9%87%D8%B0%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%A7">addressed</a> the Arab normalizers in his <a href="https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2023/10/7/%D9%87%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A3%D9%81%D9%82%D8%AF%D9%86%D8%A7-%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B2%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%A7-%D9%88%D9%87%D8%AF%D9%81%D9%86%D8%A7">speech</a> on Saturday.</p>
<p>“I say to our brethren countries that this occupation will not be of benefit, and normalization will not be of benefit.”</p>
<p>There’s been no greater proof of that than in the Arab state that first normalized relations with Israel: Egypt.</p>
<p>Egypt formalized diplomatic relations with Israel in 1979, and the deal went into effect the following year.</p>
<p>Over the years, the country went on to become Israel’s partner in
besieging Gaza. Israel controls every entry and exit point with Gaza,
except for the Rafah crossing. That is controlled by Egypt, which uses
it to tighten the noose around the coastal enclave’s neck. Even when
Rafah is open, crossing can be <a href="https://gisha.org/en/rafah-crossing-closed-until-further-notice-stranding-thousands/">difficult and dangerous</a>.</p>
<p>In recent years, the US-backed, Israel-allied Egyptian military regime has <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/sisi-destroys-thousands-egyptian-homes-anti-palestinian-campaign">taken extreme measures</a> to reinforce Israel’s siege of Gaza, including the mass demolition of thousands of Egyptian family homes along the border.</p>
<p>But predictably none of that, more than four decades on from the
treaty, was able to achieve a “warm peace” between Egyptians and
Israelis.</p>
<p>Quite the contrary. On Sunday, an Egyptian policeman <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-egypt-attack-tourism-af8a02136c390721a0fdef647394154c">opened fire</a> on Israeli tourists in the coastal city of Alexandria, killing two Israelis and one Egyptian national.</p>
<p>Sunday’s incident serves as an example of how the vast majority of
Egyptian nationals still view Israel as a collective regional enemy.</p>
<p>On Saturday, the Egyptian foreign ministry warned against further escalation and called for “restraint” in a <a href="https://twitter.com/MfaEgypt/status/1710582901912338745">statement</a>.</p>
<p>Egypt urged international efforts for urgent intervention to halt the
escalation and ensure that Israel “ceases the attacks and provocative
actions against the Palestinian people.”</p>
<h2>Saudi wedding in jeopardy</h2>
<p>So much for the first.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/saudi-arabia">Saudi Arabia</a>, which had been <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/omar-karmi/saudi-israeli-romance-its-complicated">gearing up</a> to become Israel’s newest bride, now finds itself facing a major obstacle.</p>
<p>On Saturday, Saudi Arabia <a href="https://twitter.com/KSAmofaEN/status/1710629609757086172">called</a> “for an immediate halt to the escalation between the two sides.”</p>
<p>The Gulf state said the escalation was the result of “the continued
occupation, the deprivation of the Palestinian people of their
legitimate rights, and the repetition of systematic provocations against
its sanctities.”</p>
<p>The statement called for the activation of a “peace process that leads to the two-state solution.”</p>
<p>Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had presented the prospect of a
normalization agreement with Israel under the guise of offering
concessions for Palestinians, as he <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6337512022112">told</a> Fox News in an exclusive television interview last month.</p>
<p>“Every day, we get closer,” MBS told the US broadcaster, but emphasized that “for us, the Palestinian issue is very important.”</p>
<p>He added that if a breakthrough in negotiations involves meeting
Palestinians’ “needs” and fostering “calm” in the region, he is prepared
to collaborate with whoever governs the apartheid state.</p>
<p>Now, not only does that appear implausible in light of a Palestinian
uprising that is rewriting its own rulebook of engagement with the
Israelis, but after Saturday’s events, it will be a tough task for the
Biden administration to convince the Israelis to even pretend to want to
offer crumbs to the Palestinians.</p>
<p>US officials are <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-08/ty-article-live/over-250-israelis-killed-1-590-wounded-civilians-and-soldiers-held-hostage-in-gaza/0000018b-0cd2-d8fc-adff-6dfe855e0000">reportedly</a> working to try to keep efforts at achieving normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel alive.</p>
<p>“Look, who opposes normalization? Hamas, Hizballah, Iran. So it
wouldn’t be a surprise that part of the motivation may have been to
disrupt efforts to bring Saudi Arabia and Israel together,” Secretary of
State Antony Blinken <a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-with-dana-bash-of-cnns-state-of-the-union-3/">told</a> CNN.</p>
<p>“It speaks to the fact that if we could achieve normalization, which
is incredibly difficult,” Blinken added, “it would bring greater
stability to the region.”</p>
<p>Blinken continued that “normalization cannot be a substitute for Israelis and Palestinians resolving their differences.”</p>
<p>Before the beginning of the military confrontation on Saturday,
Israeli officials were already making no pretenses about their
objectives in entering a deal with Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>“We will not make any concessions to the Palestinians, it’s a
fiction,” Israel’s ultra-far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-insists-no-concessions-to-palestinians-in-exchange-for-ties-with-saudis/">told</a> Israeli army radio last month.</p>
<p>“Fiction” was right, and it debunked any assertion that these agreements benefit Palestinians.</p>
<p>But now the facade of concessions has been unmasked for the smokescreen it actually is.</p>
<p>The public relations messaging of the <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/abraham-accords">Abraham Accords</a>
has consistently centered on false claims of achieving something for
Palestinian rights, when, in fact, the opposite is true. Palestinians
always pay the price for such agreements.</p>
<p>Jordan’s King Abdullah <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-02/ty-article/.highlight/saudi-progress-with-israel-parachutes-over-palestine-frustrates-jordans-abdullah/0000018a-ec94-d12f-afbf-edd5acbe0000">expressed caution</a> regarding any enthusiasm for a Saudi-Israeli deal when he spoke at the UN General Assembly last month.</p>
<p>“This belief, by some in the region, that you can parachute over
Palestine, deal with the Arabs and work your way back – that does not
work,” King Abdullah said.</p>
<p>“And even those countries that have Abraham Accords with Israel have
difficulty moving publicly on those issues when Israelis and
Palestinians are dying,” he added. “So unless we solve this problem,
there will never be a true peace.”</p>
<p>Jordan is an integral component of US regional hegemony and shares
Israel’s longest border. But ever since the Abraham Accords, the kingdom
no longer enjoyed the distinction of being – along with Egypt – one of
only two countries in the region to have diplomatic relations with
Israel, diminishing its diplomatic status.</p>
<h2>Whitewashing Israel’s responsibility</h2>
<p>The United Arab Emirates, the initiator of those accords, <a href="https://wam.ae/en/details/1395303206611">whitewashed</a>
Israel’s responsibility and simply “expressed great concern regarding
the escalation of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.”</p>
<p>The Gulf state didn’t address Israel’s actions at Palestinian holy
sites, despite Hamas leaders citing these provocations at al-Aqsa as a
cause for the surprise attack.</p>
<p>Similarly, Bahrain’s foreign ministry also <a href="https://www.mofa.gov.bh/Default.aspx?tabid=7824&language=en-US&ItemId=22652">issued</a> a muted statement, downplaying Israel’s involvement and urging restraint.</p>
<p>Qatar, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel but often
mediates ceasefires between it and Palestinian resistance fighters,
minced less words in its takedown of Israel, saying that Israel’s
provocations are what led to this escalation.</p>
<p>Qatar <a href="https://twitter.com/MofaQatar_EN/status/1710629952830234729">said</a>
it “holds Israel solely responsible for the ongoing escalation due to
its ongoing violations of the rights of the Palestinian people.”</p>
<p>Qatar called on Israel to “stop its flagrant violations of
international law, respect the resolutions of international legitimacy
and the historical rights of the Palestinian people, and to prevent
these events from being used as a pretext to ignite a new asymmetric war
against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”</p>
<p>The Gulf state’s statement similarly invoked the two-state solution
without explicitly mentioning it, calling for the establishment of a
Palestinian state on “the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its
capital.”</p>
<h2>Not-so-silent majority</h2>
<p>Unlike the timid responses of most of their leaders, the majority of
the Arab population clearly stands with the Palestinian people in their
struggle for liberation from Israeli occupation and settler-colonialism.</p>
<p>Thousands of Yemenis gathered in the streets of their capital, Sanaa, to express their support for Palestinians.</p>
<p>Many came out in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, in support of Palestinians, despite their government’s relationship with Israel.
</p>
Demonstrators gathered in the vicinity of the Israeli embassy in Amman
on Saturday to show solidarity with Palestinians and reject their
country’s relations with Israel.
Others protested in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait and Iran as well,
underlining their support for Palestinians.
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