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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/03/27/arab-failures-the-unspoken-complicity-in-israels-genocide/">counterpunch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Arab Failures: The Unspoken Complicity in Israel's Genocide</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Ramzy Baroud</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">Math 27, 2025</div>
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<div id="gmail-attachment_358675" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-358675" src="https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/mohamed-nohassi-aDTMGRdx28w-unsplash-680x441.jpg" alt="" width="394" height="256" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-358675" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Image by Mohamed Nohassi.</p></div>
<p>Explaining Arab political failure to challenge Israel through
traditional analysis—such as disunity, general weakness, and a failure
to prioritize Palestine—does not capture the full picture.</p>
<p>The idea that Israel is brutalizing Palestinians simply because the
Arabs are too weak to challenge the Benjamin Netanyahu government—or any
government—implies that, in theory, Arab regimes could unite around
Palestine. However, this view oversimplifies the matter.</p>
<p>Many well-meaning pro-Palestine commentators have long urged Arab nations to <a href="https://pchrgaza.org/israel-resumes-military-offensive-and-escalates-genocide-endangering-2-3-million-lives-in-gaza/">unite</a>,
pressure Washington to reassess its unwavering support for Israel, and
take decisive actions to lift the siege on Gaza, among other crucial
steps.</p>
<p>While these steps may hold some value, the reality is far more
complex, and such wishful thinking is unlikely to change the behavior of
Arab governments. These regimes are more concerned with sustaining or
returning to some form of status quo—one in which Palestine’s liberation
remains a secondary priority.</p>
<p>Since the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/23/nx-s1-5337938/palestinian-deaths-gaza-israel#:~:text=On%20Oct.%207%2C%202023%2C,end%20the%20war%20have%20stalled.">start</a> of the Israeli genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023, the Arab position on Israel has been weak at best, and treasonous at worst.</p>
<p>Some Arab governments even went so far as to <a href="https://www.presstv.ir/doc/Detail/2023/11/17/714788/Bahrain-condemns-Hamas-Israel-war-Gaza">condemn</a> Palestinian resistance in United Nations debates. While countries like China and Russia at least <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3253398/israel-says-chinas-support-palestinian-right-self-defence-may-be-seen-support-october-7-attack">attempted</a> to contextualize the October 7 Hamas assault on Israeli occupation forces <a href="https://euromedmonitor.org/en/gaza">imposing</a> a brutal siege on Gaza, countries like Bahrain <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/bahrain-leader-condemns-hamas-oct-7-onslaught-calls-for-release-of-hostages/">placed</a> the blame squarely on the Palestinians.</p>
<p>With a few exceptions, it took Arab governments weeks—or even
months—to develop a relatively strong stance that condemned the Israeli
offensive in any meaningful terms.</p>
<p>Though the rhetoric began to shift slowly, the actions did not
follow. While the Ansarallah movement in Yemen, alongside other Arab
non-state actors, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-18/why-yemen-s-houthis-are-the-target-of-us-airstrikes">attempted</a> to impose some form of pressure on Israel through a blockade, Arab countries instead <a href="https://www.newarab.com/analysis/will-uae-israel-land-corridor-replace-red-sea-routes">worked</a> to ensure Israel could withstand the potential consequences of its isolation.</p>
<p>In his book <em>War</em>, Bob Woodward <a href="https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-must-defeat-hamas-arab-leaders-told-blinken-days-after-7-oct-report">disclosed</a>
that some Arab governments told then-US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken that they had no objections to Israel’s efforts to crush
Palestinian resistance. However, some were concerned about the media
images of mutilated Palestinian civilians, which could stir public
unrest in their own countries.</p>
<p>That public unrest never materialized, and with time, the genocide,
famine, and cries for help in Gaza were normalized as yet another tragic
event, not unlike the war in Sudan or the strife in Syria.</p>
<p>For 15 months of relentless Israeli genocide that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/23/nx-s1-5337938/palestinian-deaths-gaza-israel#:~:text=On%20Oct.%207%2C%202023%2C,end%20the%20war%20have%20stalled.">resulted</a>
in the killing and wounding of over 162,000 Palestinians in Gaza,
official Arab political institutions remained largely irrelevant in
ending the war. The US Biden administration was emboldened by such Arab
inaction, continuing to <a href="https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48162">push</a> for greater normalization between Arab countries and Israel—even in the face of over 15,000 children <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/number-children-missing-separated-families-gaza-high-21000/story?id=111365036">killed</a> in Gaza in the most brutal ways imaginable.</p>
<p>While the moral failures of the West, the shortcomings of
international law, and the criminal actions of Biden and his
administration have been widely criticized, for serving as a shield for
Israel’s war crimes, the complicity of Arab governments in enabling
these atrocities is often ignored.</p>
<p>The Arabs have, in fact, played a more significant role in the
Israeli atrocities in Gaza than we often recognize. Some through their
silence, and others through direct <a href="https://www.moec.gov.ae/en/cepa_israel">collaboration</a> with Israel.</p>
<p>Throughout the war, reports surfaced indicating that some Arab countries actively <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250318-uae-secretly-lobbying-us-to-work-against-egypts-post-war-gaza-reconstruction-plan-officials-say/">lobbied</a>
in Washington on behalf of Israel, advocating against an Egyptian-Arab
League proposal aimed at reconstructing Gaza without ethnically
cleansing its population—an idea <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/trumps-plan-to-ethnically-cleanse-gaza-is-illegal-says-un-backed-judge/">promoted</a> by the Trump Administration and Israel.</p>
<p>The Egyptian proposal, which was unanimously <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/4/what-is-egypts-plan-for-the-reconstruction-of-gaza">accepted</a>
by Arab countries at their summit on March 4, represented the strongest
and most unified stance taken by the Arab world during the war.</p>
<p>The proposal, which was rejected by Israel and dismissed by the US,
helped shift discourse in the US around the subject of ethnic cleansing.
It ultimately led to comments made on March 12 by Trump during a
meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin where he <a href="https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-845772">stated</a> that “No one’s expelling anyone from Gaza.”</p>
<p>For some Arab states o actively oppose the only relatively strong
Arab position signals that the issue of Arab failures in Palestine goes
beyond mere disunity or incompetence—it reflects a much darker and more
cynical reality. Some Arabs align their interests with Israel, where a
free Palestine isn’t just a non-issue, but a threat.</p>
<p>The same applies to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, which <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/12/20/in-collaboration-with-the-us-israel-palestinian-authority-escalates-crackdown-on-resistance-in-west-bank/">continues</a>
to work hand in hand with Israel to suppress any form of resistance in
the West Bank. Its concern in Gaza is not about ending the genocide, but
ensuring the marginalization of its Palestinian rivals, particularly
Hamas.</p>
<p>Thus, blaming the PA for mere ‘weakness,’ for ‘not doing enough,’ or
for failing to unify the Palestinian ranks is a misreading of the
situation. The priorities of Mahmoud Abbas and his PA allies are far
different: securing relative power over Palestinians, a power that can
only be sustained through Israeli military dominance.</p>
<p>These are difficult, yet critical truths, as they allow us to reframe
the conversation, moving away from the false assumption that Arab unity
will resolve everything.</p>
<p>The flaw in the unity theory is that it naively assumes Arab regimes inherently reject Israeli occupation and support Palestine.</p>
<p>While some Arab governments are genuinely outraged by Israel’s
criminal behavior and growingly frustrated by the US’ irrational
policies in the region, others are driven by self-interest: their <a href="https://rusi.org/publication/irans-nuclear-diplomacy-how-gulf-feels-threatened">animosity</a>
toward Iran and fear of rising Arab non-state actors. They are equally
concerned about instability in the region, which threatens their hold on
power amid a rapidly shifting world order.</p>
<p>As solidarity with Palestine has increasingly expanded from the
global South to the global majority, Arabs remain largely ineffective,
fearing that significant political change in the region could directly
challenge their own position. What they fail to understand is that their
silence, or their active support for Israel, may very well lead to
their own downfall.</p>
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<em>Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “</em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"><em>These Chains Will Be Broken</em></a><em>:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons”
(Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research
Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim
University (IZU). His website is </em><a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/"><em>www.ramzybaroud.net</em></a>
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