November 22, 2020
Bahrain, Sudan, UAE deals with Israel:
Arabs are abandoning Palestinians
By Nurul Amin Malik
Last month three Arab states - Bahrain, Sudan and United Arab Emirates – recognized Israel.
Saudi Arabia is likely to follow next despite some feeble opposition from a certain quarter. It seems inconceivable that the Saudi government will let down their friends in Washington.
Too much is at stake. In all likelihood, it is under American pressure that this deal has come about, and moreover, it comes as no surprise that the Abraham Accord, as it is known, was signed in the White House on October 15. No doubt, this is a great victory for both the US and Israel.
Not surprisingly, the move by the UAE to establish formal ties with Israel has sent shock waves across the heartland of Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and some other Muslim countries.
One’s mind hurtles back to the time when the late Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan Al Nahyan (the first President of the United Arab Emirates) had openly denounced Israel for committing atrocities against the defenseless, slingshot-toting Palestinians and called it the ‘enemy’. He was not the only one to denounce Israel. Muslim leaders all over the world did so.
It was unimaginable in his time that any Muslim country, leave alone his own nebbish country would ever have formal ties with the enemy. The impossible has happened and it has become the third country after Egypt and Jordan to do so.
Things are likely to move on from here and some other Muslim countries will definitely follow suit. It is on the cards.
The US and the UAE have had strategic relationship since the first Gulf War. The Americans also have an Air Base at Al Dhafra. Moreover, the UAE officials have been having secret meetings with the Israelis. But it was all hush hush.
Question is what made the US pressurize the UAE into establishing diplomatic ties with Israel? No doubt, their strategic objectives come first, and they are given priority over humanitarian objectives like poverty alleviation and disease.
America’s daily expenditure on arms production far exceeds the annual income of some of the African states. Their defense budget alone runs into hundreds of billions of dollars.
In the wake of this deal will come the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, that is surely going to join hands with the CIA, and with them, will come an armful of tricks.
Iran will be targeted first because of its nuclear program. Even a military strike against it cannot be ruled out. The US air bases are all over the Middle East. They are there to be used in times of need. How easy it is for them to use the Weapons of Mass Destruction strategy against the Iranian or any other weak country for that matter.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has denounced this deal, and rightly so because it feels threatened.
Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has also made it clear that Pakistan will not support any such peace deal.
The Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan has made his country’s stance clear too.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has not budged an inch from his stance of occupation of Palestinian land.
This is mainly why the leaders of the Muslim countries have rejected it outright.
With such kind of intransigence on the part of the Israelis, what, one may ask, has the UAE gained from this peace deal except a servile genuflection to the warlords?
This deal hardly seems likely to do the UAE much good. Should a war break out between Iran and Israel, what will be the fate of the UAE? It might well be a doomsday scenario.
Both Israel and India are now at a hugging distance from each other. We in Pakistan feel sandwiched in between them. We in Pakistan would have felt the heat had China not been a partner in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with Pakistan, and might well have paid a price for this act of chutzpa.
But the fact remains that from now on the Star of David will soon start fluttering all over the Middle East.
All principles can be pushed to the back burner where interests are involved.
Right now it lies in the interest of the Arabs to be in the good books of the US.
So what if the Palestinians are driven away from their homes or even ruthlessly exterminated? This is nothing new.
Nurul Amin Malik is Lahore-based writer.
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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