The announcement came nearly a month after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced it has decided to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel.
No wise person should be unhappy with normalization of ties between countries. However, the point is that Israel is a thief. It has stolen the lands of Palestinians and been collectively brutalizing the Palestinians who have been struggling to liberate their lands from occupation.
The sad point of the story is that the UAE and Bahrain are normalizing ties with the Tel Aviv regime who has not even agreed to cease its plan to annex the West Bank, let alone return to the 1967 borders.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has only said it will suspend annexations in return for normalization of ties.
Khalil Jahshan, executive director at the Arab Center of Washington, has said Saudi acquiescence was key to Bahrain's decision. "It is a purely Saudi decision,” Jahshan said, according to al Jazeera.
Most probably, some other Arab nations will follow the UAE and Bahrain to establish ties with Israel. It is just a matter of time. Probably they would do so before the November 3 presidential elections in the US in which Trump is seeking reelection.
The decisions by the UAE and Bahrain are an endorsement of the occupation of the Palestinian lands and injustice against the Palestinians.
Moreover, these countries are indirectly confirming Trump’s decision in relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (which Palestinians want its Eastern part as their future capital), ordering the PLO to close its office in Washington, and recognizing the Israeli annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights.
Even most European countries, which have been supporting Israel for decades, are pushing for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 which oblige Israel to withdraw from the lands that it had occupied in the 1967 and 1973 wars. They are fiercely critical of Israel to annex the West Bank and have warned about moving embassies to Jerusalem before Palestinians and Israeli agree on the sharing of the city.
If Israel really wanted peace with the Palestinians, its conflicts with Palestinians should not have lasted for more than seven decades.
This rush by Persian Gulf Arab states to normalize ties with Israel is surprising and suspicious. Most probably the decision to establish ties Israel has been taken long before but they are being formally announced now to increase the chances of Trump in the elections. They wish to reward Trump because he has introduced the harshest sanctions in history against Iran in accordance with his “maximum pressure” policy against Tehran.
The flattery by certain Arab states to placate criminal Netanyahu and deceptive Trump is annoying.
Arab countries, especially those on the southern shores of Persian Gulf, which don’t share borders with Israel, are not in need of ties with Israel. It is Israel that is buying legitimacy for its illegitimate acts.
The history will not forgive Bahrain, the UAE, and other countries that are on the line to normalize ties with Israel.
They are truly rewarding Netanyahu who, according to the International Criminal Court (ICC), has allegedly committed war crimes in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
The ICC chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, announced in December 2019 that there was a “reasonable basis” to believe that Israeli authorities had committed war crimes by moving Israeli civilians into the West Bank to live in settlements.
These Arab states are even turning their back to the proposal by the late King Abdullah who put forward “land for peace” initiative.
Surely, Israel will go ahead with its annexation of the West Bank and will crucify more Palestinians regardless of ties with Bahrain, the UAE, and others on the line.
The criminal is just get rewarded.
First Published in Tehran Times
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