The Fairytale of Arab Unity: Israeli-Arab Ties Strengthen

Once upon a time, an anticolonial fervor bound the Arabic-speaking countries together. Once upon a time, the Arab Enlightenment, Al-Nahda, prompted the espousement of Nasser’s and Gadaffi’s quixotic, pan-Arab ideals. Once upon a time, the Palestinian plight was something other Arabs, a people all too familiar with the consequences of colonial pursuit, could relate to; still fresh in my great-grandmother’s mind 50 years later was the sound of bagpipes from the British occupation in Egypt. But, the SWANA region has become fragmented over the years. The memory of occupation is far more distant among the newer generations, and solidarity with Palestine has only diminished as a result. 

This dwindling support is evident in regional pro-Israel policy shifts. Until recently, there had been bad blood between the Gulf States and Israel. Saudi Arabia, especially, had remained a staunch supporter of the Palestinians — in 1973, it even enforced an oil embargo against the U.S. for backing Israel during the Yom Kippur War. This demonstration of Saudi’s past willingness to jeopardize its valuable American alliance proved its loyalty to the Palestinian cause. That is why the world was stunned when late last year, Saudi Arabia appeared to be open to normalization with Israel. This paradigm shift followed the signing of the Abraham Accords, which afforded fellow GCC members, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, normal diplomatic relations with Israel. 

During his rule, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud refused any normalization until Israel restored the 1967 borders. But his son, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who has taken over from the King almost entirely, is not as attached to the Palestinian cause as his father. His desire to appease the West and safeguard his Kingdom’s regional hegemony against Iran undoubtedly informed his choice to normalize ties with Israel.

The potency of U.S. influence cannot be understated when analyzing the diplomatic reordering of the SWANA region. In September 2020, Sudan joined the Abraham accords with the promise that the U.S. remove it from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and lift sanctions. Similarly, Morocco’s December 2020 move to join the agreement was largely predicated on Washington’s conditional pledge to affirm Morocco’s claim over the disputed Western Sahara. In effect, Palestinians, according to Ahmad Majdalani, member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, feel abandoned “by the Arab nation(s) leaving them to remain locked in an untenable status quo.” As a result of U.S. sway in the region, SWANA diplomatic decisions are almost always made at the expense of Palestine. Consequently, Israel is rewarded for conceding nothing.

This trend has continued, this time in Jordan. Despite a 1994 Peace Treaty, the Hashemite Kindom’s relationship with Israel has been tenuous over the past two decades, largely due to King Abdullah’s sympathy for Jordan's sizeable and ever-growing Palestinian population. At the core of Jordanian foreign policy has been the demand for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with an East Jerusalem capital. Under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordan-Israel bilateral relations grew icy. However, one of the top priorities of the new premier, Naftali Bennet, is to thaw those relations. In his bid to do this, he and Jordan engaged in what Gidon Bromberg, Israel’s director of the regional environmental group EcoPeace Middle East, said is the “largest water sale in the history of the two countries.” This water deal stipulates that the H2O-deficient Kingdom is set to receive double the amount of fresh water from Israel than it had before. But, to Jordanian English Track 1A, Sami Omaish, this deal is far from magnanimous. “Israel diverts water from the Jordan River. It is hypocritical that they steal Jordanian water and then sell it back for Jordanian money.”

However, Jordan’s top envoy does not seem to be phased by this apparent injustice. He reported that he and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid intend for this to be the first in a series of deals towards “a just and comprehensive peace” between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom.

On the same day as the water deal, Jordan accused Israel of committing war crimes for the forced eviction of Palestinians from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. But despite Amman’s frequent condemnations of Israeli human rights abuses, there is little to no firm action to match its threatening rhetoric. Perhaps it is simply advantageous for a country in drought to be chummy with one of the world’s leaders in desalination. Or maybe King Abdullah seeks diplomatic realignment with Israel to maintain the $1.5 billion in annual aid from pro-Israel lawmakers in Washington. Regardless of the reasoning, Jordan’s support as one of Palestine’s most devoted advocates is waning.

Palestine found a home in what senior associate member of Oxford’s St. Antony’s College, Hussein Agha, calls the “Third World Movement,” a period during the mid-20th century characterized by pushes for liberationism and anti-colonialism. However, according to Agha, “many of the Palestinians’ former Third World allies (like India and Vietnam) have chosen economic self-interest in place of ideological commitment.” Long ago, Palestine was at the heart of the intoxicating idea of Arab solidarity. Now, it struggles to retain its legitimacy in an increasingly splintered SWANA region. In light of warming relations with Israel across the Arab world, it seems as though Palestine’s last true allies are deserting.