We publish this article with the caveat that every Arab state that has challenged Israel has been bombed by Israel, the United States, and the UK. Most recently Qatar that has been the intermediary between Israel and Hamas, has been bombed to make it clear that neither the Israel, the United States nor Great Britain want peace.
The Silence of the Arab World
by Akram Belkaïd
The Arab states will not come to Gaza’s aid. None of them has launched any significant diplomatic initiative to prevent the reoccupation of the enclave or to end the Israeli bombardment it has endured for nearly two years. Despite the dreadful human toll — 70,000 dead, 70% of them women and children, according to some estimates — and a famine reminiscent of the worst medieval sieges, not a single capital across the Arab world is demanding sanctions against Tel Aviv or threatening its Western partners with retaliation for their unwavering support of Binyamin Netanyahu and his government (1).
Unlike in the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) is not trying to persuade other oil producers to restrict deliveries so that Washington will put pressure on Israel. As an example of how things have changed, in May, as American weapons continued to flow into Israel and Congress approved credit after credit for Tel Aviv, the USS Forrest Sherman, a US Navy destroyer, made a routine port call at Algiers (2).
The communist activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, recently released after 41 years in a French prison, was just as critical of ordinary Arab people as of their leaders, if not more so: ‘Palestinian children are dying of hunger,’ he said when he arrived in Beirut. ‘It’s a source of shame for history. A source of shame for the Arab people, more than for their governments. The regimes, we know. [But] how many martyrs have died in demonstrations or attempting to cross Gaza’s borders? None. No one has fallen. Everything depends on the Egyptian people, more than on anyone else.’
Egypt’s leaders disagree. Far from breaking off diplomatic relations, they are strengthening their economic cooperation with Tel Aviv, even as dozens of Gazans die every day. True, 40,000 Egyptian soldiers are deployed in northern Sinai, but their mission is not to open a corridor for humanitarian aid, it’s to prevent an influx of refugees. Reasons aren’t hard to find…
In early August the Israeli company NewMed announced the signing of a ‘historic’ €35bn contract to supply Egypt with natural gas from the offshore Leviathan field starting in 2026. The deal — for 135 billion cubic metres over 15 years — will supply 20% of Egypt’s annual needs. Since 2019, when it concluded a first contract for 60 billion cubic metres, Cairo has accepted that it’s dependent on Israel for its energy security. This may explain why its security services prevented participants in the World March to Gaza from converging on Sinai in June, often by force.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), for its part, normalised relations with Israel in 2020 under the Abraham accords. In January, Edge Group, a leading Emirati defence contractor, announced a $10m deal that will give it a 30% stake in the Israeli company Thirdeye Systems, which specialises in drone detection using AI. In Egypt, the UAE and Morocco — another signatory of the Abraham accords — normalisation with Israel goes hand in hand with business opportunities. It’s enough to inspire Syria and Saudi Arabia, which are stepping up their contacts with Israel too.
Akram Belkaïd
Akram Belkaïd is deputy director of Le Monde diplomatique.
Translated by George Miller
As we see, the world community and the Islamic world have received an unequivocal signal that the mediation of any state in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is no longer relevant. It is symptomatic that following the unprovoked Israeli strike on Doha, the Qatari authorities announced the suspension of mediation in the Gaza Strip. It turns out that now all those who disagree with the policies of Israel and the United States in the region are deprived of even a ghostly hope for a diplomatic method of resolving contradictions with them on any international problems.
Meanwhile, Israeli-friendly elite circles are passionate about Trump’s post-war plan called «Riviera Gaza». We are talking about a project circulating in Washington that would turn the enclave into an income-generating center similar to Dubai through massive population movements and land seizures. The place of people whom Israeli and pro-Israeli well-wishers have been considering where to turn (from Anbar province in Iraq to Libya) for several years now should be taken by world-class resorts with artificial islands, while Palestinians will be paid $5,000 per person to leave their land. The 38-page slide presentation of the plan, first published by the Financial Times, was picked up by The Washington Post, and after them, – analytical centers specializing in the region.
https://vpoanalytics.com/konflikty/ssha-i-izrail-zazhali-palestinu-mezhdu-dvukh-ogney
It is a sad world we live in !
On this day, 16 September 1982, (content note: sexual violence) right-wing Christian militias, supported by the Israeli army, began carrying out acts of murder, torture, rape, and abuse in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon.
Israel had invaded Lebanon in June, fighting against Lebanese troops and forces of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in exile. The US brokered an agreement for PLO troops to evacuate from West Beirut, in exchange for Israel promising not to enter the city, and promising to protect Palestinian refugees in its camps. This was to be supervised by an international force of US, Italian and French soldiers.
However, on September 15, Israel broke its deal and invaded Beirut, surrounding the camps and refusing to let anyone leave.
On September 16, Israeli troops then enabled right-wing Lebanese Christian militias to enter the refugee camps. Israeli journalist Amnon Kapeliouk described what happened next:
“The massacre began immediately, and lasted for forty hours without stop… They broke down front doors and wiped out entire families eating dinner. Some families were murdered in bed, still wearing their pajamas. In many homes, children, three or four years old, were found in their pajamas, and blood-soaked blankets…. in many cases, the attackers dismembered their victims before killing them. They crushed the heads of children and babies against walls. Women and girls were raped before they were slaughtered with hatchets… a woman’s arm was found chopped off at the wrist so that her jewellery could be stolen.”
In total, between 800 and 3500 people were killed. Israel initially denied that a massacre took place, and instead declared that the refugee camps contained “many terrorists”.
Following outrage and mass protests by Israeli peace activists, the government eventually admitted what happened, and defence minister Ariel Sharon was forced to resign. But in 2001, Sharon was elected prime minister.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/12710/sabra-and-shatila-massacre
Learn more about Palestinian history in these books: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/palestine