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The decision of the Arab League to refuse to condemn the moves of the UAE and Bahrain to normalize relations with Israel and focus instead on the Turkish threat is a pivotal moment in Middle Eastern politics. The regional order, which dominated the Middle East for three-quarters of a century, is no more. Once an outsider in the minority, today Israel finds itself standing with the strong axis of regional Arab powers.
Last Wednesday in the meeting of the League of Arab States Council, the 154th regular session at the ministerial level, the Palestinian Authority received its most important wakeup call yet, being snubbed by the very organization that once oversaw its establishment. This major development in regional politics indicates the beginning of a transformative era of Arab politics in which willingness to accept Israel becomes a cornerstone of regional trust.
“You will have to wait.”
After the announcement of the Israel-UAE agreement on August 13th, the PA leadership rushed to request an emergency meeting of the Arab League to discuss the alleged “stab in the back.” Saed Erakat, Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the PLO, who was just appointed to be a lecturer at Harvard, tried to call the Secretary-General of the League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who avoided taking his calls for days. This enraged Erekat who spoke out to the media on August 16th complaining the Arab League is ignoring the PA. But even his and Abbas’s fiery comments failed to create the effect they were hoping for, as it took many more days till the office of Aboul Gheit responded with, “There will be no call for an emergency meeting, and you will have to wait for the regular meeting of the League taking place on September 9th.” The PA rushed to call the foreign ministers of Arab states, but failed to secure support for their call for the emergency meeting but from the poorest two Arab countries, Yemen and Somalia.
The message sent to the PA couldn’t be clearer. The agenda of Arab action can no longer accommodate their erratic behavior. Instead of the Palestinian leaders receiving the message as a sign of a dawn of a new day, they doubled down on their condemnation of Arab states and the Arab League itself. On September 3rd, in a meeting of the Secretaries-General of the Palestinian Factions, chaired by Mahmoud Abbas and broadcasted in real-time on Palestinian TV, various Palestinian leaders used their time to hurl insults at the UAE, its leadership, the Gulf countries, and in one instance call Palestinian ex-pats in the UAE to sabotage their host country. The Gulf did not take to it lightly, however. Following the hysterical spectacle, the GCC issued an official statement condemning the insults and the provocation of the PLO, and demanding a formal apology from Abbas himself.
Read the full article here.
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