Israel’s invasion of the Arab capitals

An Israeli delegation will visit the Kingdom of Bahrain on Sunday, adding a new link to the chain of Arab normalisation with Israel. This is occurring at a time when Arab countries are being isolated from their national surroundings and depth, including the Palestinian Authority, which is suffering from a silent boycott as the PA President is in undeclared “isolation” because he rejects the “deal of the century”.

The delegation will participate in the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting. It is both strange to see, and unusual, that Israel’s participation in the meeting was announced in a local pro-government newspaper, Akhbar Al Khaleej. The newspaper quoted a Bahraini official in its reporting of this information.

It is also strange that the official could announce explicitly the visit of the Israelis but had no knowledge of whether or not a delegation from Qatar would be there. This suggests that it is now easier for Israeli delegations to enter some Arab countries than it is for Qataris. Moreover, there is currently no ground, air or sea links between Doha and Manama, which are only a few dozen kilometres away from each other.

The Arab world is witnessing an unprecedented deterioration as more governments are held in Israel’s embrace. Many Arab regimes are struggling to convince their people that Israel is better than some of their Arab brothers, a theory that is contrary to reason, logic and the proper understanding of a normal human being. Today, in the Arab world, there are countries hosting Israeli delegations, while their doors, borders, airspace and airports are closed to Arabs. In the Arab world, some countries voted in favour of the US-Canada-Mexico hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup rather than Morocco. There are Arab governments which support and fund destabilising projects beyond and within the Arab world, while refusing to spare funds for a country like Jordan to provide it with development aid that would revive its economy. How do the Arabs and their governments think? Where did they get the mindset to fight their friends? If the Arabs have governments following this unfortunate approach, where do they find the people to encourage and support them?

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With the authorities in Manama making a point of announcing the visit of the Israelis, how do the people of Bahrain feel? Will they welcome them? Will they go out to greet the delegation with flowers? Of course not, and the clue to all of this is simple; the government has had secret relations with Israel for years and now wants to go public.

Why? What difference would it make as long as Bahrain’s interests and Israel’s interests are already being served? The main point here is that there are plans for the entire region to reach a new arrangement. I fear that this is a prelude to forcing the Palestinians to accept a new deal that goes beyond the constants that neither the late President Yasser Arafat nor his predecessors or successors agreed to concede, including arrangements related to the occupied city of Jerusalem, six million Palestinian refugees and other important strategic issues.

In conclusion, talk of an official Israeli delegation openly visiting an Arab capital cannot remain within a superficial and shallow context. It means that we are facing a new Arab and regional reality that is gradually being imposed through events such as the World Heritage Committee meeting or other programmes that do not concern us. What does concern us, though, is the fact that there is an Israeli invasion of Arab capitals in preparation for turning secret relations into public normalisation. That should worry us all.

This article first appeared in Arabic in Arabi21 on 19 June 2018

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.