Reportage / Religion 22.03.2021

The Church and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Read the original version The Pope’s bold visit to Iraq prompts recollections of my attempts, over the years, to encourage European Christians to play a larger role in the effort to break the political deadlock of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and…

Abraham B. Yehoshua

The Israeli-Palestinian question is one of the longest and most stubborn conflicts since the First World War, despite the many attempts by powerful forces to resolve it. The numerous reasons for the impasse are beyond the scope of this article, but I do want to note that as opposed to territorial conflicts elsewhere, this one involves the entire territory and not just a part of it. In addition to the maximalist territorialism of both sides, underlying the Jewish-Palestinian conflict is the dangerous obstacle of the Old City of Jerusalem. The breathtaking plateau of the Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock, considered the third most important religious site in the Muslim world, is built upon the ruins of the Jewish Temple that was destroyed in the year 70 AD.  

The Pope’s visit to Iraq is also significant in that it reminds the wider world that the Arab world is not homogenously Muslim, but includes Arab believers in Christianity.  In the past, if to a lesser degree today, Palestinian intellectuals and other elites were often adherents of Christianity.  Some Palestinian Christians were actively opposed to Zionism, while others, mainly members of the Palestinian communist party, recognized the legitimacy of the United Nations Partition Plan of 1947 that granted the Jews the right to establish a state in part of Palestine, because the Soviet Union had supported the plan. Christianity was born in the land of Israel.  Evidence of its origins in Judaism is apparent not only in the New Testament, but in the presence, throughout this land of my birth, the core of my identity as an Israeli (my family has lived here for six generations), of churches that have always been a source of pride for me and people like me. These Christian sites underscore the cultural, artistic and spiritual pluralism of this small territory that is home to Jews from all over the world.  Moreover, some of the Palestinians living among and beside us are distant descendants of Jews who refused to go into exile after the destruction of the Second Temple and the loss of Jewish independence, and in order to remain loyal to the homeland, they converted to Christianity and later also to Islam.

Christians, especially European Catholics, have a role to play in bringing peace between Israelis and Palestinians, not least regarding the sensitive subject of the holy places in Jerusalem.  The Catholics, responsible in the past for much of the injustice and persecution suffered by European Jews, should take the lead as partners and peacemakers in the creation of a Holy Basin for three faiths, as a means of facilitating Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation.

L'articolo The Church and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict proviene da InsideOver.

The coronavirus pandemic is on the brink of getting completely out of hand in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. Hospitals are not adequately prepared for the increasing number of cases. Meanwhile, the struggling area continues to be severely impacted by the pandemic’s negative economic fallout.

Gaza Needs Help

Gazans are urgently in need of international aid.

“The coming period will be difficult. The number of critical cases is expected to rise due to the lack of medical equipment and shortage of oxygen needed for such cases,” said Rami al-Abadla, director of the Infection Control Department at the General Hospital Administration of the Ministry of Health.

Abadla’s comments come despite the Palestinian Ministry of Health having been able to increase the number of beds specifically set up for COVID-19 patients from 100 to 150 through considerable efforts.

However, these measures are unlikely to be sufficient if the pandemic continues to spread at the same pace as it is now.

Why is Coronavirus Spreading so Rapidly in Gaza?

The intensified spread is aided by extremely inadequate conditions for containing the virus. Almost 2 million people currently live in Gaza’s 360 ​​square kilometer area, resulting in a population density of more than 5,300 inhabitants per square kilometer. In comparison: the EU contains an average of 121 people per square kilometer.

All in all, the circumstances in which Gazans live are severely challenging for limiting the spread of a disease. For instance, a rampant housing shortage and the resulting tight occupancy also provides a perfect breeding ground for the virus and thus an enhanced spread.

Moreover, the economic situation of many Palestinians remains dire. Until recently, the unemployment rate was 49.1 percent. Among young people, it reaches a stunning 70 percent. Around 160,000 jobs have been lost as a result of the pandemic, and the unemployment rate is expected to increase even further.

Underfunding of the UNRWA

Already, around 13,000 Palestinians receive aid from the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). The agency hence finances more people than any employer. However, the UNRWA is currently massively underfunded itself, particularly since the US withdrew its support. Now, vital services could become unsustainable.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has warned of an “imminent collapse of the health-care system in the Gaza Strip due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” especially in light of the aforementioned UNRWA’s financial deficit.

Gaza’s Case Count

Meanwhile, the number of infections is increasing dramatically. There are currently around 1,800 new cases every day in the autonomous areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In total, more than 75,000 infections and over 650 deaths have already been registered in the Palestinian territories.

In Gaza, 32% of daily tests are positive, while 21,461 cases have been registered since the beginning of the pandemic in March.

If the pace continues, the situation will get out of control.

“In 10 days, the health system will become unable to absorb such a hike in cases, and there might be cases that will not find a place at intensive care units,” said Abdelnaser Soboh, World Health Organization Emergency Aid Coordinator in the Gaza Strip.

Will Gaza Impose a Lockdown?

The government is currently considering a lockdown. However, the economic situation makes this a difficult option. Many families are already doing very poorly. The loss of work due to lockdown is likely to make matters worse. In addition, due to the densely populated residential areas, the virus can continue to spread quickly, even in the event of a lockdown.

The Gaza Strip urgently needs rapid medical aid. The international community has been asked for medical equipment, says Fathi Abuwarda, advisor to the Palestinian minister of health. If this help is not provided, the number of infections and deaths will continue to rise.

At least some help is beginning to arrive. On Thursday, November 3, a delegation of Israeli doctors arrived in Gaza delivering medical equipment, providing free treatment as well as medical training.

L'articolo How COVID-19 is Devastating Gaza proviene da InsideOver.

It took Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu twelve hours before congratulating President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris. Even though the writing of President Donald Trump’s defeat had been on the wall, Netanyahu needed a moment to accept that the time of generous gifts and the president’s almost undivided attention has come to an end.

Certain policies affecting Israel are about to change, however, under Joe Biden, the Jewish state will not become irrelevant.

Netanyahu on Trump: ‘Israel’s Best Friend Ever in the White House’

Netanyahu, who did not get along well with President Obama, chose his words deliberately when he assessed what the Trump presidency meant to his country: “Israel’s best friend ever in the White House.”

And understandably so. For in the past four years, the Trump administration has strengthened the Jewish state’s position in the Middle East to an arguably unprecedented extent.

Trump advocated Israel’s sovereignty over the controversial Golan Heights, which the country captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. Also, in contrast to Obama and Biden, Trump approved the building and expansion of Jewish communities in the West Bank. Trump also kept his campaign promise and moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Meanwhile, his Middle East plan, the “deal of the century,” was also widely seen as beneficial to Israel.

Trump’s Crackdown on the Palestinian Authority and Brokering of Arab-Israeli Peace Deals

The White House also demonstratively suspended its financial contributions to the Palestinian Authority and its share of United Nations aid to Palestine. Most recently, Trump brokered “normalization agreements” with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, strengthening Israel’s position and further isolated the Palestinians.

Hence it does not come as a surprise that Israel is mainly pro-Trump. Indeed, according to a National Democracy Institute survey, 70 percent of Jewish Israelis had wanted another term for him.

Biden is a Dedicated Supporter of Israel

However, not all is lost for the Jewish state. Those who feel Biden could engage in a spree of revocation, reversing all of Trump’s policies, or even question America’s unconditional support for Israel do not seem to know the President-elect and his devotion to Israel.

Biden has already made it clear that he will not reverse the decision on America’s embassy in Jerusalem. Nor will the Golan Heights be up for discussion.

Biden’s commitment to Israel goes so far that he applauded the agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. He called the deal a “historic breakthrough” and pledged to convince more countries in the region to sign similar agreements.

What About the Two-State Solution?

However, Biden and Harris do support the two-state solution. The annexation plans of parts of the West Bank, which Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had, should thus be off the table under his administration.

Nonetheless, Netanyahu does not need to fear any demands of significant concessions to the Palestinians from Biden, as Obama attempted.

Biden made this clear during the Democratic primaries when Senator Bernie Sanders – a notorious critic of Israel – suggested that the US use its Israeli support as leverage and seek concessions in favor of the Palestinians.

Biden’s answer was concise and unmistakable, calling Sanders’ idea “bizarre.”

How Will Biden’s Policies Toward Israel Differ from Trump’s?

However, Biden’s policies will differ regarding a reversal of the Trump-instigated withdrawal of economic and humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. Moreover, Biden has also pledged to reopen the US Consulate in East Jerusalem and permit representation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington.

Accordingly, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas quickly announced that he could hardly wait to work with Joe Biden.

Assessing the Biden-Netanyahu Relationship

What will also likely change is the relationship between Netanyahu and the White House. While Biden and Netanyahu have known each other for over 40 years, both Biden and the Democratic Party have not forgotten how Netanyahu fully sided with the Republican party in recent years. Netanyahu also openly supported Mitt Romney in 2012 and railed alongside Republicans against the Iran nuclear deal during his speech in Congress in 2015.

Netanyahu’s open dislike of Obama broke one basic rule of Israeli and American politics: fostering consistently good relations with Republicans and Democrats, like all Israeli prime ministers before him.

However, a US paradigm shift away from unconditional support for Israel towards prioritizing the Palestinians is as inconceivable under Biden as it would have been under Trump, even though the tone and diplomatic approach are about to change.

Moreover, with Biden’s pledge to tackle the coronavirus and help the economy regain traction, the new administration’s focus will undoubtedly shift towards the domestic side for the foreseeable future.

L'articolo What Does the Biden Presidency Mean for Israel? proviene da InsideOver.

Until Hana Tova moved to Tel Aviv as part of her Study Abroad program, she’d seen little to challenge her negative perception of Palestinians. Growing up in a “pretty conservative, Jewish-Zionist, pro-Israel” community in the US, the main message, she says, was that Palestinians are “all terrorists who want to kill us.” Challenging this narrative meant denying Israel’s right to exist or even downplaying the historical suffering of Jews. To make matters worse, her boyfriend’s best friend had been killed by a bomb blast in Israel. Now in Tel Aviv, the ongoing threat of terror attacks meant Hana herself was on constant high alert. 

It came as a shock, then, for Hana to find herself placed in student halls with a Palestinian roommate — and to be aware, all of a sudden, of her own prejudice.

“I don’t want to say I was brainwashed or anything,” she says, “but I was like, I don’t even know this person. Why am I judging?”

Then, one day when they were alone in the student apartment, her roommate opened up. When she was 14 years old, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had raided her village in Palestine and fired through the wall, shooting her in the leg. The power was cut and she lay there, bleeding out in the dark. Luckily for her, her parents — both doctors — attended to her until it was possible to get to a hospital. 

“Who do you blame?” asked Hana. Her roommate replied: “Everybody”. 

For Hana, this was the moment that something shattered; that she saw, for the first time, people on both sides of the conflict as victims. But her experience is rare. In Israel and Palestine, few people from opposite sides of the wall ever meet like this, in conversation rather than conflict. Indeed, their respective leaders strive to keep it that way. 

Israeli citizens are banned by their own government from entering Gaza and most of the West Bank — apart from roads designated for settlers, from which Palestinians are banned. Residents of Gaza are unable to leave their narrow 25-mile strip. Many West Bank residents (including some Amnesty International staff) are subjected to travel bans. The only Israelis most Palestinians will ever meet in person are the occupying soldiers manning the West Bank’s hundreds of checkpoints, patrolling villages or conducting raids. For these Israeli soldiers, most of whom are young adults undertaking mandatory military service, their primary interactions with Palestinians are in the form of dealing with protests or having stones flung at them in anger. 

A Deepening Divide

When everyday life is heavily securitized, it creates a perpetual state of stress, fear and distrust that often spirals into ever-increasing aggression. In a 2019 study, Palestinian anthropologist Rema Hamammi looked at the effect that the ubiquitous, constantly moving military checkpoints have on residents’ state of mind in the West Bank — as well as on the Israeli soldiers who work on them. Her own commute to work used to be a short drive, she wrote, but now the tense stops at different checkpoints manned by a hostile army had made the simple act of getting around “arbitrary and chaotic”. 

These mini-confrontations with power created, she says, “a constant state of uncertainty and anxiety (is it open or closed? Does this permit work or not? What’s the mood of the soldiers?)”. Coupled with the power imbalance, the stress fueled resentment, humiliation and fear — primarily on the part of Palestinian residents, but also for the jittery soldiers left to enact erratic orders in a hostile territory.

Account after account collected by researchers like Hammami, whistleblowers and the Israeli Breaking the Silence project, which interviews returning soldiers, attest that instilling humiliation and fear isn’t an accident: it’s a strategic goal. Even to an outsider, the toxic dynamic is clear each time you pass through a checkpoint and witness how these interactions play out in petty power plays and the disdain written on the faces of people who openly despise one another.

To make matters worse, Israel’s “people’s army” conscription model means its military overwhelmingly comprises teenagers and young adults. Every single Israeli soldier we came into contact with in the West Bank while reporting this story was an adolescent male — the worst-performing demographic for impulse control, ability to judge genuine threats or respond appropriately to perceived aggression. Given the circumstances, it’s hardly surprising that frightened teenage boys, handed guns and left to fend for themselves in occupied territory, so often handle the pressure badly. 

Worse, the vindictive dynamic frequently escalates into revenge operations on both sides of the conflict, with harrowing consequences. In April, militants in Gaza responded to Trump’s proposed “peace” deal by releasing helium party balloons carrying explosives into Israel, some of which landed in a kindergarten. In August, Haaretz reported that a seven-year-old Palestinian boy in Quaddum was wounded after he tried to play with one of several boxes of explosives planted by Israeli solders as a crude deterrent to protesters. These continual breaches of international law deepen hatreds and undermine any progress towards peace. 

Pushing back against cycles of violence can be draining and traumatic in its own right, especially when it means urging one’s own side to exercise calm and restraint. One Israeli sergeant told Breaking the Silence that he was called a Nazi and a Jew-hater by a settler mob when he tried to protect a Palestinian child from violence in 2014.

He said, “I felt like shit. I was there to pretect the Israelis and they took me for granted and called me a traitor because I didn’t want an eight-year-old Palestinian who has nothing to do with the situation to be hurt because of something he can’t control. That’s the atmosphere — an atmosphere full of hatred and rage… it’s depressing.”

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, a tour guide described how he once made an offhand comment to a foreign journalist that he wouldn’t rule out welcoming Israelis onto his trips one day — a quote that was foregrounded in the resulting article, leaving him nervous of reprisals by compatriots. In a fight this ugly, any shift towards reconciliation is viewed by hardliners as betrayal.

The Kids Aren’t Alright

Continual exposure to the stress and violence of this protracted conflict traumatizes citizens of all ages, but children are the worst hit. 

Yoav Applebaum runs Ahava Village, a care home in Israel that started out as an orphanage for Jewish children fleeing Nazi Berlin in 1938. Today, the center looks after Israeli children from severely dysfunctional homes and a range of cultural backgrounds. Most have suffered abuse or neglect, while some have lost family members to acts of violence or terrorism. 

As Applebaum explains, children referred to his organisation experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma-related emotional or psychological conditions that make it difficult for them to integrate at school or in society — or simply to function properly. Children that experience trauma need extensive support, counselling and loving care to help them cope, he points out, both to prepare them for adult life and, in many cases, to steer them away from the drug abuse they were exposed to growing up. 

The children at Ahava Village are acutely vulnerable, lacking family support networks to care for them, but they certainly aren’t the only children left traumatized by the realities of life amid the protracted conflict. Research by the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma in 2015 found that 40% of children living in Sderot, an Israeli town bordering Gaza, suffered from PTSD and anxiety. Things are even worse on the other side; a recent study conducted in the Gaza Strip found that 100% of more than 1,000 Palestinian children surveyed had been exposed to three or more highly traumatic events, with 42% suffering from severe or moderate PTSD. 

Applebaum believes a permanent solution for peace would ease social tensions, leaving people “emotionally free” to focus on improving their family and social relationships. What’s more, he says, without the strain of the conflict, people on all sides would be financially better off and government spending priorities could shift from training soldiers to investing in community services and development. All of which would contribute to “raising children in an atmosphere of security, quiet, and human warmth.”

Declining Resources

If child survivors of trauma need medical care and support to recover, integrate and thrive, then neither party in the conflict has the resources to counter a crisis of this magnitude. Least of all the Palestinian side, where mental health services in Gaza and the long-term refugee camps of the West Bank are almost entirely limited to those provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Already overstretched, UNRWA suffered a major blow in 2018, when President Trump cut all US aid to the Palestinian refugee organisation. 

“Reducing the UNRWA services affects so many people, especially children, who don’t have proper playgrounds or facilities or services,” says Ahmad Tummalaih, a resident of Al-Am’ari Refugee Camp in Ramallah, in the West Bank. UNRWA runs all medical and mental health facilities relied on by families in the camp, he says. 

One of 19 camps housing around 775,000 refugees in the West Bank, Al-Am’ari is a cramped warren of concrete-block structures that were built in 1957 to replace the tents that originally populated the camp. The first wave of Palestinian refugees who ended up here in 1949, fleeing their homes in Jaffa, Haifa and around 30 other towns during the Israeli War of Independence, expected the arrangement to be temporary. 

Over 70 years later, Al-Am’ari — still squeezed into a square kilometre and unable to expand — is home to generations of people born into the camp who have never seen their ancestral land. Despite this, many hold onto the land titles and keys to the farms and homes their grandparents left behind, insisting, even now, that this is temporary. That one day, they will return. 

“We’re not hungry for food, we are hungry for freedom. We are hungry, hungry for our land,” says Tummailah, who describes his grandfather’s home in a village near Jaffa (Tummailah believes Israel has not yet built anything on that land, but the coastal area of Jaffa is prime real estate and we couldn’t find a surviving village of that name). “Here I live in a bad situation, but I have land. I dream to return to it,” he says.

If UNRWA closes down, this dream will be dashed for good. Should they move out of the camps and accept citizenship in the West Bank, these Palestinian refugees will lose the legal basis to fight for their right of return. Decades of suffering will have been for nothing. 

The Pressure Mounts

Already, life is tough, unemployment is high and prospects are few. The threat to UNRWA means, as Tummaliah points out, yet another layer of psychological pressure. As the political stalemate drags on, conditions in the camp get harsher, optimism trickles away and the walls close in on its long-suffering residents, it’s easy to imagine how frustration and despair could lead to increased social problems — and erupt into more violence. 

“If UNRWA gets completely shut down, that’s going to increase people’s problems, which can lead to extremism, to violence,” says Tummaileh. “People have lost their lives, their family members, their wealth and properties. They have little left to lose. Losing any more will lead to something worse.” 

This sense of despair seems warranted. Defunding UNRWA is symptomatic of a wider shift in US relations with Israel and Palestine that has seen Trump’s administration abandon the Palestinian side of the debate entirely. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the so-called peace plan, realistically a blueprint for full annexation of the Palestinian territories by Israel, which was proposed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner earlier this year. 

Swiftly rejected by the Palestinian side, the annexation was green-lighted by the US, although it has since been delayed by the outbreak of Covid-19 and then as a condition of Israel’s normalized relations with the UAE, formerly an ardent supporter of the Palestinian cause. 

Desperate Times

The UAE isn’t the only nation to step back from Palestine in favor of improved relations with Israel; Bahrain and even Saudi Arabia have begun to distance themselves. But the US is the only country to announce their U-Turn in such a brash and (for Palestinians) humiliating manner. As Hady A. Amr, former US Deputy Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, put it: “what ordinary people see is Trump saying not one more penny for Palestine refugees. Trump is really awesome at setting up the United States to be hated around the world. It seems to me that’s his actual goal.”

If Trump succeeds in stirring up more hatred and desperation on the Palestinian side, the fallout will inevitably exacerbate the conflict, leading to trauma on both sides.

“You will kill many children. You’ll kill many families,” said Tummaliah, addressing the US president. “Until now we didn’t believe in terrorism, we believed in peace. But now young people believe in terrorists.“

Letting Off Steam

The arts provide one way to explore the trauma of this collective refugee experience through a layer of abstraction, fostering intuitive empathy rather than focusing on historical fact and culpability. Evidence of this human need to sublimate trauma into creative output is everywhere, from studios in Ramallah, to the graffiti that coats every inch of the dividing wall, to the simple fact that Israel has the most art museums per capita of any country in the world. 

“Art is a good outlet. It’s a good path to go on, in terms of trying to understand what is going on and process everything. Not only on a personal level, but also on a collective level,” explains Alaa Albaba, an artist from the Al-Am’ari refugee camp, speaking through an interpreter. Albaba is best known for his “Route of the Fish” street art series, which uses the image of tinned fish to symbolize Palestinians from the coastal town of Jaffa as plucked from their natural habitat and packed like sardines into arid, high-altitude camps. 

But with basic services under strain, it is getting harder and harder for young Palestinians to look for positive channels for  their stress and frustration. 

“If you walk around a refugee camp and you ask people, what kind of things do you need? Of course, the first thing that they would talk about in terms of their priorities is the difficulty with the economic situation, mental health issues, anxiety, psychological pressure, the difficulties on finding work and all of these things,” says Albaba. “No one will tell you, oh, we need art because this is an outlet for us. The fact that people are living in poverty and difficult economic circumstances means art remains not a priority.” 

Clearly, recovery cannot begin in earnest until a genuine peace plan is put in place. One that, in Hady’s words, “is based on freedom and dignity”. But as the hardliners gain ground and traditional mediators fall away, divisions will only deepen. To make matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic is now exacerbating these tensions, triggering acute medical shortfalls in the Palestinian territories and threatening economic collapse in Israel, where unemployment spiked at 25% in July. As fears mount and emotions intensify, any chance of the two sides healing from the shared trauma of war seems increasingly remote. 

L'articolo How the Trauma of Conflict Deepens the Israel-Palestine Divide proviene da InsideOver.

The two Palestinian organizations Hamas and Fatah have been enemies for nearly two decades. However, the current geopolitical situation which is increasingly isolating Palestinians and their cause is now forcing them to overcome their differences.

Hamas-Fatah Meet to Unify Against Israel

Representatives of both groups met on Tuesday in the Turkish capital Ankara. The talks aim to end more than 13 years of division, said Khalil al-Hajja, a high-ranking Hamas representative. The meeting also served to implement the results of an earlier meeting between the General Secretaries of the two rival factions, which took place in Ramallah and Beirut in early September.

Here, Palestinian factions tried to re-establish unity against Israel and to eliminate political divisions. The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas agreed to form a joint leadership group called the Unified National Leadership for Popular Resistance made up of all factions in order to ensure “comprehensive popular resistance” against the Israeli occupation. As a result, the Palestinian state will push back against the validity of the so-called “Arab Consensus” and reject the idea that it has been isolated due to recent developments.

What is the ‘Arab Consensus’?

The consensus has always been that Arab states will only normalize relations with Israel if Israel satisfies a number of conditions to guarantee Palestinian rights. One of them is that Israel will pull out of all areas that it has been involved in since the 1967 Six-Day War in which the Arab states attacked Israel and lost significant amounts of territory. Another is to agree to a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, while the third is to find a just solution for the millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

Previously, representatives of both organizations had called for a joint fight against Israel’s possible annexations in the West Bank at the beginning of July.

Assessing Fatah and Hamas

The more moderate Fatah of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is the largest Palestinian organization, while the Islamist Hamas is the second largest. Since 2007, Fatah has only ruled in the parts of the West Bank that are not administered by Israel. It was driven from the Gaza Strip by Hamas.

All attempts at reconciliation have so far failed. The last talks were held in 2017. Since then, leading representatives of both organizations have not sat down at the negotiating table.

Israel, the US, and the EU classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. The group, founded in 1987 and supported by Iran, denies Israel’s right to exist and calls for the forcible establishment of an Islamic Palestine from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. Their military arm has repeatedly carried out terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians.

Putting the Hamas-Fatah Talks in Context

Tuesday’s talks come days after the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain signed US-brokered agreements to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. The so-called Abraham Accord has emphasized how isolated Palestinians have become in the Arab world.

Saudi-Arabia could soon join the UAE and Bahrain in agreeing to official diplomatic ties with Israel. The Gulf states are increasingly interested in good relations with Israel for economic and geopolitical reasons. Furthermore, all share the same enemy in Iran, which remains determined to destabilize the region for its regional hegemonic aspirations.

The Palestinian Cause Has Been Severely Weakened

Hamas’ and Fatah’s meeting is a testimony of how detrimental the situation has become for the Palestinians. The militants’ extremism approach, violence, and antisemitism will not only continue to exacerbate the conflict but also further alienate Arab nations and thus strengthen Israel’s position in the conflict.

The change within the Arab world could have been an opportunity for the Palestinians to seek lasting peace. However, as the Israeli diplomat Abba Eban once famously stated, “the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

The forced rapprochement of Hamas and Fatah because of how isolated Palestine has become on the world stage is the latest example proving Eban’s words.

L'articolo Hamas and Fatah Meet in Ankara for Reconciliation Talks proviene da InsideOver.

The United Arab Emirates and Israel have agreed to complete normalization of their relations, an historic deal conducted through US mediation.

‘Historic Day’

In their joint statement, both countries confirm that full diplomatic relations will be established. In return, Israel would give up certain claims to Palestinian-inhabited areas in the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of an “historic day.”

Netanyahu’s Vision Remains Unchanged

At the same time, however, Netanyahu dampened hopes that his annexation plans in the occupied West Bank would end altogether.

“I said that I would extend sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. Nothing has changed in my plan to do that, in full coordination with the US,” Netanyahu told journalists in Jerusalem.

Trump had asked Israel to postpone the plans – “to advance peace with the United Arab Emirates, and I hope with other countries too.” An annexation without US support would, in turn, seriously damage the settlement project.

Nonetheless, Netanyahu also spoke of a “new era in relations between Israel and the Arab world”. After 49 years, full relations will be established with the United Arab Emirates, and embassies will be set up. Economic relations ought to be also expanded.

Negotiations Ongoing

Both states now seek to negotiate detailed agreements in all of these areas in the next few weeks. The United Arab Emirates is the first Gulf state to conclude such an agreement with Israel. The overwhelming majority of Arab states are – at least officially –  hostile to Israel on the diplomatic stage.

However, Israel already has diplomatic relations with its neighbors Jordan and Egypt. Recently a cautious rapprochement between Israel and individual countries in the region has also been discernible. Netanyahu visited Oman in 2018, for example.

Arab Realpolitik

The Gulf States’ interest in being close to Israel has become increasingly apparent in the past few years, with the United Arab Emirates as the driving force.

Even if the lively economic and secret service exchange between Israel and the Gulf States is considered the worst-kept secret in the Middle East, at least outwardly, the Gulf states have preserved their facade. Until Thursday. Relations between Israel and the Emirates had gradually improved over the past few years. Despite not having diplomatic relations officially, the Emirates have long since secretly established contacts with Israel.

Above all, the Gulf monarchies, including Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, now see Iran as the greatest threat to the region. It can be considered Arab realpolitik: act according to the circumstances and not by ideology. Israel is therefore seen in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh as a possible partner to reduce Iran’s influence in the Middle East and thus of strategic importance. For Israel, as its immediate neighbor to Iran, the UAE is an essential bridgehead in the event of a military conflict.

The reaction from Tehran came promptly. The agreement was “dangerous and illegitimate,” said the Tehran Foreign Ministry. It was a “shameful measure” with which the Palestinians were stabbed in the back. In the region, however, the action of the Arab Emirates only strengthened the front against Israel. Moreover, Iran claimed that the agreement was a “strategic mistake” by the UAE and would not create peace in the Middle East.

Palestinian Cause Overshadowed by Geopolitical Calculus

For the Palestinians, too, the news is a diplomatic disaster. Little is likely to change for them. However, the deal reveals the loss of importance of the Palestinian cause in the Arab world, mercilessly before the eyes of the world. As expected, the Palestinian leadership criticized the move. Israel was rewarded for not openly declaring what it had been doing illegally since the occupation began,” wrote the Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi on Twitter.

The Islamist terrorist organization Hamas ruling in the Gaza Strip also attacked the agreement saying it was a “fraudulent stab in the back of the Palestinian people.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE as “aggression”. After an emergency meeting of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah, the Emirates had committed a “betrayal of Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause” through their agreement with Israel.

The Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki announced that the Palestinian Ambassador to the Emirates had been recalled.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi welcomed the agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. He followed the corresponding communication from Israel, the “brotherly” Emirates, and the USA with “great interest and appreciation”. He appreciated the efforts of those involved who wanted to bring peace, prosperity, and stability to the region.

Much-Needed Win for Trump and Netanyahu

Meanwhile, President Trump can claim to have landed a real coup. The fact that an Arab state extends its hand to the Jews can be seen as significant progress. Trump benefited from the fact that both the Emirates and Israel are close allies of the United States. Moreover, when the superpower pushes, the smaller partners cannot easily evade it. In addition, it was part of the American president’s agenda on the Middle East conflict from the outset to promise more economic stability for the region. The economic impact and radiance of Israel and the Emirates can certainly do something in this direction. Furthermore, Trump can present himself as a successful “deal maker” and present a success on the international stage – both desperately needed and rather seldom as of late.

For Netanyahu too, the deal is a much-needed win. The government is under increasing criticism, and he is cited as a culprit for the missed COVID management. There are also charges and a shaky government that could collapse at any time.

L'articolo The Historic Peace Deal Between Israel and the UAE proviene da InsideOver.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to take the first steps towards annexing Jewish settlement areas in the West Bank in July. However, the agenda has recently become almost a sideshow, primarily due to the COVID-19 crisis which continues to pose a severe challenge for Israel.

Israel’s Struggle With COVID-19

The simple answer as to why the process of the planned annexation has yet to start is COVID-19. Israel is not doing well in the pandemic, and infection rates are still high. Accordingly, with the economy and health of the people struggling, annexing land is not a priority for a majority of Israelis.

Netanyahu is taking the latter into account. He seems to have learned from his mistakes at the beginning of the crisis. At that time, Netanyahu came under scrutiny for focusing primarily on the annexation while the virus had already been raging in large parts of the country. That course has now been reversed.

Israeli Support and Opposition for Annexation

However, the fact that the annexation has so far not occurred is not solely related to COVID-19 and its impact. Majorities for an annexation scenario lack in Israeli society. In fact, a substantial number of representatives of settlers in the West Bank also oppose the annexation based on President Donald Trump’s peace plan. There reservations are not due to second thoughts regarding Palestinians, but because the current plan includes a Palestinian state – an affront for many Jewish residents in the region.

Moreover, Netanyahu also lacks full backing for the annexation plans in his government coalition. His partner, Blue and White, only wants to participate under certain conditions. Washington is another reason for the lack of progress. Just as Blue and White, one insists on an annexation that does not make a future two-state solution with the Palestinians inconceivable. Netanyahu and many in Likud see it differently. As a result, Israel has not yet been given the green light for annexation from the United States.

Annexation is No Longer a Political Priority

As a result, the topic of annexation in Israel has completely disappeared from the political agenda. And as long as the corona crisis persists, the annexation remains a politically high-risk for Netanyahu.

In the worst case, an annexation could become a boomerang for Netanyahu, since it could make the current handling of the coronavirus pandemic more difficult. The result would be a potential double defeat for Netanyahu and his party, although his reputation has already been severely damaged by many mistakes in the fight against the virus to date.

The Palestinian Perspective

Meanwhile, the Palestinians are confident that the annexation has only been postponed and could come at any time, warns the Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat. He sees Israel’s tactic as “weighing the international community in safety,” he says. He considers the aforementioned different ideas between the US and Israel “tactical” and “nonsense”, as both sides were waiting for the right moment to strike. The annexation was therefore only “a matter of time,” Erekat says.

The answer, therefore, needs to come from the international community in his view, which should be increasing diplomatic pressure on Israel. States such as Germany were right for rejecting the plans but must coerce Israel to end their plans at the same time, Erekat says. Only political and economic coercion can stop Israel’s plans, he concludes.

The Future of West Bank and Jordan Valley Annexation

The annexation is by no means off the table for good but indeed postponed for the time being. Much will depend on how Israel — as well as the US — will cope with the pandemic moving forward. However, should Trump lose the election in November as expected and Joe Biden becomes president, all bets will be off. At the very least, Biden will demand renegotiation on the annexation plans, since he rejects the annexation plans in their current form.

Hence, if Netanyahu seeks to move forward with annexation, he could do so before the election – but with a significant risk of not only doing it unilaterally but by losing all remaining support in Israel.

L'articolo What Happened to Netanyahu’s Annexation Plans? proviene da InsideOver.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank faces a major hurdle as his coalition partner Defense Minister Benny Gantz continues to waver about the matter. This comes amid growing sentiments against the plan from members of the international community, with countries such as Britain and Germany warning that it goes against the fourth Geneva Convention.

Lack of Action

Although Netanyahu had set a target of July 1 to kickstart the process by having the cabinet debate the matter, the day passed by without any action, further signalling widening rifts in the newly-crafted coalition government.

Ever since venturing into politics Gantz has always pursued a goal of peaceful co-existence of the Israelis and the Palestinians. This totally contradicts Netanyahu who has always used the issue of West Bank annexation to whip up nationalistic emotions among Israelis.

The Trump Admin’s Annexation Plan

When US President Donald Trump’s unveiled his Middle East peace plan that provides the basis for the annexation of West Bank, Israel was preparing to go the polls. It was also the time Netanyahu was under attack from the opposition for contemplating immunity against criminal charges he is facing.

This made many opposition politicians and analysts conclude that Trump’s main intention was to boost chances of Netanyahu’s re-election as Prime Minister. The fact that he invited Netanyahu to the White House for the unveiling of the plan further reinforced this line of argument.

“To unveil such a plan five weeks before an election is very suspicious,” said Avigdor Lieberman the leader of pro Gantz Yisrael Beytenu.” The very timing of it will prevent any serious, in depth discussion of the proposal.”

Although Gantz — who was Netanyahu’s main opponent in the election had also been invited — it was not known whether he would honor the invitation. Sources close to him had even claimed that he felt it was a trap, and was therefore not ready to travel to Washington.

Gantz also feared that Trump was likely to treat him as Netanyahu’s junior, and relegate him to playing a minor role during discussions. “In Blue and White, they fear it will be more political than diplomatic, and that Netanyahu is bringing Gantz to Washington not to praise him, but to diminish him,” said a report by Israel’s Channel 12.

With Netanyahu keen to milk political capital out of the meeting as the champion of Israel’s  security, Gantz had no other option but to travel to Washington. However, Gantz insisted on meeting Trump separately in order not to play second fiddle to Netanyahu. He made it clear that he was going to meet Trump “as the leader of the largest party in Israel.”

Gantz: We Seek ‘A Basis for Progress’ with Palestinians

Unlike Netanyahu, Gantz maintained a reconciliatory tone in his speech after the meeting. In observing that the plan was likely to cause major and painful internal disagreements within Israel he said “I pledge to minimise those disagreements, but to work to make the framework a basis for progress towards an agreed deal with Palestinians and regional states.

It is worth noting that even though Gantz has always championed Israel’s right to exist, he has always been of the opinion that if Israel has to apply its sovereignty over the disputed territories, then it has to be done in a manner that is acceptable to the international community.

Netanyahu’s Perspective

Netanyahu, on the hand, has always been ready to take unilateral step in applying Israel’s sovereignty, even if it means going against the international conventions. What matters most to him is the backing of the US. But with chances of Trump’s reelection looking increasingly slim, he has been pushed into further desperation to implement the plan by all means before US heads to the polls.

But this is being impeded by the fact that he is not in full control of the government. The coronavirus pandemic and the political stalemate  that followed the hotly contested election, forced a coalition of convenience in which him and Gantz are strange bedfellows with conflicting views on the question of annexation.

How Does Gantz See the Situation?

In order not to go against the International community which is opposed to the annexation, and in order not to appear antagonistic against Netanyahu who is pushing for the  annexation as soon as possible, Gantz has been sending mixed signals over the plan.

In the middle of last month Gantz in a meeting with defense officials said he wouldn’t back the annexation of areas with many Palestinian residents in order to avoid friction. He stressed the importance of working with Palestinians in any plan to apply sovereignty.

He made the remarks just days after holding a meeting with Netanyahu and US ambassador over the issue. It was reported that during the meeting the two leaders disagreed strongly over key details of the plan. While Netanyahu insisted on taking unilateral decision to map out the areas that were to be annexed, Gantz was pushed for the consultation of Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan before any action.

Gantz: ‘We Will Not Violate Human Rights’

On June 21, one week before the July 1 date set aside by Netanyahu for the cabinet debate on annexation, Gantz warned Palestinians that Israel would move forward without them if they continue rejecting dialogue. He however, added “We will not take Palestinians into our territory, we will not violate human rights or freedom of movement. We will not endanger any peace treaties.”

Some days later in a conversation with the US ambassador, Gantz said July 1 was not sacred for discussing the annexation of West Bank. According to him there were more important issues to be dealt with such as the coronavirus pandemic. “ What is not corona-related will wait until the day after the virus,” he said.

This effectively ruled out the possibility of holding the cabinet debate on the matter as planned by Netanyahu. This was despite Netanyahu telling members of his party that the cabinet debate did not depend on Gantz’s support.

Serious Setback for Netanyahu

With the two leaders pulling in opposite directions, the US has now decided to suspend talks on annexation of the West Bank, dealing Netanyahu a major blow. According to a report by Maariv, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said, “It was decided that the talks would not continue until the partners in the government reach mutual understanding.”

Meanwhile, according to Israel Hayom, Netanyahu told his party that if Gantz thwarts his plans, then he will not hesitate to instigate an early election. A new law passed following the formation of the coalition government early this year, gives Netanyahu the right to dissolve parliament in the first six months of the new government, and without passing the premiership to Gantz.

However Gantz remains unbowed and reiterated his stand recently by saying that although he sees the importance of applying Israel’s sovereignty over West Bank he believes that Israelis and Palestinians should co-exist peacefully.

“The issue of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is important,” Gantz said. “But the right formula should be found to take us there.”

L'articolo Gantz Throws Netanyahu’s West Bank Annexation Plan Into Disarray proviene da InsideOver.

The US State Department confirmed on Friday that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, May 13 as part of his first foreign visit in more than a month due to the coronavirus pandemic. Although the issue of Israel’s potential annexation of the West Bank was not mentioned in the statement, it is clear that this will be one of the central issues that will be discussed next week.

The continuing COVID-19 pandemic and how to deal with it is also expected to be one of the subjects that Pompeo will mention to Netanyahu. The Secretary of State will also meet Knesset Speaker Benny Gantz, as the Israeli Prime Minister’s former rival is expected to finalize the formation of a joint unity government next week.

Trump May Recognize Israeli Annexation of the West Bank

US President Donald Trump is keen for both Gantz and Netanyahu to accept his Middle East peace plan, which was presented in January. If the meeting goes according to plan, the Trump administration is likely to recognize Israeli annexation of all the West Bank settlements within weeks, which is what David Friedman, Trump’s pro-Netanyahu ambassador to Israel, told Israel Hayom newspaper during a recent interview.

Trump’s Middle East peace plan is one of the riskiest foreign policy decisions his administration has embarked on so far. The only nation that has supported it is the UK, with both British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab recognizing the plan as a basis for peace in the Middle East.

Trump Has Pitted Himself Against Turkey and the EU

The EU has warned in the past that ‘there will be consequences’ if Trump’s plan approves of any form of annexation. The Guardian reported that UN Secretary General António Guterres said that his organization will only support a two-state solution.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan outright rejected the plan. He claimed that it failed to recognize Palestinians’ rights and that it legitimized Israeli occupation.

However, Politico‘s Nahal Toosi argues that whilst the plan is heavily biased toward Israel, it does not rule out some form of Palestinian state in the future.

The Peace Plan is Tough on the Palestinians

It no longer matters whether a Democrat or a Republican is occupying the White House. This is because Trump’s plan has shifted the political consensus in the Middle East toward ensuring that Palestine meets a certain criteria before it can become a sovereign state.

For example, the Gaza Strip could be part of a future Palestinian state, even though it remains under the control of Hamas for now. The White House has said the Palestinians can assume more security over time.

Trump is also promising the Palestinians billions of dollars in economic assistance and that he will support a four-year freeze on future settlements. It will also be difficult for future presidents to reverse Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Furthermore, the Israelis hinted in January that they will implement parts of the US President’s plan without his assent.

The Plan Lays the Foundations for Peace

Yet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas continues to oppose the plan and other nations, such as Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, should be more heavily involved in this initiative if it has any chance of succeeding.

UAE Ambassador to Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba, said on Twitter that the plan “offers an important starting point for a return to negotiations within a US-led international framework.”

Pompeo’s meeting on May 13 is just the starting point for peace in the Middle East. It is likely that Israel’s two leading politicians will support the Secretary of State’s position. Once again, Trump has pitted himself against most of the West with his plan and alienated other nations like Turkey. But if it works in the long-term, he would have laid the foundations for peace, which his predecessors failed to do. This is why the stakes are so high for the Secretary of State’s upcoming visit.

L'articolo The Stakes Involved in Pompeo’s Upcoming Visit to Israel proviene da InsideOver.

For years, one issue has united countries across the Muslim world: Palestinian Liberation. Countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan and Albania may have little in common, but their support for the Palestinian cause in all strata of society has been consistently loud and clear. But now, as the US strives to push through a peace deal viewed by many Palestinians as a humiliating annexation plan, these supporters are showing where their loyalties truly lie. In doing so, they threaten to push Palestine into the arms of its last remaining loyal friend: Iran.

Palestine’s Geopolitical Alliance Outlook

Outwardly, Palestine’s traditional allies are still on side. The EU and the African Union rejected Trump’s “Deal of the Century.” The Arab League, a union of 22 nations that includes Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, denounced Trump’s deal as laying the foundation of apartheid, rather than a genuine two-state solution. Behind the scenes, though, many of these countries are wavering. 

“Arab regimes in the Gulf are much more interested in cultivating a discreet, but close relationship with Israel because of their shared concern with Iran, than they are in supporting the Palestinian issue,” Says Dov Waxman, Professor in Israeli Studies at UCLA. The “geopolitical and diplomatic reality,” he warns, is that Palestinians feel increasingly neglected by an international community that’s letting them down.

Saudi Arabia’s Palestine Dilemma

Of all these supporters, Saudi Arabia is in the most awkward position. Being a visible and public ally to Palestine is an important part of the Kingdom’s self-styled image as being a supposed guardian of Islam and protector of the faithful all over the world. At the same time, the country’s ambitious Crown Prince is looking to diversify the economy away from oil. This makes Israel – one of the region’s economic superpowers ⁠- too big a potential partner to ignore. 

In a 2018 interview with the Atlantic, Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman broke with years of Saudi foreign policy to acknowledge Israel’s right to their “own land.” In private meetings, he is reported to have criticized the Palestinian Authority over a perceived lack of willingness to negotiate with Israel. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and Israel share an important mutual friend: the US. Working together is inevitable, even if all three nations find it politically expedient to play down these relationships back home. 

“The Saudis are trying to say one thing in Washington and another thing in the Middle East, and it’s not working out very well,” says Hady A. Amr, former Deputy Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations under President Obama. 

Growing Ties Between Saudi Arabia and Israel and Serious Tensions With Iran

This duality isn’t new. Behind the scenes, Saudi Arabia and Israel have been quietly working together to normalise relations for years. This was inspired partly by their shared resentment of Obama, who cooled ties with both countries while alarming Gulf State despots by showing support for pro-democracy protesters during the Arab Spring⁠ ⁠— Trump and Obama’s approaches “could not be more different”, says Amr.

Bringing the crisis to a head, though, is the mounting tension between Iran and its three shared enemies: the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. 

Ever since President Trump withdrew from the Iranian Nuclear Deal in 2018, diplomacy in the Gulf has been spiraling into chaos, edging the region closer to inter-state war. The US and Iran publicly taunt and threaten each other, even flirting with the possibility of maritime conflict. Tehran also funnels its aggression into proxy conflicts with Israel and Saudi Arabia, the most destructive example being Yemen.

When the US assassinated Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in January – with the help of Israeli intelligence ⁠- many feared this would spark all-out conflict, one that would place Palestine firmly in the line of fire. “The Soleimani attack could have sparked a war, which could have opened a Hezbollah Israel front. We could still see something like that going forward,” says Amr.

“The world is concerned about the possibility of world war, but not Palestinians,” shrugs Shaher Haroun, Deputy General Manager for Palestinian Society for Care and Development in Al’Amari, a 70-year-old refugee camp near Ramallah in the West Bank. War, or something very similar to it, has long been the daily reality, he says. “We are used to it”.

Palestinians may dismiss the Iran-US tensions as bluster, but it’s already playing out in their own backyard

As the wording of Trump’s deal makes clear, the US “vision” is less about peace and prosperity than removing an inconvenient barrier to recruiting Israel’s neighbors into a coordinated effort to contain Iran. The document even lumps together the grievances and priorities of Israel and Saudi Arabia (which does not yet officially recognise Israel as a state), suggesting that Iran’s strategy to “encircle” both countries would be averted by better collaboration between Israel and its Arab neighbours following a peace treaty.

Saudi Arabia Praises Some of Trump’s Palestine Peace Plan, Iran Denounces ‘Devilish’ Plan

While he stopped short of endorsing a document that essentially absolves Israel and blames Palestinians for all facets of the ongoing conflict, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince expressed support for President Trump’s efforts. Likewise, State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, praised some “positive elements” of the peace plan, while Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud announced the Kingdom’s intention to develop relations with Israel following a deal.

Iran, on the other hand, seized the opportunity to proclaim support for Palestine. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strongly and publicly denounced Trump’s plan, tweeting (in Farsi): “The devilish and vicious policy of America toward Palestine called the ‘deal of the century’ will never materialize…all Muslim nations will confront them and will not let it materialize.” 

Tehran is putting both its money and its munitions where its mouth is.

Iran already supports Hamas, a fundamentalist political organisation and militant group that has controlled the Gaza strip since 2007, and to an even greater extent, its rival, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Iran supplies the PIJ with weapons, combat training and millions of dollars in cash, keeping the militant group engaged in active conflict with Israeli forces for years. The PIJ fired several hundred missiles towards Tel-Aviv in November 2019 alone. 

‘The Islamic Republic Sees Supporting Palestinian Groups as its Duty’

In response to Trump’s proposed peace plan, Khamenei publicly promised to step up support for Palestinian militants. “We believe that Palestinian-armed organizations will stand and continue resistance. The Islamic Republic sees supporting Palestinian groups as its duty,” he said. 

Iran has plenty of reasons to meddle in the Palestinian territories. First and foremost, it’s a strategically useful way to get at Israel by, as Amr puts it, using local militant groups “as levers to turn on and off when they’re needed.” The uptick in violence in Gaza following Soleimani’s killing suggests that Iranian revenge could indeed be a factor.

“Iran has an incentive to see an escalation on the Israeli-Palestinian front and to ensure that Israel’s southern border isn’t too quiet. Just to kind of remind Israel that it also has the ability to directly strike back,” says Waxman. “But obviously, the other reason for that escalation in violence is a response to Trump’s peace plan.” 

On a larger scale, taking over the reins as champions of the Palestinian struggle means challenging another major rival: Saudi Arabia.

“The Palestinian issue is a good issue for Iran to position itself as a kind of defender of all Muslims, and to generate popular support across the region,” says Waxman. “That is related to Iran’s desire to present itself as a kind of pan-Islamic power and to mobilize popular support, which is related to its long-standing historical rivalry with Saudi Arabia.”

Iran Wants to be Seen as an Islamic Power, Not Just a Regional Power

In other words, Iran wants to be seen as an Islamic power, not just a regional power. By positioning itself as the only Muslim nation left standing up to America and Israel while defending the rights of Palestinians, it intends to step into Saudi Arabia’s shoes as the foremost Islamic power. 

This comes at a particularly sensitive time for US-Palestinian relations; one which throws Saudi’s muted response into sharp relief.

In 2018, the Trump administration announced that it would cut all funding and support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which provides assistance and protection for over 5.5 million Palestinian refugees, and withdrew over $200 million in support to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, citing concerns about Hamas’ influence in the region. 

Washington also abandoned all semblance of neutrality in the Israel-Palestine conflict, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and closing the de-facto Palestinian Consulate. The contentious decision triggered days of protests in Gaza, with dozens of deaths and over 1000 people injured. Tehran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammed Javad Zariff, was quick to denounce the US embassy opening as “a great day of shame.” He accused the Israeli government of “massacring countless Palestinians in cold blood.”

Things have got so bad that the Palestinian Authority recently announced plans to cut ties completely with Israel and the US. According to Amr, this represents a dangerous U-Turn from the Obama administration, which made sure to keep in regular contact with the PA, despite tensions between the two sides. 

“At least we kept the lines of communication fully open and would regularly try to take positions that were bridging gaps between the Palestinian Authority and Israel,” he says, warning that Trump’s insistence on breaking all “long-standing international norms” has undone any genuine progress the US previously made in the region, undermining “three-quarters of a century of US international policy.” 

“Right now, what we have is a president that seeks to ignite nationalism around the world in his own political interests. And I don’t think it’s helpful to anyone,” he adds.

In the meantime, it’s little wonder if Palestinians caught in the middle drift into Iran’s orbit.

Trump Has Cut Off Palestinian Avenues of Democratic Change

By leaving the Palestinian Authority out of negotiations, Trump made it clear that their democratically elected bodies have no influence over the future of Palestinians’ land. Illegal Israeli settlements continue to proliferate in the West Bank with impunity, and Israeli President Netanyahu recently announced plans for thousands of new homes in occupied East Jerusalem. Waxman suggests that this indicates that Israel views the peace proposal as the US giving the green light to annex more of the West Bank. By contrast, Ariel Shannon pulled all Jewish settlers out of Gaza in 2005 amid mounting security concerns. Seen in this light, it’s hardly surprising that today, militant groups in Gaza enjoy support from around one third of the Strip’s residents.

However nefarious Iran’s motives, Palestinians are running low on options. The US has chosen Israel, loud and clear. Riyadh increasingly sees them as a hindrance, not a priority. The Arab world is losing interest. Not that Palestinians seem surprised; tell an inhabitant of Ramallah how passionately people in Riyadh or Amman champion their cause and you’ll get a raised eyebrow or a cynical smile. 

Palestinians are painfully aware that, despite being half the planet’s cause célèbre for generations, international outrage has failed to improve the situation on the ground. As friends fall away and combatting Iran becomes the region’s number one priority, it’s increasingly clear who they can ⁠— and can’t ⁠— rely on.

L'articolo As Palestine’s Friends Fall Away, Iran is the Last Man Standing proviene da InsideOver.