Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 17.09.2024
The body of the fighter Maher Jazi, who was shot dead by the Israeli army after killing three Israeli airport workers at the Allenby crossing last week, arrived in his hometown in Jordan at dawn. In the documents from the scene it can be seen that upon the arrival of the ambulance and the removal of the body, a crowd of people gathered around the entrance with loud celebratory chants praising the fighter and Allah.
Israel initially refused to hand over the body, but stormy demonstrations in Jordan put pressure on the local government, which asked Israel for his body.
This reflects the failure of the so-called peace accords with the Arab states. Egypt signed a peace deal with Israel in 1979, and Jordan followed suit in 1994.The Abraham Accords that were signed in 2020 weren’t supposed to be the end of the process, with both Israel and the U.S. expressing hopes that Saudi Arabia would be the next state to normalize relations with the Zionist State.
While those efforts were placed on the back burner for a few years, they made a comeback progressing quickly as both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden accelerated efforts to reach a deal. The agreement would have seen the main leader of the Arab world, the custodians of Islam’s holiest sites, reaching a peace with Israel. Saudi Arabia is also the central rival to Iran, making it a natural ally to Israel in the conflict against the Iranian regime and its proxies.
Additionally, while the other signatories to the Abraham Accords had never had a direct conflict with Israel, Saudi Arabia did take part in the 1948 War, sending troops to attack the new Jewish state.
By the fall of 2022, it seemed Israel and Saudi Arabia were just steps away from signing a deal. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Fox News in late September last year that Israel and Saudi Arabia were getting closer to a deal every day.
Oct. 7 put a stop to Saudi normalization, and harmed the relations with the Accords states. Just two weeks after bin Salman’s statement, thousands of Hamas fighters stormed into Israel, In response, Israel launched a military operation in Gaza and casualties within the Strip grew quickly.
At first, the Accord states condemned the Hamas attacks, but they quickly moved to focusing the bulk of their criticism on Israel and demanding an immediate ceasefire.
On Oct. 8, the Emirati Foreign Ministry called the Hamas attacks “a serious and grave escalation” and said it was “appalled” by the kidnapping of civilians. The Bahraini Foreign Ministry also called it a “dangerous escalation that threatens the lives of civilians,” although they later deleted the statement.
Just three weeks later, though, the U.A.E., Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, and Morocco issued a statement condemning “flagrant violations of international law” by Israel in Gaza.
“The absence of a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has led to repeated acts of violence and suffering for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and the peoples of the region,” said the Arab states, calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
In November, Bahrain’s Council of Representatives voted to recall the country’s ambassador from Israel, although the ambassador reportedly never left, and sources from both countries stressed that ties were still stable.
Additionally, none of the Arab signees to the Abraham Accords published statements marking the fourth anniversary of the agreements on Sunday, possibly indicating a desire not to put a spotlight on their relationship with Israel.
In terms of Saudi Arabia, the war has put a pause on normalization. The kingdom has stressed it won’t consider normalization with Israel until a Palestinian state is formed or at least until there’s a “credible pathway toward a Palestinian state.”
Saudi Arabia has also been heavily critical of Israel’s war against Hamas, even placing the blame for Hamas’s attack on Israel in the kingdom’s first official response on Oct. 7th. The Accords states, Jordan and Egypt want to continue close relations with the Zionist monster but they are afraid of a new wave of the Arab revolution.
Down with the reactionary Arab local rulers!
For Palestine, red and free from the river to the sea!
For the socialist federation of the Middle East!