Perils of Normalization With Israel
By Ramzy Baroud
There should be no doubt regarding the centrality and intensity of the relationship between the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict and the internal and external politics of Arab and Muslim nations, regardless of their geographic immediacy and
level of involvement. By ignoring this intrinsic connection, one also forfeits a chief component in fathoming, thus
remedying the entrenched sentiment of anti-Americanism (as a political, rather than a cultural sentiment), reverberating
throughout the Muslim world.
For Arabs, ‘freedom for Palestine’ was the height of nationalistic expression, an idiom that transpired over the
confining particularities of the nation’s locale, into the collective imagination. To truly be an Arab meant to join the
struggle for Palestine; for without the latter, Arabism was somehow devoid of its authenticity.
It ought to be recalled that concepts such as Arab unity and the Arab front were largely mustered due to the conflict in
Palestine. Unity would not have had much urgency without a threat; a frontier would not have meant very much without a
hostile entity on the other side. The merit and declared mission of the League of Arab States, since its establishment
in 1945, was to some extent a collective Arab response to what was understood as Zionist territorial designs that would
later feed upon the entirety of historic Palestine and encroach on the sovereignty of other Arab states.
In the Muslim hemisphere at large, similar values applied with seemingly minor discrepancies. Muslim nations constructed
Palestine, and thus its relationship toward the conflict in religious terms. On a popular level, Muslims identified with
Palestinians simply for being Muslim just as people in the West identify with the Jews ironically ignoring the 20 per
cent Christian Palestinian population that was falsely seen as ‘caught in the middle.’
Muslim nations understood the spiritual connotations of Palestine among their people, and as a result, they have
supported the Palestinian struggle as an exclusively Muslim affair that compels unyielding allegiance. The first meeting
of the Organization of Islamic Countries in Morocco in 1969 "was held in the wake of the criminal arson perpetrated on
August 21, 1969 by Zionist elements against Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied Jerusalem," read the OIC’s web site. The bond
couldn’t have been clearer.
Israel exploited the mostly sentimental relationship Arabs and Muslims held toward Palestine. While the tangible and
perpetual conflict was in fact taking place between Israel, a newly forged entity with further colonial ambitions, and a
fragmented and displaced Palestinian refugee population, Israel labored to relate a different interpretation, that of a
tiny little country struggling for survival amongst hordes of hostile Arabs and Muslims, who were up in arms to erase
this little stretch of land from the face of the earth. Considering the political and military positioning of most Arab
and Muslim countries, the Israeli claim is almost comical.
What was also clear from the earlier years of the conflict was the US’ unequivocal support for the state of Israel. US
support augmented following the 1967 war and arrived in many forms to the point that it raised sharp criticism from
Americans themselves, not only because their stance ultimately endangered national security, but also for squandering
immense resources that could’ve contributed considerably to the welfare of the poorest segments of society within the US
itself.
Arabs and Muslims have also taken note. The expressions of intensifying nationalism and growing religious awareness have
now acquired a greater sense of purpose. It was not only ‘tiny little’ Israel that successfully managed to infringe upon
the national aspirations and violate the spiritual underpinning that linked most Arabs and Muslims to Palestine, but
there were also successive US governments, whose role eventually evolved from that of patronage in the earlier years to
full sponsorship and ultimately becoming an agent itself, willingly recruited to ensure Israel’s military dominance.
Most Arabs see a clear connection between the occupation of Iraq and Israel’s quest for military supremacy.
The above point is of great significance as far as the prevailing and perpetual problem of anti-Americanism is
concerned. While Arabism was partly fuelled by its hostile perception and historic mistrust of American motives, a much
more extreme interpretation was deduced throughout the Muslim world. That interpretation did not necessarily invent the
Osama bin Laden phenomenon, but definitely echoed its logic, thus providing it with vigor and local extensions, which
will unlikely weaken without the fundamental alteration of the circumstances that lead to its formation in the first
place.
One major policy axiom rooted in US foreign policy in relation to Arab and Muslim nations has been the offer of
political validation to those governments that ‘choose’ to normalize with Israel, while displaying utter hostility
toward those who opt not to. Since most Arab and Muslim leaderships have been self-imposed and have enjoyed little
popular support amongst their people, a faltering on the sense of commitment that Arabs and Muslims felt toward
Palestine would lead to further de-legitimization.
While various Arab and Muslim governments have clearly wished to end their sentimental strife with Israel, initiating
the move has always required the procession of a dramatic event or an unbeatable incentive. Cases in point were the Camp
David treaty between Egypt and Israel — whose survival is still generously funded by the US budget — the Jordan-Israel
peace treaty and Mauritania’s initiation of diplomatic ties with Israel. There are also the hushed but real
normalizations with Israel taking place with Morocco, Tunisia, Oman, Qatar, Libya and most likely Iraq. And finally
there was the ‘historic’ meeting between Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom and Pakistan’s Khurshid Kasuri in
Istanbul on September 1 of this year.
Despite Pakistan’s ‘assurances’ that full normalization will not actualize without a comprehensive agreement between
Israel and the Palestinians, it is becoming clear that Pakistan’s interest in joining the ‘forward looking countries’ —
as described by Pervez Musharraf — has been facilitated by the ever ‘friendly Muslim’ Turkey for years. Israeli
officials are promising that the list of Arab and Muslim countries wishing to normalize with Israel is a long one. For
once, I believe them.
It’s rather curious that countries that wish to normalize with Israel without the precondition of ending the latter’s
military dominion over Palestinians and other occupied Arab territories often manage to escape American repudiation for
being undemocratic and for committing uncountable human rights violations. The challenge thus remains: facing up to the
risk of normalization or to that of democratization. Obviously, the latter contains a greater risk factor.
However, one must not underestimate the danger of unconditional normalization with Israel, especially by those who have
historically been designated as the defenders of Palestinian rights. It deprives Palestinians from another line of
defense however shaky. But it will, as was the case in Egypt following Camp David, create another rift between the
regimes and the populace while fuelling anti-Americanism to perhaps a much more violent extreme.
Israel and the US must understand that arm-twisting, political intimidation and bribery might achieve a few more
‘historic’ meetings and treaties with self-imposed juntas, but will not invite and sustain lasting peace. The continued
deflation of national aspirations and the undermining of the spiritual value that Arabs and Muslims hold toward
Palestine will most likely result in further alienation of the masses, who are in fact the principal sustainer of
anti-Americanism throughout the world, and whose consent can’t be bought or sold.
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-Veteran Arab American journalist Ramzy Baroud teaches mass communication at Australia’s Curtin University of
Technology, Malaysia Campus. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Writings on the Second Palestinian Uprising
(Pluto Press, London.)