Arab regimes crack down on pro-Palestinian sentiment

[All Along The Watchtower]

For decades, Arab activists have linked the struggle for justice for the Palestinians — a cause that unites Arabs of different political persuasions from Marrakesh to Baghdad — to the struggle for greater rights and freedoms at home. For them, Israel was an avatar of the authoritarian and colonialist forces that had thwarted their own societies’ growth.

“What’s happening to the Palestinian people clarifies the foundation of the problem for Arabs everywhere, that the problem is tyranny,” said Abdurrahman Sultan, a 36-year-old Kuwaiti who has participated in sit-ins in support of the Palestinian cause since the war began.

…because of hostility or, at best, indifference toward Israel in the broader Arab public, there is a “direct, necessary connection” between authoritarianism and the signing of such (normalization) agreements, said Marc Lynch, a political science professor focused on the Middle East at George Washington University.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/29/world/middleeast/gaza-arab-protests-crackdown.html

Illuminating article. Glad to see this being published in the New York Times.

[It’s so Joever]

The normalization of ties between Israel and the Arab World further reduces American leverage over the country and gives Israel more ability to cozy up to our adversaries such as China and Russia without feeling as vulnerable. The encouragement of ties between Israel and the Arab countries was a foolish one made against the interests of the American people in the long term and little will convince me otherwise.
Sadly our politicians seem to favor the interests of a tiny country in the Middle East over their professional obligations.

[AtorBoltox]

Anti-semitism in the Middle East plays the same role it did in Wilhelmine Germany as a kind of cultural code in which the Jew is seen as a representation of all the developments of modernity reactionaries are opposed to

[Horus]

Sadly our politicians seem to favor the interests of a tiny country in the Middle East over their professional obligations.

Why do you think this is?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

China cracks down on protests against Japan. Some countries just don't like protests.

[CumbrianLefty]

China cracks down on protests against Japan. Some countries just don't like protests.

Yes, that is actually a very good comparison.

[certified hummus supporter 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

Disgraceful, but nothing surprising at all. All of these propped up leaders care about is lining their own pockets, at the cost of their own souls and their brethren.

[President Johnson]

Is it just my impression or are Palestinians not that popular in most of the Arab world? And not just the ruling elites. I wonder what are the reasons?

[CumbrianLefty]

I think the cause is more popular than it once was amongst the "masses", with just a few exceptions.

[ingemann]

Is it just my impression or are Palestinians not that popular in most of the Arab world? And not just the ruling elites. I wonder what are the reasons?

Never meet a non-Palestinian Arab who liked Palestinians. I suspect several reasons.

1: A lot of the more well functioning Palestinian refugees have been integrated into the societies they lives in, leaving the more dysfunctional ones.

2: Palestinian refugees are banned or limited from working outside their camps, pushing them toward greater dysfuntionality. In Syria which gives Palestinians more rights, they tend to more well functioning.

3: Arabs really look down on Jews, as such they see Palestinians who lost their land to Jews and lives under Jewish rule as dirtied by this. You see a milder version of this with the Syrians, as Sunni Arabs also look down on the Alewites. Arabs may not like Christians or Buddhists (Chinese), but they recognize both groups as powerful and just don’t look as much down on Muslim being beaten by these and living under their rule.

4: PLO have a long tradition for f**king things up in the countries Palestinian refugees lives in, while Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood which a lot of Arab nationalist, traditional Muslims and Wahhabist hates.

[MyLifeIsYours]

The leaders of these corrupt regimes have been betraying their own citizens with their cozi relationship with Israel.

[RI]

Is it just my impression or are Palestinians not that popular in most of the Arab world? And not just the ruling elites. I wonder what are the reasons?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan#Assassination
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/flash/articles/nov96/jordan71.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_Civil_War

[Meclazine for Israel]

Is it just my impression or are Palestinians not that popular in most of the Arab world? And not just the ruling elites. I wonder what are the reasons?

Think about being an Arab leader or businessman looking to do business with a traditional US company or business in New York.

Remember, mercantile and biology overrides ideology.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Anti-semitism in the Middle East plays the same role it did in Wilhelmine Germany as a kind of cultural code in which the Jew is seen as a representation of all the developments of modernity reactionaries are opposed to

This has nothing to do with what the people quoted in the article are saying but ok.

[Devout Centrist]

Anti-semitism in the Middle East plays the same role it did in Wilhelmine Germany as a kind of cultural code in which the Jew is seen as a representation of all the developments of modernity reactionaries are opposed to

Could you elaborate on this? I don’t think it makes any sense.

[All Along The Watchtower]

The normalization of ties between Israel and the Arab World further reduces American leverage over the country and gives Israel more ability to cozy up to our adversaries such as China and Russia without feeling as vulnerable. The encouragement of ties between Israel and the Arab countries was a foolish one made against the interests of the American people in the long term and little will convince me otherwise. Sadly our politicians seem to favor the interests of a tiny country in the Middle East over their professional obligations.

The normalization isn’t even as big of a deal (or at least, as surprising) as it’s made to be. Plenty of Arab countries have covertly cooperated with Israel for decades, and obviously Egypt and Jordan—countries that had actually been at war with Israel—made peace with them a long time ago. The Abraham Accords certainly aren’t as significant as Camp David or Oslo.