As Gulf starts opening to Israel, Palestinians face a reckoning
Israel’s rapprochement with Gulf Arab states has left the Palestinians feeling abandoned by traditional allies and clutching an old playbook in a rapidly changing West Asia, analysts and critics say.
As the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain sign normalisation accords with Israel at a White House ceremony, Palestinian leaders face calls to overhaul their strategy to avoid becoming marginalised in a region where Israel and most Sunni Arab regimes share a fear of Iran.
The Palestinian approach to securing freedom from Israeli occupation has for years relied on a longstanding pan-arab position that called for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank and
Gaza and Israel’s acceptance of Palestinian statehood, in return for normal relations with Arab nations.
But the Palestinians last week failed to persuade the Arab League to condemn nations breaking ranks. Tuesday’s ceremony, hosted by US President Donald Trump, will be “a black day in the history of Arab nations”, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday.
Shtayyeh said the Palestinians are now discussing whether to “adjust Palestine’s relationship with the Arab League.” But critics say the proposed move is too little too late, with President Mahmoud Abbas facing mounting criticism for their increasingly isolated position.
“There is very little indication that the (Palestinian) leadership is contemplating a break from its approach,” Tareq Baconi, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, told Reuters.
The Palestinians’ strategy centres on holding Israel to account in international legal tribunals, and trying to break the United States’ dominance over the Israelipalestinian peace process, Baconi said. “Arab and European support in that strategy is crucial, but it is questionable that the Palestinians will be able to secure either to the level required to ensure a just peace.” Despite signs of shifting Arab support, Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the underlying Palestinian strategy for achieving a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza would not change.