Normalisation only wins over tyrannical Arab regimes

Sudan is following the Arab normalisation path with Israel, at a time when Benjamin Netanyahu reminds the world of the occupation state’s ability, under his leadership, to infiltrate Arab capitals and regimes, and establish political, security and economic relations. Such relations benefit Israel much more than the Arab states.

The process betrays the Palestinians and their legitimate cause and rights, stabbing them in the back while they face Israel’s illegal settlements, killings, ethnic cleansing and home demolitions, as well as the Judaisation of the religious sanctities in occupied Jerusalem and elsewhere. The purpose of “normalisation” is to give all of this a veneer of legitimacy, including the colonisation of the land of Palestine.

Normalisation has spread in the wake of the counter-revolutions across the Arab world. The Arab people now know the meaning of submission and the conquest of their regimes by the apartheid state of Israel. They have suffered for decades, enduring oppression, tyrannical regimes and the absence of democracy as a “condition of confrontation” with the alien entity that these regimes have allowed to be planted and raised in the region. The misery of the people is the price to be paid for “confronting the Zionist conspiracy”; it’s a pretext that has been reiterated today in the media and literature of some regimes, despite being exposed as a lie for all to see.

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The justifications for Arab subjugation being used today all have the same violent and repressive price that was paid at the height of the supposed Arab-Israeli conflict. There is also violent repression of any political trend, party or opposition that calls for democracy and citizenship as firm and real foundations for resisting normalisation. The policies adopted by the military regimes and tyrants in the Arab world have strengthened the Israeli occupation, not only in Palestine, but also at the back doors of these dictatorships, which are open to direct and indirect relations with the Zionist state.

The Arab people realised while their revolutions were being betrayed that they were being targeted and suppressed in the bloodiest of manners in some countries; in others, repression was intensified to enable military and tyrannical coups. This clearly indicates that the struggle of the tyrannical Arab regimes to survive is linked to normalisation with the occupation state with which they have mutual interests.

All falsification of facts on both sides of the dictatorship-occupation equation serves the interests of the occupation state, which outweigh the dubious benefits of the survival of the tyrannical Arab regimes. Some of the regimes have no economic, geographical or political need to normalise their relationship with Israel, so why are the Arabs rushing towards the settler-colonial state and allowing the Zionists to declare openly that the Arab regimes do indeed need a relationship with Israel? The answer lies in how the Arab regimes treat their people. Arab security services exist to protect the tyrants — and the Zionist state of Israel — from their own people rather than protect the people from external threats. Normalisation focuses on security collaboration with the occupation state, giving Israel access to major institutions in Arab capitals.

This is where the value of re-reading the Israeli-Arab relationship in the official framework, both public and behind the scenes, from Camp David to Khartoum, through Oslo, Wadi Araba and the Abraham Accords, becomes obvious.

The ghoul of oppression and tyrannical savagery has been unleashed to ensure oppression and poverty for the Arab masses. The normalised regimes are now following the “Israeli model” and expressing admiration for its agricultural, industrial, technological and security boom, thanks to which it continues to impose racist, apartheid policies in Palestine. Arab capitals look at Israel and the Zionist colonial model with envy and admiration, so much so that illegal Israeli settlements were recently granted UAE funding.

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“Security cooperation” also means that there is admiration for the repressive machine of the occupation state and its economic, industrialised shedding of Arab blood. That is why security alliances are being made with it, even though some regimes do not need such a relationship because they have the financial muscle to buy arms and security know-how from elsewhere. However, they submit to the will of the US and the West, which want to destroy the status of the Palestinian cause in the Arab conscience, by strengthening support for tyrannical regimes on the one hand, and normalising regimes with Israel on the other. Hence the delight about the victory of normalisation in the Arab region.

In the midst of this reality, the Zionist establishment does not want normalisation with the Arab masses, for the simple reason that it believes this to be impossible. It is enough to have Arab investment in oppression and tyranny. This is why normalisation only wins over tyrannical Arab regimes.

Nevertheless, the status of the Palestinians and their cause remains high among the Arab masses, despite the tyranny, dictatorship and oppression. When they are free, they value citizenship and democracy, and the rights that they bring, at which stage victory against normalisation and the occupation state can be recorded. In the meantime, everything else is preparing the ground for further revolutions. That is the logic of reality and the lesson to be learnt from history.

This article first appeared in Arabic in Arabi21 on 7 February 2023

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.