The Abraham Accords and the Intransigence of the Palestinian-Arabs in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza

Dec 15, 2020 by Alex Grobman

By Alex Grobman, Ph.D.

The Abraham Accords, the term given to the series of agreements reached last summer allowing normal relations between Israel and several of her Arab-Muslim neighbors, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and now Morocco, were greeted with optimism and approval by the Trump administration.

“Everybody who joined the Abraham Accords will see the benefits for their own people,” declared US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said he was “highly confident that many, many more nations will ultimately choose to do the right thing and recognize Israel as the rightful homeland of the Jewish people.”

In stark contrast to Pompeo’s confidence in other Arab nations’ ultimate decision to recognize the Jewish people’s return to their ancestral homeland, are the expressions emanating from the Palestinian Authority and its counterpart in Gaza, Hamas. These Palestinian groups have been brutal in their condemnation of the accords and those countries that have signed them.

Exploiting Children

Before his death this past November, Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian politician and negotiator, called the accords “a poisoned stab in the back of the Palestinian people and an attempt to try and get around international legitimacy.”

Statements such as these have an effect on the Palestinian-Arabs as well as the Arab-Muslim populations in the countries that are making peace with Israel.

For example, a report from Palestinian Media Watch, a non-profit research institute that studies Palestinian society by monitoring and analyzing its media and schoolbooks, illustrates the opposition to normalizing relations with Israel. Posted on the official Facebook page of the PA faction, Fatah, headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, is a video clip of Bahraini children conveying their enmity towards the Abraham Accords.

In the clip, a young girl recites a well-known poem with the words: “Palestine is our land, and the Jews are our dogs.” But before she says the words, she covers her mouth to ensure that no one hears what she is saying. Aside from the explicit antisemitic message, she is implying that Arabs are being restrained by the leaders from stating “the truth” about Jews and Israel.”

Infecting Social Media

Noa Landau, a senior journalist for the left-wing Israeli daily Ha’aretz, reported that the scathing attacks against the accords by Palestinian-Arab leaders mirrored the remarks recorded in a study that surveyed Arabic-language social-media conversations on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube between August 12 and September 8. During that period, just before the Abraham Accords were officially signed, the most common hashtags, which reached 100 million social-media users, were “normalization is treason” and “Bahrainis against normalization.”

Only ten percent of the comments contained anything positive about the accords. The great majority, 61 percent, mentioned security advantages, and another 33 percent cited economic benefits. Only six percent pointed out that they merely formalized already existing relationships.

Most of the hostile comments came from Iranians and members of Hezbollah (the Iranian-sponsored terror group in Lebanon), Hamas, and the PA, as well as other organizations that promote the delegitimization of Israel.

The report suggested that Israel work on Arab social-media to improve its image as well as the benefits of peace, especially in the Gulf States and other countries with whom future agreements might be signed, in an effort to counter the hostility towards normalization.

Palestinians’ Transgression

Those Arab-Muslim leaders who have signed or are about to sign the Abraham Accords with Israel are aware of the problem.

In an interview in Al Arabiya, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who served from 1983 to 2005 as Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US, director-general of the Saudi Intelligence Agency, and head of the Saudi National Security Council, denounced the Palestinian organizations for their rhetoric against the accords.

Bandar, who is widely believed to be eager for his country to join the accords, said the Palestinian leaders’ “transgression against the Gulf states’ leadership with this reprehensible discourse is entirely unacceptable.”

Referring to some of the threats leveled by the PA and Hamas against those who have signed the accords, Bandar said, “We are at a stage in which rather than being concerned with how to face the Israeli challenges in order to serve the Palestinian cause, we have to pay attention to our national security and interests.”

However, Bandar also advised a measured response to the Palestinian leaders’ use of terms such as “treason,” “betrayal,” and “back-stabbing.” Belittling the current crop of Palestinian leaders, he said, “It is difficult to trust them and to do something for the Palestinian cause with them around.”

Vowing to Continue the War

The Palestinian-Arabs’ leaders not only rage against the accords, they seem willing to do nothing to further peace talks or make compromises with either the Israelis or those who want to make peace with the Jewish state.

According to David Pollock of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, Palestinian-Arab majorities in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and the eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem increasingly avow that even if a two-state solution were to be reached and implemented, it would not imply that the conflict with Israel had ended. About 60 percent of the Palestinian-Arabs say they want the fight with Israel to continue to “liberate all of historic Palestine,” which means an end to the Jewish state.

These are not empty threats. In a recent speech to the Knesset, Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party and a former Defense Minister, warned that Hamas is developing cruise missiles, cluster bombs, and unmanned aerial vehicles with jet engines. Every day, he said, at least two missiles are manufactured, some of which can reach Hadera in the Haifa district.

No Peace with a “False Religion” of a Non-Nation

Several fundamental issues stand in the way of any possible peace treaty between Israel and the Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, according to Arabic scholar Mordecai Kedar, beginning with the Muslim precept that Judaism is considered a “false religion” (Din Al-Batel) while the “religion of truth” is Islam (Din Al-Haq).

According to Dr. Kedar, this Islamist position makes the acceptance of a Jewish state an impossibility.

Further, he says, the Palestinian Arabs contend that Jews are not a people. A Jew from Poland is considered to be Polish from an ethnic point of view and of the Mosaic faith from a religious perspective. Therefore, the Palestinian-Arabs argue, the Jew from Poland belongs in his homeland, which is Poland.

Palestinian National Covenant

Another obstacle to the Palestinian-Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is the Palestinian National Covenant of 1968, which has never been revoked. The covenant maintains that Zionism is a racist ideology.

According to the late chief of Israeli Military Intelligence Yehoshafat Harkabi, Palestinian Arabs define Zionism as the primary cause of the conflict and the “root of evil.” The National Covenant, he said, is a reflection not only of the more radical elements in the Arab camp, but of the mainstream members of the Palestinian-Arab movement.

It signifies “an egotistic stand that does not show the slightest consideration for the adversary nor any trace of recognition that he, too, may have a grievance, claim, and justice,” said Mr. Harkabi, adding that the Palestinian-Arab movement “professes ‘absoluteness’ and ‘totality’—there is absolute justice in the Palestinian stand in contrast to the absolute injustice of Israel.”

“Right,” he said, “is on the Palestinian side only—only they are worthy of self-determination.”

Addictive Lawlessness

Political Scientist Daniel Schueftan said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be seen in context, a problem that faces not only Israel but also her Arab-Muslim neighbors who seek to forge ties of peace with the Jewish state.

“The ongoing lawlessness of [the Palestinian-Arab] national movement has to do with its consistent evasion of responsibility for the fate of its people.

“The movement has become addicted to a pattern of behavior that combines failed aggression with serial whining. It’s important to remind those who insist on pitying the Palestinians because of their wretchedness that this behavior is what has brought most of their misfortunes down upon them. It’s hard to respect them as a national collective,” he said.

Dr. Grobman is the senior resident scholar at the John C. Danforth Society and a member of the Council of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East