There are those who keep warning the Israelis not to declare their sovereignty in parts of Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”), lest all hell break loose in the Arab states. There are others who claim that very little will in fact happen: a pro-forma denunciation from Arab states, but no breaking of peace treaties, and no ending of security cooperation with the Jewish state.
All the signs suggest that the latter scenario – with some sound, but not much fury — is more likely. The report-at Israel Hayom is here.
Although it still wasn’t clear whether Israel will declare sovereignty in parts of Judea and Samaria on July 1, talks between Israel and moderate Sunni countries were continuing in earnest behind the scenes.
Senior Arab diplomatic officials, along with senior defense and intelligence officials in Egypt and Jordan, confirmed to Israel Hayom on Monday [June 22] that over the past several weeks – ahead of the planned implementation of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and Jordan Valley – intensive diplomatic activity was taking place between Israel and moderate Arab countries. The purpose of these diplomatic efforts was to reach an agreement on the nature and scope of the response from Sunni Arab countries, chief among them Egypt and Jordan, which have peace treaties with Israel – if and when Israel applies sovereignty.
According to those Arab officials, senior intelligence and defense officials were engaging in the talks under a heavy veil of secrecy.
One senior Arab diplomat said Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and the head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamal were spearheading the talks, and that in recent meetings agreed that Israel would implement its sovereignty plan while Arab countries would voice their formal objections to the initiative – without significantly damaging diplomatic relations between the countries.
A senior Egyptian official told Israel Hayom this week that Palestinian concerns about the nature of Cairo’s response to Israel’s sovereignty bid were justified because Cohen and Kamal have already agreed in principle over the scope and tone of Egypt’s response. Egyptian defense officials have even been able to persuade their Jordanian counterparts to recommend to Jordanian King Abdullah II to suffice with declarative condemnation of the Israeli initiative and eschew operative steps that would harm the peace accord with Israel….
This report has the distinct ring of truth. Egypt benefits too much from its security cooperation with Israel to want to do more than issue a pro-forma denunciation of any Israeli extension of sovereignty in the West Bank. Now that Israel has proven to be such a valuable ally for Egypt in its battles against the Muslim Brotherhood, including its Gazan branch Hamas, and against the Islamic State fighters (who remain murderously active in the Sinai, where in just one attack – among so many they have carried out — they killed 305 mosque worshippers), Egypt has no desire to end that cooperation. Furthermore, Egypt worries about the encroachments of Shi’a Iran on Sunni Arab peoples, through proxies and allies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and realizes that Israel remains Iran’s most effective and implacable enemy.
At the same time that Israel has proven its worth as an ally of Egypt, the Palestinian Arabs are increasingly seen in a far less favorable light by Cairo. The Egyptians have grown increasingly impatient with the Palestinians. They feel they have done quite enough for them, having fought three wars with Israel on their behalf, costing Egypt a great deal in men, money, and materiel (including having almost its entire air force wiped out in June 1967), without any discernible display of gratitude from the Palestinians.
A senior Egyptian official told Israel Hayom this week that Palestinian concerns about the nature of Cairo’s response to Israel’s sovereignty bid were justified because Cohen and Kamal have already agreed in principle over the scope and tone of Egypt’s response. Egyptian defense officials have even been able to persuade their Jordanian counterparts to recommend to Jordanian King Abdullah II to suffice [sic] with declarative condemnation of the Israeli initiative and eschew operative steps that would harm the peace accord with Israel.
Jordan, like Egypt, benefits from Israeli security cooperation against the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups inside Jordan that are opposed to the monarchy, and against the threat of Iranian intelligence groups in Jordan that King Abdullah has been warning about since 2004. Jordan will coordinate with, and follow the lead of, Egypt, in its response to any extension by Israel of sovereignty in the West Bank. The King will formally protest, but as the article in Israel Hayom makes clear, he will do no more.
But the Egyptians have gone further and helped fashion Jordan’s formal response as well. Defense officials in Cairo have, according to the report of an unnamed “senior Egyptian official,” persuaded Jordanian security officers to recommend to King Abdullah that he should follow Egypt’s lead. That is, he, too, should issue a pro-forma condemnation of Israel’s extension of sovereignty, but not actually do anything that could damage the peace treaty with Israel.
The latest move by the Palestinians is to try to involve Turkey in the campaign to prevent, or punish, Israel for any extension of its sovereignty in the West Bank. Mahmoud Abbas has appealed to President Erdogan to “spearhead” an opposition to the Israeli sovereignty plans. How exactly that would work is unclear, given the Arabs’ historic memory of mistreatment by the Ottoman Turks. Just how unpopular Erdogan is among the Arabs became clear in 2018, when he proposed that a pan-Islamic army be raised – headed by Turkey — to defeat Israel, and not a single Arab state bothered to respond.
This appeal by Abbas to Turkey to head an Arab opposition has enraged the Egyptians, not only because it plays to Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman fantasies, of being the natural leader of the Muslims, but because right now Egypt and Turkey are at war in Libya through proxies, with Egypt backing the Libyan National Army of General Haftar, and Turkey backing the Government of National Accord (GNA) headed by Fawaz al-Sarraj. That conflict could become a direct war if Turkish forces were to cross the “red lines” at Sirte that General El-Sisi has warned Turkey about. Jordan, too, regards Erdogan’s plans to project Turkish strength in North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean with deep misgivings. The Palestinians, by appealing to Erdogan, have only reinforced the desire in Cairo and Amman to let Mahmoud Abbas and his fellows fend for themselves, and have done with the Palestinian imbroglio that for Egypt and Jordan has brought nothing but trouble. For Egypt, Turkey has become, with its interference in Libya, its main immediate worry. And in Libya, as in the Sinai, Israel has been Egypt’s valuable ally, supplying Haftar’s forces with military supplies.
In a very short time we will learn about Israel’s carefully crafted extension of sovereignty to part of the West Bank, followed by the pro-forma denunciations, but nothing more, from Cairo, Amman, Riyadh, Dubai, and Manama, and possibly from many other Arab capitals — taking their lead from Cairo — as well. But no peace treaties will be torn up, no Arab armies will be marching on Jerusalem, and once again, the Saudi Crown Prince, now quietly supported by General El-Sisi and King Abdullah – will deliver the message to Mahmoud Abbas that he least wants to hear. To wit: “Take whatever deal you are offered. The train has left the station. Run faster. Try to get on board.”
mortimer says
The KGB’s plot to stir up racial hatred using the old ‘national struggle’ trick led to the creation of a Palestinian Arab identity, when everyone in the region knew Arabs maintain loyalty to their place and clan of origin … similar to Scottish clans. There is precious little ‘national consciousness’ among Arabs. They even refer to ‘The Arab Nation’, rather than to their post-WWI countries … lines drawn in the sand by Great Britain and France. One of the first self-styled ‘Pallies’ was Khalil Beidas, born in Nazareth, but both of his parents were from Lebanon.
A Jewish homeland could theoretically exist anywhere, in Kamtchatka or Zanzibar, but Israel is the most logical place for a Jewish homeland. The Pallies have nothing to lose and much to gain by joining Israel and becoming citizens. Arabic is an official language in Israel.
I AM THE INFIDEL YOUR IMAM WARNED YOU ABOUT says
If Arabic is an official language in Israel, what is Hebrew?
Rarely says
An official language as well, of course.
FYI Canada has two official languages too.
Rob says
NZ has three. English, Maori and NZ Sign Language. But, to the point I have nothing but disdain for Jordan. They (the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan) recieved the first (1925) apportionment of land from the Palestine Mandate, yet they attack the next apportionment in 1949 which of course is Israel and the Jews.
DavidS says
Hebrew is the official language of Israel. From 1948 until 2018 both Hebrew and Arabic were the official languages of Israel. In 2018, Arabic was changed from an official language to a special status language.
gravenimage says
Mortimer, the only thing the “Palestinians” have to lose by being good citizens of civilized Israel is Islam, which most of them murderously cling to.
Walter Sieruk says
This article serves as a blatant reminder that Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad base their anti-Jewish beliefs on the Quran which read the are Jews are “apes and pigs” 2:65. 7:166. 5:60. Likewise. Hamas ,Hezbollah and Islamic jihad base their murderous violence against the Jewish people by the violent and deadly instruction found in the Quran, 2:919. 4:89. 5:33. 9:5. 111,112, 123. 47:4.
Furthermore, the very foundation of and for Islam is the Quran ,this leads to very important question: “Is the Quran the Word of God or is it a fabrication of a man. Thus, is the Quran the truth or a fiction and a hoax ?”
The answer is clearly given on pages 145 through 157 in THE ISLAMIC INVASION by Robert Morey in which he wrote a section on the Quran with its self-contradictions. Just two of the many he cited are the following “The Quran differs on whether a day is a thousand years or fifty thousand years in God’s sight’ and “Who was first to believe? Abraham or Moses [Sura 6:14 versus 7:143]? The above is inconsistent and illogical.
Further, Morey wrote about “The fact that Judaism and Christianity broke up into different sects was used in the Quran to prove that they are not of God [Suras 30:20-32. 42:13, 14]. Yet Islam has broken up into many warring sects and therefore cannot be true if the Quran is right.” Moreover, Morey in his book shows many more contradictions and absurdities in the Quran, there are and how Muhammad incorporated extra Biblical and Jewish folklore along with pre-Islamic Arabian myth and parts of Zoroastrian and Hindu stories into the Quran.
Moreover, the Muslims claim that “the Quran is the direct, literal word of God unmodified in any way by the Prophet who uttered them at the bidding of God.” Nevertheless, in the book UNVEILING ISLAM by Ergun Mehmet Caner and Eethi Caner has shown that the Quran was modified in the following account on pages 45. “Muhammad felt the need to improve on the words of Allah, since he changed Allah’s wisdom for his own on several occasions. A hadith tells of the nonchalant emendations of Muhammad:’ On a number of occasions he [a scribe] had, with the Prophet’s consent changed the closing words of verses. For example, when the prophet had said ‘God is mighty and wise ‘ Adbollah b. Abi Sarh suggested writing down ‘Knowing and wise’ and the Prophet answered that there was no objection. Having observed a succession of changes of this type, Adbollah renounced Islam on the grounds that revelations, if from God could not be changed at the prompting of a scribe such as himself. After his apostasy he went to Mecca and joined the Qorayshites.’
Other writers reveal that later Muhammad and his people did go war with the Qorayshites and he personally killed Abdollah. Obviously Abdollah knew too much and Muhammad wanted Abdollah’s knowledge to die with him.” In conclusion, the Quran is not only a fiction, it’s also a hoax.
Walter Sieruk says
We should remember that the Islamic agenda of many Islamic terror organizations as Hezbollah, Hamas, P.I.J. etc. of destroying the State of Israel and replacing it with an Islamic “state” is already as lost cause. This is because those Islamic groups with that goal are all fated to lose in the end. For that agenda of those Jihad terror entities are greatly overruled by the God of the Bible. For the Jewish people have every right to all of that land, including the West Bank, by Divine Right. As seen, for example, in Genesis 28:13-15. 35:48, 49. Psalms 105:7-11. 135:4. Furthermore, the Jewish people should also have that land by historic rights. As found in First Kings 4:20,21,24,25. 8:55,56.
In conclusion, the jihadists members of Hezbollah, Hamas, P.I.J. and other like-minded Islamic organizations have joined a lost cause and a bad cause.
It may even rightfully be said that the jihadists of such Islamic entities have taken up a stand for a bad cause. This is a bad cause to the extreme. The Bible instructs in much wisdom, as in “Do not stand up for a bad cause.” Ecclesiastes 8:3. [N.I.V.]
RichardL says
it is good news, but I get angry when I read about “Arabs” and even “Sunni Arabs”: they are Muslims. But using Arab instead of Muslim you declare all Christian and Jewish (and atheist) Arabs/Semites to be non-existent.
Rethmann says
all Arab countries lack education, and their governments are hypocrites
Charlie in NY says
Prediction: Israel will extend its civil law (a/k/a “annexation) only to those areas that “everyone knows” will remain Israeli under any peace treaty. This extension will not extend to the Jordan Valley. However, Israel will call on the PA to negotiate under the terms of the Trump Plan – which will put Abbas into a corner of his own making (he had eight years of an Obama Administration to make a move and didn’t). The Sunni Arabs and possibly the EU will declare that their opposition minimized Israel’s action and join in the call to the PA to negotiate.
Abbas will delay any response until the results of the November election, all the while hoping for a Biden win, the revocation of all elements of the Trump Plan (except maybe for the $50 billion that the PA will still want but without any pesky conditions of “good governance”, civil rights or requirements of creating democratic/peaceful institutions) and renewed pressure for concessions solely on Israel.
gravenimage says
Egypt, Jordan Will Only Symbolically Condemn Israel
…………..
That’s just what I figured. Israel should just go ahead.