The Silence of the Sheikhs

AS THE ISRAEL-HAMAS war completes six devas­tating months on April 7, 2024, the question is: Why have the wealthy and powerful Arab sheikh­doms said so little and done so little to stop the carnage?

The answer has many layers. First, Arab monarchies— ranging from Saudi Arabia to Qatar—fear their citizens more than they fear Israel. Weeks before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, Saudi Arabia and Israel were about to establish diplomatic relations, midwived by the US. The Hamas attack, though in planning for months, was timed to scupper that deal.

A Saudi-Israel rapprochement would have ended the last hope of a two-state solution and the establishment of a sovereign Palestine living side-by-side with Israel in peace.

The Arab Spring—a series of anti-government citizens’ protests across the Arab world—had long run out of steam but resentment among ordinary Arabs simmered. The ruling sheikhs keep a tight grip on their citizenry. The threat of the Arab Street revolting against Arab monarchies remains a worry. Israel is a relatively more benign factor, Palestine a sacrificial lamb.

The second reason for Arab monar­chies’ silence over Gaza is Washington. Israel has survived since its inception in 1948 with weapons, intelligence and diplomatic sup­port from the US and its Western allies. Democrats and Republicans in Washington disagree on most things but they are united in their unyielding backing for Israel.

That support is unbreakable even if Israel commits war crimes during the ongoing conflict in Gaza—as it clear­ly has. On March 18, 2024, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, said: “The extent of Israel’s continued restrictions on entry of aid into Gaza, togeth­er with the manner in which it continues to conduct hos­tilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime.”

US President Joe Biden backs Israel’s war in Gaza while simultaneously pleading with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to minimise casualties among Palestinian civilians, especially women and children. Netanyahu no longer bothers to even pretend that he listens to Biden’s entreaties.

Dismissing Biden’s plea to call off Israel’s assault on Rafah where over a million Palestinians are sheltered, Netanyahu said he had made it “supremely clear [to the US president] that we are determined to complete the elimina­tion of these battalions in Rafah, and there’s no way to do that except by going in on the ground.”

For the Saudi-led Arab world, several factors are in play as it considers its response to the horrific toll of over 32,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza. It cannot wholly dispense with the West’s military umbrella. Ironically, that serves as a shield against a coup by rival princes, disenchanted army officers, and rebellious citizen groups. Qatar, which funds Hamas, meanwhile plays neutral umpire, knowing that only its gas fields give it leverage in the Arab world and beyond.

For Saudi-led Sunni Arabs who dominate the Middle East, Iran is a bigger worry than the Israel-West military alliance. Palestine is a lost cause. Or it was, till Hamas struck on October 7. Palestine is now back on the agenda

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What unites Arabs, and has nudged them to make peace with Israel, is the threat of Iran’s growing influence in the region. Despite US sanctions, Iran is only a few years away from acquir­ing nuclear weapons capability. Tehran leads a Shia coalition of Lebanon (along with its powerful Hezbollah militia), Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

For Saudi-led Sunni Arabs who dom­inate the Middle East, Iran is a bigger worry than the Israel-West military alli­ance. Palestine is a lost cause.

Or it was, till Hamas struck on October 7. Palestine is now back on the global agenda. Biden, despite his support for Israel, knows that there can be no long-lasting peace in the Middle East in the absence of a two-state solution that gives Palestinians back some of the territory they were driven out of between 1917 and 1948.

Why are those two specific dates important? Because in 1917, the year of the Balfour Declaration, Britain commit­ted the original sin by pledging unilaterally to give Zionist Jews a homeland in Palestine. Britain had been handed the mandate for Palestine by the League of Nations in 1918 at the end of World War I.

The number of Jews in British-run Palestine soared twelve-fold from 56,000 in 1918 to 6,50,000 in 1948. The number of Palestinian Arabs plunged from over 9,50,000 in 1918 to 1,60,000 in 1948 when the British left.

The consequences of the original sin by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, who issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917, are playing out today in Gaza.

About The Author

Minhaz Merchant

Minhaz Merchant is an author, editor and publisher

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