Arab Rulers Face the World's Peoples

Author: عوض عبد الفتّاح

The crisis of the Arab world is not new. The incompetence, division, normalization, and even cooperation with enemies are not emergent practices; rather, they are expressions of an extended structural crisis whose roots date back centuries, more than eight centuries ago.

Nevertheless, it remains unprecedented for Arab rulers and their ruling classes to participate in a genocide perpetrated by a colonial state against an Arab people that has become one of the most savage, hateful, and isolated nations in the world. For many, any description less than "blatant betrayal" does not do this political outrage justice.

If there are those who hesitate to use this characterization, let them remember that betrayal is not limited to Arabs and Muslims; some modern European countries have witnessed similar behaviors.

For example: the Vichy government in France, which collaborated with the Nazi occupation, but that occupation did not turn into genocide.

Today, however, the Arab rulers have stunned the entire world with an unprecedented decline. How can we explain the initiative of a major Arab state to make trade deals worth billions with a genocidal regime? How can its participation in the blockade of Gaza be justified?

And how do we understand the actions of a small emirate, with no borders with Palestine, transferring weapons to an Israeli military airport amid the massacre? How can the opening of alternative commercial supply lines to Israel be explained when existing ones are disrupted? We are faced with a surreal scene that is difficult to comprehend.

I am not here to revisit the historical roots of the Arab structural crisis; many thinkers have provided deep dissection and analysis, and proposed solutions, but none of that has turned into a renaissance project that dismantles the dilapidated structures.

In fact, wide segments of intellectuals have contributed to entrenching the crisis, either by isolating themselves within incapable ideological entities, or by turning into horns for the regimes, or by producing superficial populist theories that hinder critical thinking.

A Comparison Between the Stance of the World's Peoples and the Stance of Arab Regimes

The majority of Arab intellectuals and analysts agree, along with wide segments of global elites, that the Arab regimes bear significant responsibility for the continuation of the massacre. Without their complicity and silence, the Western-Zionist coalition would not have been able to move forward.

Even the diplomatic language in which they frame their statements and press releases reeks of ambiguity and conspiracy.

Netanyahu has already been assured of this position; as revealed recently by the newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth", he received hundreds of gifts from Arab rulers and officials.

Some offered actual support, some conspired through silence, while others stood powerless, but they all participated in banning popular demonstrations in support of Gaza.

It has also become clear that some of them share the Israeli genocidal regime's frustration with the inability to break the legendary Palestinian steadfastness, despite two years having passed since the genocide, and more than a hundred years of Zionist presence in Palestine.

Thus, the role of the Arab nation has been completely paralyzed at a historic moment that shakes the world and threatens to redraw its map.

This collusion encouraged Netanyahu to proceed with his pre-determined plan: the extermination of Gaza, the liquidation of the Palestinian issue, and then regional expansion within the framework of a "Greater Israel".

Before embarking on this expansion, the Arab rulers were comfortable delivering a blow to Hamas, considering it an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood.
But after Israeli leaders announced their imperial plans and began strikes in Syria, some of these rulers were fed up with his arrogance, without daring to cut ties or take punitive measures, as non-Arab and non-Muslim countries like Colombia, Venezuela, and Ireland have done.

To cover up this outrage, they resorted to feeble theatrics: dropping aid from the air with Israel's permission, or preoccupying themselves with "two-state solution" conferences at a time when Israel is carrying out daily mass killings in Gaza and committing daily crimes in the West Bank.

But this behavior is not just a stab in the back of the Palestinian people; it is also a stab in the backs of the world's peoples who rise up against genocide and stand in solidarity with Palestinian blood.
These peoples do not just defend Palestine; they defend their humanity, aware that what is happening is part of rehabilitating Israel as a key pillar in the oppressive global imperial capitalist system, to continue its dirty functional role, as described by the German chancellor.

A Human Struggle that Transcends Borders

This struggle is no longer confined to the identity of the people of the region; rather, it is a quintessentially human struggle.

What is new today is the emergence of a global consciousness forming around an alternative future for humanity, a future pulled from the grip of a global capitalist mafia utterly insensitive to human life, supported by an outrageously wealthy, greedy minority.

In an article by the progressive American thinker of Iranian descent, Hamid Dabashi, published in "Middle East Eye" titled: "How do we face despair amid the continuation of Israeli genocide?", he wrote: "As a Muslim, I feel ashamed of the cowardice of Islamic regimes, which have made themselves partners in this genocide".

He adds, as an opponent of the Iranian regime, but aligned with his country during the Israeli aggression last June: "But in the face of these betrayals of doctrine, conscience, and humanity, there is a need for a new ethical performance rooted in the struggles and sacrifices of the Palestinians."

He concludes that "in the face of this savagery, we are no longer Muslims, Christians, Jews, or any other category; we are all Palestinians facing total erasure. The struggle for Palestine is the direct path to saving humanity, and it leads us to a clear moral conscience."