Will Arab Regimes Apologize to the People of Palestine?!

This question may seem surprising to some who believe and imagine that the Palestinian cause has ended and that its owners bear the responsibility for its conclusion, and that it has become outdated after all these collapses in the region. However, let us remind ourselves of the following to identify who is responsible – in addition to Israel and the West – for the situation reaching what it currently is, not only in Palestine but throughout the Arab region or what used to be Arab, in order to keep the cause present in minds and in the political scene.

Since the beginning of the contemporary Palestinian revolution in the mid-1960s, it has confirmed in its literature that by fighting the Zionist enemy and keeping it in a state of constant distraction, it is not only defending Palestine and striving for its liberation but also defending the Arab nation to prevent the Zionist expansion in the region, and protecting the dignity of the Islamic Ummah by defending Jerusalem and the holy sites. At that time, the response of the Arab regimes – especially those orbiting the West – was that the Palestinians wanted to embroil the Arabs in a conflict that does not concern them, leaving the Palestinian revolution and the Palestinian people to face their fate alone under a severely imbalanced power dynamic favoring the enemy – despite the fact that the Arab regimes are responsible for the loss of Palestine both during the "Nakba" of 1948 and due to the defeat of the Arab armies and during the 1967 "Naksah" – which made a victory for the Palestinians over Israel on their own almost impossible.

When the Palestinian revolution and progressive Arab forces warned of the danger of the Israeli-American alliance on the Arab nation and the entire region, the same Arab regimes responded that it was a "conspiracy theory," even though conspiracies are a fundamental component of international politics where states – especially the great powers – do not disclose their strategic objectives. Muslims used to say that the Al-Aqsa Mosque has a Lord who protects it, downplaying the violations it faces from Israel and betting on the assumption that Washington and the West in general are friends of the Arabs and have common interests with them.

In 1974, President Yasser Arafat delivered his famous statement in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly in New York: "The war begins from Palestine, and peace starts from Palestine." This statement passed with little attention from the world and from the Arabs who treated it as mere slogans, or that Abu Ammar was exaggerating matters to prompt countries to intervene and find a political settlement between the Palestinians and Israelis; and events have come to confirm the validity of his statement, as the war continued, which was not limited to Palestinians and Israelis, but extended to include all Middle Eastern countries, from Lebanon and Syria to Yemen and finally Iran.

If there had been no occupation, and if Israel had committed to the principle of land for peace, executed the Oslo Agreement, and allowed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state; if the United Nations and the countries of the world were serious about respecting international law and international legitimacy, and had implemented the decisions regarding Palestine instead of remaining silent about the practices of the occupation – which unfortunately some countries deny being an occupying state and normalize relations with it – all these wars and conflicts in Palestine and the Middle East in general would not have occurred.
Thus, the majority of Arab countries continued to strengthen their relations with Washington and opened their lands to American bases, and some even went further to normalize relations with Israel, hoping that this would protect their thrones and political systems and cover their corruption.

The current political and geostrategic scene in the region reflects the accuracy of what the Palestinian revolution and the progressive Arab forces have raised, as evidenced by the following:

• Netanyahu's statements and those of his right-wing government members regarding Israel's ambitions in the region and the establishment of "Greater Israel."

• A previous statement by Trump in which he said that Israel is a small state and has the right to expand geographically.

• Direct American military intervention in the war in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.

• Statements by the U.S. ambassador in Israel asserting Israel's right to control the entire Middle East.

• Unprecedented American military build-up in the region and striking Iran again under the pretext of developing nuclear weapons and supporting terrorism, as was done with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

• Practical measures for annexing the West Bank and Israeli expansion in Syria and Lebanon.

• Complete American geostrategic and economic hegemony over Gulf states.

• The inadequacy of American military bases and normalization with Israel in protecting Gulf states from Iranian airstrikes.

After all this, do Arabs still believe that Washington is a friend to them or at least neutral and not hostile? Will Arabs apologize to the Palestinians and acknowledge that they have wronged them, and atone for their mistakes by strengthening the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their historical land?