The governments of the Arab world are publicly united in steadfast support of the Palestinians as Israel prepares a ground invasion of Gaza to eliminate the Hamas terror cadre.
At least, they are when it comes to words. Their actions suggest otherwise.
Jordan’s Queen Rania, for one, confessed herself and her nation “shocked and disappointed by the world’s reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding.”
The queen, a Palestinian by heritage, might want a word with her husband, Abdullah II, who said bluntly as Israel began its counterattack “This is a red line . . . no refugees to Jordan.”
Letting in fleeing Palestinians now would alleviate suffering and present a challenge to Hamas.
Egypt flatly refuses, too; indeed, no Arab nation has stepped up to offer refuge to their “brothers.”
Qatar gave Gaza — that is, the Hamas government — funds averaging to about $166 million a year from 2012 to 2021 allegedly for “civilian” projects.
It’s plain Hamas spent that money elsewhere, given the dire state of the Gazan economy (more than 80% of its 2.1 million people live in poverty).
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Hardly the “unwavering stance on the justice of the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” the Qatari government affirmed again this month.
Indeed, given the disastrous conditions the Palestinians face, why not a full-scale, Marshall-Plan style push from the richer Arab states — one aimed at finally lifting their Palestinian brothers up from economic and social misery?
We don’t mean intermittent, poorly supervised aid payments but something more transformational.
The answer: Ever since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the Arab states have used the Palestinian issue — and the Palestinian people — as nothing but a handy club against the Jewish state, and a distraction from their own populations’ discontent with their rule.
They have treated the Palestinians more or less as lepers, stashing those who left in 1948 or after in permanent refugee camps across the Middle East, on now to the third and fourth generations.
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If the visible ills of the Palestinians went away — if Gaza and the West Bank, for example, managed to thrive as Israel has done — it would dispel utterly the myth of Israel’s inherent evil, a lie that’s been foundational to Middle East politics for three quarters of a century.
And that remains true even despite the genuine diplomatic steps taken by some Arab governments — Egypt, Jordan, the UAE and (before Iran intervened via Hamas) the Saudis.
So it is true that the Palestinians are being victimized.
Not by the Israelis, but by their own corrupt and fanatical leadership and the sovereign nations that pledge undying support but leave them to suffer.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
