Abbas silent on Morocco peace deal, unlike with earlier agreements

Abbas trying not to upset Washington in order to start on good terms with the Biden administration, but some Jerusalem Arabs vent their anger.

By World Israel News Staff

Unlike the angry reaction to the peace agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, the Palestinian leadership is keeping a low profile following the announcement of the latest peace deal between an Arab country and Israel – opening it up to ridicule from Gulf Arabs and criticism from Palestinians, Makor Rishon reported Sunday.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and senior officials have not commented on the announcement last week that Morocco will establish diplomatic ties, becoming the fourth country to normalize relations with Israel in the past few months after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.

In response to the other peace deals the Palestinian leadership accused the Arabs of selling them out and “stabbing them in the back” in bypassing the previous paradigm that no Arab country would make peace with Israel before the Palestinians had their own state.

This time Abbas refrained from continuing to ignite the fire against normalization with “Ramallah trying to look like good children in the face of the new U.S. administration, hoping that this will lead to a change in policy on its part after years of stagnation in [Palestinian] relations with Washington,” Makor Rishon noted.

The Palestinians have had a rough relationship with Gulf states since PLO leader Yasser Arafat supported the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Palestinian leadership has been harshly criticized recently by officials in several Gulf countries.

On Friday, Saudi political cartoonist Fahad Al-Jubairi ridiculed Palestinian duplicity, tweeting a picture showing Palestinian dogs barking when the Gulf states announced the normalization of relations with Israel, but then showing  the dogs gone with only their footprints left behind visible when Morocco announced its deal.

“The issue is not about normalization, but hatred for everything that is Gulf is the reason,” Al-Jubairi wrote.

While Palestinian officials in Ramallah were silent, several prominent Arabs in eastern Jerusalem expressed their anger at Morocco, which is considered one of the countries that guard the Muslim holy places, the paper noted.

Kamal Khatib, deputy head of the northern faction of the Islamic Movement, attacked the peace agreement and reminded the Moroccans that their ancestors participated in the conquest of Jerusalem by Saladin in the year 1187.

“You must raise your head, as your grandfather did in the days of Saladin, which prevented the Crusaders from conquering Jerusalem,” Khatib said.