The Arab states will not come to Gaza’s aid. None of them has launched any significant diplomatic initiative to prevent the reoccupation of the enclave or to end the Israeli bombardment it has endured for nearly two years. Despite the dreadful human toll — 70,000 dead, 70% of them women and children, according to some estimates — and a famine reminiscent of the worst medieval sieges, not a single capital across the Arab world is demanding sanctions against Tel Aviv or threatening its Western partners with retaliation for their unwavering support of Binyamin Netanyahu and his government (1).
Unlike in the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) is not trying to persuade other oil producers to restrict deliveries so that Washington will put pressure on Israel. As an example of how things have changed, in May, as American weapons continued to flow into Israel and Congress approved credit after credit for Tel Aviv, the USS Forrest Sherman, a US Navy destroyer, made a routine port call at Algiers (2).
The communist activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, recently released after 41 years in a French prison, was just as critical of ordinary Arab people as of their leaders, if not more so: ‘Palestinian children are dying of hunger,’ he said when he arrived in Beirut. ‘It’s a source of shame for history. A source of shame for the Arab people, more than for their governments. The regimes, we know. [But] how many martyrs have died in demonstrations or attempting to cross Gaza’s borders? None. No one has fallen. Everything depends on the Egyptian people, more than on anyone else.’
Egypt’s leaders disagree. Far from breaking off diplomatic relations, they are strengthening their economic cooperation with Tel Aviv, even as dozens of Gazans die every day. True, 40,000 Egyptian soldiers are deployed in northern Sinai, but their mission is not to open a corridor for humanitarian aid, it’s to prevent an influx of refugees. Reasons aren’t hard to find…
In early August the Israeli company NewMed announced the signing of a ‘historic’ €35bn contract to supply Egypt with natural gas from the offshore Leviathan field starting in 2026. The deal — for 135 billion cubic metres over 15 years — will supply 20% of Egypt’s annual needs. Since 2019, when it concluded a first contract for 60 billion cubic metres, Cairo has accepted that it’s dependent on Israel for its energy security. This may explain why its security services prevented participants in the World March to Gaza from converging on Sinai in June, often by force.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), for its part, normalised relations with Israel in 2020 under the Abraham accords. In January, Edge Group, a leading Emirati defence contractor, announced a $10m deal that will give it a 30% stake in the Israeli company Thirdeye Systems, which specialises in drone detection using AI. In Egypt, the UAE and Morocco — another signatory of the Abraham accords — normalisation with Israel goes hand in hand with business opportunities. It’s enough to inspire Syria and Saudi Arabia, which are stepping up their contacts with Israel too.
