The US can’t ignore growing animosity from Arab nations over deaths in Gaza

Israel continues to expand its military operations in Gaza. Punitive raids by its forces appear to have stymied any armed solidarity struggle in the West Bank, and Hezbollah does not look like it’s ready to help out Hamas with a cross-border conflict from Lebanon.

But the West, which is providing top cover for Israel in the conflict, with the US rushing in supplies to add to the multibillion-dollar arms packages every year, is beginning to feel a growing backlash from the Arab world as the toll of Palestinian dead passes 12,000 – most of them women and children.

The recent extraordinary joint Arab-Islamic summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh, with 57 international leaders present, condemned Israel for the brutal strife, declaring: “Protection from cycles of violence and wars will not be achieved without ending Israeli occupation. We hold Israel, the occupying power, responsible for the continuation and aggravation of the conflict.”

Among the countries backing the stance were those in the Gulf which have normalised relations with Israel under the newly signed Abraham accords, brokered by America, one which was presented by Israel as a template for other Arab countries to follow, with Saudi Arabia the main prize.

The Riyadh summit also saw a striking level of criticism against the US and the West being made privately by Arab and Muslim ministers over what they consider to be risible hypocrisy. They pointed out that while Nato armed Ukraine, saying it was outraged at Russia’s killing of civilians, Israel is given immunity while entire families are wiped out in Gaza.

There was no public communique criticising the West at the meeting. But we did see very pronounced examples of what happens when a vacuum caused by the weakening of Western influence is filled by adversaries.

One of the most notable sights at the summit was the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi meeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. The two countries have been at daggers drawn in the region, fighting proxy wars in Syria and Yemen. The historic rapprochement between the leading Sunni and Shia powers was organised by China, which is striving to expand its presence in the Middle East.

open image in gallery

Also present at the summit was Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who had been an outcast among the Arab states after the brutal suppression of the rebellion against him in which Iran and its Lebanese client militia Hezbollah played key roles when Moscow sent in troops to keep the dictator in power in Damascus.

Iranian-backed Shia militias are now entrenched in Syria, carrying out attacks on American bases in the country. Washington has responded by launching retaliatory airstrikes and reinforcing the two carrier strike groups sent to the Mediterranean after this latest Gaza war got under way.

The Arab world has not been united on Palestine. Qatar’s support and funding for Hamas is not replicated by other Sunni states. There is also weariness about the corruption and ineptitude of the rival Palestinian Authority (PA). Sources close to MBS made clear his frustration with the PA when I and a few other journalists interviewed him in Jeddah last year.

Yet there was no condemnation at the meeting of Hamas for its barbaric attack on 7 October which took 1,200 lives and led to 240 people being kidnapped and taken as hostages into Gaza – a reflection of the current anger in the Middle East against Israel and its backers.

Protests against what is taking place in Gaza have continued across the region. There is rising apprehension in governments that the rage in the streets may breed radicalisation of the young, with Hamas sympathisers and the Muslim Brotherhood – which is also backed by Qatar – taking advantage.

open image in gallery

A diplomat from a Gulf state which is a strong ally of the West stressed: “We have put strong legal restrictions on the Brotherhood which we view as a direct threat, and Hamas is but a part of them.

“We denounced the Hamas attack in Israel most strongly. But the Israeli response has been totally disproportionate. Our people see the pain being felt by the people of Gaza, the dead bodies of children and the elderly, and of course, they are sad and angry.

“We and other countries have given huge amounts of aid to Gaza. But Hamas and their backers are projecting themselves as the only people fighting for the Palestinians. That is something which appeals to young people, and that is the danger. Hamas has an ideology, you cannot bomb that into disappearing, as the Israelis will find out. We know that is the case only too well.”

There is also consternation among Arab governments at the limited influence the US, which provides $3.8bn (£3bn) in security assistance each year to Israel, has on Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

It took weeks of requests by the US administration, including by Joe Biden himself, before there was a “pause” in military action for any humanitarian assistance to get through to beleaguered Gaza. Even now only a trickle is reaching those most in need.

open image in gallery

The US military sent a team of senior commanders who had taken part in operations in Mosul and Fallujah in Iraq to Israel, before the ground operation began, to point out the risks of massive collateral damage. Yet civilian casualties have been colossal in scale in Gaza: reports in the US media say the Israelis were not particularly receptive to the American advice.

The Israeli military says the high figures are mainly due to Hamas deliberately carrying out attacks from densely populated areas. The Israelis say they are using what they have in stock – bombs of up to 2,000lb, area denial weapons, not intended for use in urban warfare. The Pentagon has now started flying in smaller bombs.

There have been repeated internal warnings from within the Biden administration about the effect the US’s seemingly unconditional support for Israel is having on the Arab streets.

The broadcaster CNN published cables last week by American diplomats in the region stressing the risk of “losing Arab public opinion for decades ahead”. The US embassies in Egypt and Oman have sent messages about the negative impact on public opinion saying “we are losing badly in the message war”.

Disquiet is not limited to America. Ten French ambassadors to the Middle East sent a memo to the Elysee Palace regretting Emmanuel Macron’s supposed bias in favour of Israel in the conflict. This is despite the French president being the only major Western leader so far to directly criticise Israeli military action, saying there was “no justification” for the bombing of civilians in Gaza and calling for a ceasefire to end the suffering.

Israeli officials make their own charges of hypocrisy against the West, and the US in particular.

“The US reacted to the 9/11 attacks by invading a country, Afghanistan. How many lives were lost there in the next 20 years? 9/11 was also one of the reasons given for the Iraq invasion because some of the people in the [Bush] administration were determined to pin that on Saddam as well. They knew the WMD argument wouldn’t stick at the end,” said an Israeli security official.

“Around 3,000 people were killed on 9/11. That is from a US population of 300 million [284.8 million in 2001]. We had 1,200 killed in a population of nine million. Al-Qaeda didn’t take 240 American hostages to Afghanistan, like Hamas took from here to Gaza. So let’s get things in perspective a bit.”

Israel can put forward another argument for its strategy. Despite the censure at the Riyadh summit, none of the countries to have signed up to the Abraham accords – the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – has shown any signs of pulling out of it.