Raging anger at Saudi-Jordan support to Israel

Will Palestinian Spring emerge from the ashes of 2011 Arab Spring?

 By Latheef Farook

Iran’s use of hundreds of drones and missiles  directly hitting at Israel exposed neighbouring Arab countries of their secret support to  Israeli-US European genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and  their  evil designs against  the region.

Ever since the June 1967 war of aggression when Israel annexed West Bank,Gaza,Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, Israel projected itself as the invincible military power in the region. However the  Iranian missile and drone attacks on Israel  on Saturday 13  April 2024 and Sunday 14 early morning  in retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus  shattered this  myth.

These  drone and missile attacks also exposed the true face of Saudi -Jordan  in protecting Israel despite  its seven months long  genocides of Palestinians and destruction  in Gaza.

Saudi Arabia, known US-Israeli stooge  implementing their evil designs on  Islam and the region, publicly acknowledged that it had helped the newly forged regional military coalition — Israel,  United States, Jordan, United Kingdom, and France — to  repel Iranian attack against the  Jewish state.  founded on Palestine  by means of genocides and deception.

According to reports Saudi openly involved   in the military  operation in which 99% of the Iranian drones and missiles were destroyed before hitting their targets in Israel. Many of the drones and missiles had to travel over Jordanian and Saudi airspace to reach Israel. 

This was not unexpected as the  Saudi regime  depends on US- Israel for its survival.In fact former US President Donald Trump  who signed a 100 billion dollar weapons deal with Saudis ,once said Saudi regime cannot be in power for two weeks without American support. This is the  state of a regime in the land of Islam.  .

It is also common knowledge  that  Saudi r role in protecting Israel which continues to  bomb , starve and slaughter Palestinians who were deprived of water, medicine, food, electricity and shelter for more than seven months.

 House of Saud which was placed in power by British Imperial Power   systematically destroyed more than 95 percent of  sites, places ,buildings, graveyards and other structures of great historic importance in Islam.

Peace loving people worldwide were seething with anger at the brutal  Saudi regime’s shameless role in protecting Israel which continues to  bomb , starve and slaughter Palestinians who were deprived of water, medicine, food, electricity and shelter for more than seven months.

Equally  important  was the  support of Jordan which intercepted Iranian drone and protected Israel. That is not all. An Israeli air force officer said that Jordan also allowed Israeli fighter jets into its airspace to shoot down missiles and drones launched by Iran. Jordanian and Israeli fighters were coordinated by the US military , in what is thought to be the first time Israel and Jordan fought side by side against a Muslim country.

 Jordan regarded by the west as the   “Iron Dome of Israel” for shooting down Iranian drones and opening its airspace despite its vocal criticism of Israeli aggression in Gaza,  provoked controversy on the international stage.  

This is not something unexpected as Jordan has  throughout  been a US stooge and spy   helping Israel against Palestinians. Implementing the evil agenda of US Europe and Israel  late King Hussein of Jordan massacred 30,000 Palestinians in September 1970 in the streets of Amman. When Syria tried to interfere and stop the massacre South African born Israeli foreign Minister Abba Eban threatened to attack Syria.

 Two days before the attack on Israel, Iranian officials briefed counterparts from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, giving them a brief outline and timing of their plans so that they could safeguard airspace.The information was then passed along to the US and Israel, giving them advance warning. ,

The Arab countries also opened their airspace to warplanes, shared radar tracking information and in some cases, supplied their own forces to help .This helped Israel  to intercept almost all of the drones due to the involvement of  Arab countries, who passed along intelligence about the attack before it took place

Oppressed and brutalized  people all over Middle East  and beyond were raging with anger at Saudi Jordan   betrayal of Palestinians ,Arabs and Muslims . There were demonstrations all over Middle East  from Morocco,Algeria,Tunisia to Egypt,Amman and  beyond.

This provoked columnist Sania Mahyou, a Belgian-Moroccan freelance journalist   to raise the question whether  it would  trigger a ‘Palestinian Spring’  reminding    of the scenes of the uprisings during the Arab Spring, which erupted in Tunisia in late 2010.

As they did over a decade ago, these protests could also serve as a catalyst in the region, as evidenced by the swift filling of the comments sections with messages calling for an ‘Arab Spring 2024’.

Over 13 years after the self-immolation of 26-year-old fish vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, whose death ignited calls for social justice, economic opportunities, and the ousting of authoritarian leaders, the region is once again mobilizing to defy oppression around a common cause: Palestine. 

One commentator pointed out that “whether in Al Quds, Jenin, or Ramallah, Palestinians are defying security forces, both the Israeli forces and the Palestinian Authority’s police, to show their solidarity with their brothers and sisters in Gaza, and to call for an end to Israeli occupation.

These are more than symbols: they are history making its way to us. Without any doubt, it is the memory of the Spring, coupled with the transcendence of the Palestinian cause and the brutality of Israeli repression, that have catapulted the region into resisting the local guardians of the West’s remaining colonial bastion in the region. 

If anything, the decade separating both Springs succeeded in giving birth to a new political imaginary, in which Arab citizens do not only withstand oppressive systems, but topple them. It is only a matter of time until the Palestinian Spring ignites the whole region once again, 13 years later  , serving as a reminder that the fiercer the repression, the sooner the liberation.