Israel-bashers fail to see the Arab train leaving the station

Earlier this week, news broke that an Etihad Airways plane on a direct flight from Dubai landed in Tel Aviv to deliver a consignment of virus aid to the Palestinians. This was the first known direct commercial flight between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Tellingly, this further move towards normalization was rejected by the P.A., which refused to accept the aid. “If the UAE wants to normalize with Israel, then it shouldn’t be on our backs,” a Palestinian source told Kan News.

So implacable is their hatred of Israel that they are prepared to sacrifice their own people’s health. And they remain blind to the reality that the Etihad flight and all the other Gulf state trial balloons are so clearly signaling—that the Arab world will no longer support them.

Of course, this progress towards sanity should not be exaggerated. The Gulf states have a tactical interest in normalization because they need Israel and America in their struggle against Iran. And the Arab and Muslim world still heaves with anti-Jewish and anti-Israel feeling. Recent polling suggests that a large majority of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and a small majority in the disputed territories support a new terror campaign against Israel.

Nevertheless, the moves towards normalization with Israel are immensely significant. For decades, the Arab world has used the Palestinian cause to protect its ruling elites from the anger of its people. Now it sees that its interests actually lie elsewhere, the Palestinians have become disposable. Their only supporters now are Iran and the useful idiots of the West.

Mahmoud Abbas and his P.A. continue to pretend to themselves that they haven’t lost, but are instead on the path to victory. A steadily increasing number of Arabs, including Palestinians, no longer want to be losers. Western liberals, however, don’t even understand that’s what they themselves have become.