Surprisingly, despite the Moroccan presence in the Palestinian issue, specifically in Jerusalem, Morocco has become the fourth Arab country that joined the train of normalization with Israel, after the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan.

In announcing the agreement, which was described as a "new historic breakthrough for peace in the Middle East," US President Donald Trump announced the United States recognition of Morocco's sovereignty over the Sahara region, which has been in dispute with the Polisario Front for decades.

This is the first time that a Western country recognizes Morocco's right to the disputed Sahara region with the Polisario Front supported by Algeria.

Besides Egypt and Jordan, Morocco has become the sixth member state of the Arab League that normalizes relations with Israel.

The agreement includes reopening the liaison offices and the embassies in Tel Aviv and Rabat, which were closed in 2000; Following the relations decline after the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada.

Thus, it seemed that most of the normalization countries resorted to the barter system to bring their interests at the expense of the Palestinian issue, especially Morocco, as most of the political parties chose to focus on the American recognition of the Moroccan Sahara. This formula indicates some concession of one of the country's foreign policy constants.

For this reason, one of the bloggers asked on Twitter: "Has the desert become in exchange for Jerusalem? Logically, Is any land equal with Jerusalem?!".

This bargaining applies to Sudan, which was waiting for Washington's support to remove it from the list of states sponsoring terrorism in order to embark on normalization.

“the UAE and Bahrain, which resorted to normalization in exchange for protection from Iranian expansion in the region”, according to writer and political analyst Osama Saad.

"The issue has just become like this. Arab countries have demands that they barter for Palestinian right, and this is what happened in the normalization process since Camp David 1978," Saad said to Safa Press Agency.

He points out that Egypt regained the Sinai under the peace agreement with Israel at Camp David, as well as Jordan in 1994 in exchange for economic privileges.

When Saad was asked about the seriousness of normalization, he replied, “by this the contract of the Arab nation has disintegrated, and there is no need for an Arab League, or talk of joint Arab solidarity."

He describes what is going on as "a distasteful dedication to Sykes-Picot after 100 years from the signing the agreement," adding that "every country now within its territorial borders may go to an alliance with the Devil, and it does not care about that."

The Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told France 24 that “we must avoid using concepts that are not identical with the Moroccan context… a word of normalization coming from another context. The constitution of Morocco says that one of the tributaries of the Moroccan identity is the Hebrew tributary. And Morocco has recognized Israel since the 1990s, "adding that his country" is using all of this in the service of the Palestinian issue from the standpoint of clear constants. "

Commenting on this, Professor of Media at Birzeit University, Nashat Al-Aqtash, said, "all of these are unsupported justifications. Any normalization with Israel without consideration of the Palestinians right harms the Palestinian issue, no matter how we try to beautify it."

"the link between the two issues, the issue of the Sahara and the Palestinian issue, is unfortunate, painful and hurts the Arab peoples," Al-Aqtash added in a press statements.

Western analyzes also describe that "these countries are now declaring their interests unequivocally, which puts the Arab peace initiative in a major impasse, and establishes a new phase that will lead to a greater collapse of the official unified Arab line behind the Palestinian side."

In the same context, writer and journalist Fatima Yassin, in an article followed by Safa, says that “the decision to recognize the Sahara as moroccian means more conflict in a region very far from the center of the Palestinian issue, which all Arab summit conferences which have decided it to be the first Arab issue.

Yassin says that it is clear enough that the Palestinian issue is not the first issue nor even the second one. Rather, it should be re-prioritized to be used for interests.

“These interests are as if Israel is entering a reverse auction to buy its peace by the lowest price known in the history of barter. Starting with the UAE which normalized depending on the lie of canceling the annexation of the West Bank , to Bahrain that did not ask for a price other than the price of its foreign minister’s ticket to Washington to sign the normalization agreement. Through Sudan which only begged to remove its name from the American list of countries sponsoring terrorism, arriving to Morocco which does not ask for no more than an American recognition of its sovereignty over a land that is inherently its right," Palestinian writer Basil Talouzi said in his article entitled "Palestine at the lowest price auction."

Contrary to previous times, the Palestinian Authority did not issue an official position on the normalization of Morocco, bearing in mind that Rabat reported that the king had a contact with the Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, to inform him of the details of the agreement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the "historic" agreement and described it as "another great light for peace." This statement reflects the extent that normalization serves the Israeli interest in the first place, at the expense of the Palestinian issue and the interests of the Arabs themselves.

The Palestinian writer Basil Talozi concludes his article, saying that there is a bright side in the matter, "the Arab peoples have revealed the low price of the normalization deals, but Palestine will forever remain the most expensive, because the price for it is rivers of blood that are difficult for such people to evaluate."

Source : Safa