The Palestinians Miss Another Chance to Project an Image of Sweet Reasonableness

The attempt by the Palestinians to arrogate to themselves alone the decision as to who can visit, and who is barred, from al-Aqsa, sticks in the craw of the Emiratis, and of other Muslims too. The Palestinians’ behavior violates the agreed-upon rules; it is the Jordanians who possess the custodianship of the Haram al-Sharif, and Jordan has never barred any Muslims from Al-Aqsa. The story is here.

…The UAE has a large Palestinian population, many of the teachers in government schools from Palestine. “We grew up alongside the Palestinians and they are like brothers to us,” said Shirawi. “We share a great respect.”

Shirawi’s comment is double-edged. It is in the first place a more-in-sorrow observation: we have gotten along so well with the Palestinians in our country – why should these Palestinians in Jerusalem treat us so badly? In the second place, it is an oblique threat. There is a “large Palestinian population” in the U.A.E., “but if the Palestinians in ‘Palestine’ continue to malign us, show contempt for our leader and our flag, and even try to prevent us from praying at Al-Aqsa, then the Palestinians in the UAE may no longer be quite so welcome, may even be expelled. Everyone remembers the 200,00 Palestinians expelled from Kuwait when they sided with Saddam Hussein’s invaders.”

However, there are many Emiratis who will boycott [sic] the holy site until assurances are made for the safety of Emiratis visiting Islam’s third holiest site. “I’d love to see al-Aqsa but I’m not going to go if there aren’t enough security measures,” he said. “I’m hesitant because I don’t know how it is. We need to see what guarantees are in place to avoid being in a vulnerable position like the Emirati delegation were in recently.”

He is however, excited to visit Israel, where he already has many friends eagerly awaiting his arrival. “If I’m going to go to Jerusalem, I’m more interested in the historical city itself, and to travel around, to see Tel Aviv, Haifa.”

The display of deep animus by the Palestinians to the Emiratis visiting Jerusalem and praying at Al-Aqsa has done a great deal to further diminish the Palestinians in the view of Emiratis. The burning of the U.A.E. flag, the defacing and then the burning of images of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the shouting of slogans at the Emiratis at the Al-Aqsa compound, the threat to throw old shoes (a sign of deep contempt) in their faces, the call to destroy the very carpets (sullied forever, it seems) that the Emiratis sat on to pray — all this has had quite an effect on public opinion in the U.A.E. . It has strengthened the Emiratis’ support for the normalization agreement with Israel, while decreasing still further any residual sympathy for the Palestinians that the Emiratis might still have harbored.

The Palestinians missed a chance to project an image of sweet reasonableness. “War is deceit” – so why could they not have practiced a little deception by holding their rage in check? They should have left the Emirati flag and the images of Crown Prince Muhammed bin Zayed undefaced and unstomped on, and certainly should not have set them on fire. The videos of that display of rage went viral in the U.A.E. and angered a great number of Emiratis. Mahmoud Abbas should have issued a statement, and instead of hyperbolically accusing the UAE of “betraying” the Palestinians and “stabbing them in the back” should have offered something quite different in tone: “We deeply regret the decision by our brotherly Emiratis to normalize relations with Israel. But we are grateful for one thing: that the UAE did not forget us, their Palestinian brothers, and made a condition of its agreement that Israel call a halt to annexing still more of our stolen land in the West Bank.” That might have won them favor instead of the fury from the Emirates that they must now endure.

Instead of appropriating to themselves the right to decide which Muslims are to be allowed to pray at Al-Aqsa – an attitude that causes outrage in the Emirates and wins them no friends, either, among Muslims elsewhere, who regard Al-Aqsa, quite rightly, as belonging to the worldwide umma – the Palestinians should have welcomed the Emiratis with open arms: “We look forward to visits by the brotherly Emiratis to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Haram al-Sharif, a site holy to all Muslims, where we may pray together for the liberation of Jerusalem.”

Such displays of understanding, gratitude, and welcome to the Emiratis would have stood them in good stead. And even now, despite all the terrible things that the Palestinians have already said about the U.A.E. and the Emirati people themselves, with all that business about them “desecrating” Al-Aqsa and the need to change the carpets, some of that damage can still be undone by a winningly contrite (“War is deceit”) Mahmoud Abbas, if he chooses to apologize for the remarks made both by him and by other excitable Palestinians. He’s never done that before. It would have to be something along these lines: “I do not think we should have attacked our Emirati brothers as, unfortunately, some Palestinians have done. It was wrong to attack an Arab country, and its Arab people, who have done so much for us. It is the U.A.E. alone, of all the Arab states, that managed to prevent Israel’s latest plans to annex even more of our land. And that is something we will not forget. “

Could Mahmoud Abbas bring himself to make such a statement? Could any of the Palestinians? Of course not. That’s the beauty of it.

The Truth Must be Told

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tituspullo

3 years ago

The sons of Ishmael doing what they do best

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Avigail

3 years ago

Reply to  tituspullo

It is an insult to Ishmaelites. They are not the descendants of Ishmael. Read the bible, find when was the last time the name of Ishmaelites mentioned in Bible? Ishmael and Isaac never has an issue like Jacob and Esau. They quite brotherly to each other as we read they both buried their father together. What’s being said about Ishmael is not about he being forever enemy to Isaac’s descendants but more like he walked his own path and that path is the opposite of Isaac’s. That they both walked the opposite way of each other. There are never down to generations “enemy” issues between them. They just became two different people. The ones being enemy for generations for Israelites coming from another line of people. Not all arabs coming from Ishmael, if in fact Ishmaelites survived by merging into other peoples, but to call all arabs Ishmaelites is absurd. Arabs consiat of many tribes/peoples. And Muhammad and his fellow tribes were in the mid/south part of arab coming from Yemen. So they definitely not descendants of Ishmael, so to call muslims as descendants of Ishmael also wrong. Better to just call them Palestinian Arabs. It is better that way than to insult the son of Abraham who God blessed him to be great people too. These people we see today who want to rob everything to themselves and demanding other people to do that for them without shame, definitely not a great people.

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spfoam1

3 years ago

Islam would have withered and died if not for the oil money handed to them by the tyrants who have been conquering the globe through the influences of their diabolical monetary systems. Islam is a global tool of slaughter, and the central banks are a global tool of slavery.

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Nemesis

3 years ago

Reply to  spfoam1

Islam was strong for centuries before oil even had a market. The reason it did not wither and die right then, in the seventh century, was because Muhammad decided that apostates must be killed. Fear is what keeps this cult together.

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Name

3 years ago

Reply to  Nemesis

Which is why there are no true Moslem democracies.

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joan flaherty

3 years ago

Reply to  Nemesis

Fear and shame – it’s all about control and public appearance – a complete sham

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felix1999

3 years ago

That will never happen!
They hate Jews and Christians.
It’s their religion!

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Nemesis

3 years ago

Abbas is not altogether wrong. Jordan has authority over the Mount – and Jordan is 70% Palestinian! So…

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MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet

3 years ago

But all the f’ing muslums agree on one thing right?
No Jews or Christians may pray at islum’s THIRD holeiest sty, er site.

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blackfeather

3 years ago

My Jewish friend tells me palestinians are dogs.

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ar05075

3 years ago

There’s no such thing as palestinians ..!

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ed

3 years ago

Because whenever I think of sweet and reasonable….fake-a-stinians are always the first thing that come to my mind !!!/sarc off

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joan flaherty

3 years ago

The whining of these fake, professional victims is falling increasingly on deaf ears – good!

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