Morocco in peace treaty with Israel, joins UAE, Bahrain, Sudan

Morocco in peace treaty with Israel, joins UAE, Bahrain, Sudan: In a sign of how much things have changed in just the past four months, Thursday’s announcement that Morocco had decided to restore bilateral ties with Israel failed to elicit even a peep from the Palestinian Authority.

Five days after Rabat and Jerusalem officially announced the opening of ties, the Palestinian Authority has yet to officially comment on the agreement. Most senior officials in the ruling Fatah movement, including those who have previously denounced normalization in the harshest terms, have yet to publicly utter a word.

As news of the American-backed agreement between Israel and Morocco made headlines around the world on Thursday evening, viewers of official Palestinian television heard nothing about it on the hour-long nightly news broadcast, which aired three hours after US President Donald Trump announced the deal on Twitter.

Morocco in peace treaty with Israel, joins UAE, Bahrain, Sudan: A Fatah spokesperson reached by The Times of Israel declined to comment in any way on Morocco’s decision to normalize with Israel. Hamas and Islamic Jihad both issued condemnations of the Morocco deal, with Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem calling it “a sin.”

The silence, a stark contrast from angry denunciations issued by Ramallah after previous agreements between Israel and Arab states, may indicate a change in strategy by the PA, after its confrontational approach failed to stanch the diplomatic bloodletting.

The Palestinians have not, of course, suddenly decided to embrace normalization. In their view, Israel’s tightening web of regional alliances offers the Jewish state a way to avoid ending its military rule over the Palestinians. Nor are they rushing to publicly patch up their differences with those states that have already normalized.

But the PA is showing signs that it is adjusting their strategy to fit the new regional reality: one in which open ties with Israel are no longer taboo — with or without the Palestinians.

When the United Arab Emirates established public ties with Israel in mid-August, by contrast, Ramallah responded with fierce and immediate condemnation. After the UAE announced it would establish open ties with Israel, Palestinian diplomacy sought to condemn and isolate the Emirates. Read more here.