The official end of the Arab-Israeli conflict

Leading figures in the Arab world have declared explicitly and implicitly, in word and deed, the end of the struggle with Israel and the entire Zionist project.

This struggle no longer appears on their agenda. Because of this, oddly, Israel is deeply concerned and, unlike the those Arab leaders, has not dropped the issue.

On the contrary, its concern has escalated. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently reported on the Israeli intelligence's inability to keep up with, monitor or predict the successive changes in the Arab world.

In other words, there is a sense of dread of something sudden and unpredictable taking place.

The masses of "duped" Arabs had been waiting for a "breakthrough" from the official Arab system and had always heard the mantra "the Palestinian cause is the Arabs' primary cause" with a sense of hope that perhaps one day there will be a light at the end of this tunnel.

Today, no Arab believes that Palestine or its people mean anything to any of the leaders of the Arab world. Not only that, any person who thinks outside the "official box" will be penalised.

The courts await anyone who even thinks about resistance, let alone talks to himself or to another about it. The iron wall surrounding the Zionist fortress is guarded by the Arab system.

The iron wall surrounding the Zionist fortress is guarded by the Arab system.

Draining the sources of resistance has become a priority of Arab national security and whomever dares disobey this rule will face death, imprisonment and persecution.

At last, Palestine is outside the official Arab web of lies. It was never their primary cause. Everything that was said along these lines was nothing but a ruse.

The official Arab system aided Israel not only in completing its project but in establishing it in the first place, both covertly and overtly.

This monstrosity would not have developed fully without direct and indirect official Arab support and care. The difference between the past and the present is that the Arab media establishment has taken off the mask of shame and no longer cares to hide official Arab support for Israel whether under the pretext of commitment to peace agreements or fighting what they call "terrorism" or protecting national security.

All of which is empty hogwash that has nothing to do with the official Arab strategy based on an unwavering belief that "Israel is here to stay.

I have in my hands a representative sample of the official Arab system's real position towards Israel, which military forums in Israel call it what it is, namely, "drying up the sources of resistance".

I have in my hands a representative sample of the official Arab system's real position towards Israel, which an Israeli military source call, "drying up the sources of resistance", as quoted in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahranot last Sunday.

In practice, Israel is effectively drying up the sources of dignity, and not just resistance, with the utmost severity and boldness amid Arab silence and complicity.

All this amid near total silence even by the Arab elite whose voices are barely heard because the great majority of them are bedfellows of the Arab regimes. And the justification is always Arab national security.

The justification is always Arab national security.

The Israeli military source unveiled what is no longer a secret but is rather openly professed by the Arab media establishment, namely, that since the Egyptian coup president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took the reins of power, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have not been able to bring in one rocket to the Gaza Strip through Sinai.

This "achievement" followed the Egyptian army's policy of destroying the tunnels. The Egyptian army's "greater achievement" however is eliminating arms smuggling from Sudan to Gaza through Sinai.

This could not have been done coincidentally, rather it is the fruit of an official understanding between Israel and Egypt to stunt Hamas' military strength, according to the Israeli source.

Based on this understanding, Cairo stopped the entry of cement meant for philanthropic projects to the Gaza Strip through the Egyptian borders so Hamas could not use it in building tunnels and underground fortifications.

They prevented the entry of metal pipes, fearing that Hamas would use them to build rockets. They blocked fertilizers fearing they would be used for making explosives. They prevented the entry of some industrial machinery, which Israel claims is used to manufacture rockets.

One notices something that was considered high treason during the era of the "national ruse", namely, the deep and complete trust between Egyptian and Israeli security agencies. According to the military source, coordination between the two sides aimed at stunting Hamas' power is unprecedented.

He does not forget at the end to praise Egypt and its president's success in all matters related to preventing the growth of Hamas' power, which surpasses that of ousted president Hosni Mubarak whom he accused of turning a blind eye to the arms smuggling operations into the strip.

The Palestinian cause has practically and openly emerged from under the deceitful cloak of official Arab auspices. Nobody, neither the masses nor the elite, is under the illusion of expecting honey from a fly.

Rather, they seek it somewhere else and perhaps herein lies the source of the Israeli concern, which Haaretz wrote about.

This is an edited translation of the original Arabic.