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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 11-Dec-2020
11-Dec-20 World View -- Morocco normalizes ties with Israel in exchange for Western Sahara

Web Log - December, 2020

11-Dec-20 World View -- Morocco normalizes ties with Israel in exchange for Western Sahara

Israel's 'pragmatic' foreign policy

by John J. Xenakis

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

Morocco normalizes ties with Israel in exchange for Western Sahara
Agreement mediated by Donald Trump changes the status of Western Sahara
Israel's 'pragmatic' foreign policy

Morocco normalizes ties with Israel in exchange for Western Sahara

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and Morocco's King Mohammed VI (AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and Morocco's King Mohammed VI (AFP)

Morocco and Israel on Thursday agreed to normalize relations, in an agreement mediated by president Donald Trump, and described as "historic." This is the fourth such agreement since September, after agreements between Israel and United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Sudan were also signed. The first Arab countries to recognize Israel were Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

As part of this deal, the United States changed longstanding US policy and recognized Morocco’s claims over the disputed Western Sahara region.

Morocco has had a large Jewish population for centuries. Before Israel's establishment in 1948, Morocco was home to a large Jewish population, many of whose ancestors migrated to North Africa from Spain and Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition. Today, hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews trace their lineage to Morocco, making it one of the country's largest sectors of Israeli society, and a small community of Jews, estimated at several thousand people, continues to live in Morocco.

Trump announced the agreement in a series of tweets in which he thanked Morocco for being one of the first nations to recognize the United States shortly after it declared independence from Britain:

"Today, I signed a proclamation recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara. Morocco’s serious, credible, and realistic autonomy proposal is the ONLY basis for a just and lasting solution for enduring peace and prosperity!
Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed to full diplomatic relations – a massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East!
Morocco recognized the United States in 1777. It is thus fitting we recognize their sovereignty over the Western Sahara."

As in the case of the previous agreements, the Palestinian authorities are infuriated. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said: “This is a sin and it doesn’t serve the Palestinian people. The Israeli occupation uses every new normalization to increase its aggression against the Palestinian people and increase its settlement expansion.”

The Trump administration is pressuring Saudi Arabia to join with the other countries in normalizing relations with Israel. The Saudis have given tacit approval to the normalization process, but Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said last week Riyadh would only consider such a move if a peace deal "delivers a Palestinian state with dignity and with a workable sovereignty that Palestinians can accept."

Agreement mediated by Donald Trump changes the status of Western Sahara

Map of Western Sahara (Britannica)

Map of Western Sahara (Britannica)

The agreement is receiving criticism from the United Nations, because the UN does not recognize Morocco's sovereignty over the Western Sahara.

The region, Spanish Sahara, was a Spanish protectorate until Morocco achieved independence in 1956, and then claimed sovereignty over Western Sahara in 1957, although Spanish troops repelled the Moroccan military from the territory.

In the 1970s, a guerrilla insurgency of nomadic ethnic Sahrawis sprang up, calling itself the Polisario Front, and calling for the formation of a new nation, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). This led to clashes between the Moroccans and the Polisario Front, until a ceasefire was agreed in 1991.

The ceasefire broke down last month. The Polisario Front has declared a "state of war," and the UN has received reports of several "shooting incidents" made by either side.

The Polisario Front is supported by Algeria and South Africa. The intervention by the Trump administration is an important symbolic change in the situation, and will energize the Moroccans. The U.S. is now the only Western country to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, providing a diplomatic breakthrough for which the kingdom has lobbied for decades.

Israel's 'pragmatic' foreign policy

As I reported in February of this year, 15 years ago Israel made a startling policy change and adopted a new "pragmatic" foreign policy. (See "6-Feb-20 World View -- Israeli diplomat reveals Israel's startling new 'pragmatic' foreign policy")

In the new "pragmatic" foreign policy, adopted around 2004, Israel no longer considers itself to be a Mideast country, so much as a European country. It no longer pretends to try to integrate itself into the Mideast. Instead, under Israel's pragmatic policy, the Arabs and Israelis continue to hate each other, but Israel would use money and trade incentives to "buy" peace with its Arab neighbors. The Trump-mediated peace agreements with UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco appear to be the implementation of this pragmatic strategy.

Al-Jazeera's political analyst Marwan Bishara, who hates Israel but who hates the Palestinian Authority even more for traitoriously negotiating peace with Israel, said that the new announcement was another example of "America as a diplomatic mercenary on behalf of Israel. ... Let’s call it what it is – the imperial proclamation. At the end of the day, Washington is using its influence around the world on behalf of Israel, or rather Israel is outsourcing American power for its own benefit in the greater Middle East."

Bishara puts his hatred of Israel on full display, but his political interpretation is more or less consistent with Israel's pragmatic foreign policy.

As regular readers know, Generational Dynamics predicts that there is an approaching Clash of Civilizations world war, pitting the "axis" of China, Pakistan and the Sunni Muslim countries against the "allies," the US, India, Russia and Iran. Part of it will be a major new war between Jews and Arabs, re-fighting the bloody the war of 1948-49 that followed the partitioning of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel. The war between Jews and Arabs will be part of a major regional war, pitting Sunnis versus Shias, Jews versus Arabs, and various ethnic groups against each other.

Sources:

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(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the Generational Dynamics World View News thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (11-Dec-2020) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 11-Dec-2020 11-Dec-20 World View -- Morocco normalizes ties with Israel in exchange for Western Sahara

Morocco normalizes ties with Israel in exchange for Western Sahara

Agreement mediated by Donald Trump changes the status of Western Sahara

Israel's 'pragmatic' foreign policy

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 11-Dec-2020
11-Dec-20 World View -- Morocco normalizes ties with Israel in exchange for Western Sahara