Opinion: Arab recognition of Israel rewards its relentless land theft One of the most intimidating aspects of modern US relations with the Arab and Muslim world is Washington's insistence that all Arab and Muslim-majority countries normalise relations with the state of Israel as a reward for its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. These demands have intensified since the US and Israel launched their war of aggression against Iran in February. Washington's long-standing push for Saudi normalisation continues unabated, as does its pressure on Qatar, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, Syria, and Indonesia, among others, to follow suit.
More recently, the US succeeded in bringing to power a new Lebanese government that has gone as far as supporting Israel's occupation of Lebanese territory by signing an agreement last month recognising the "sovereignty" of the genocidal state. But even before Israel began its genocide, Arab regimes' recognition of Israel has always been fraught with the question of Israel's borders. Which Israel, and which borders, are these Arab and Muslim-majority countries required to recognise?
Arab recognition of Israel rewards its relentless land theft Submitted by Joseph Massad on Mon, 07/20/2026 - 16:13 Successive normalisation agreements have accepted Israel's changing territorial claims, allowing each new conquest and annexation to become the basis for the next Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, State Department Chief of Staff Daniel Holler and Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh sign a framework agreement in Washington, DC, 26 June 2026 (Saul Loeb/AFP) Off One of the most intimidating aspects of modern US relations with the Arab and Muslim world is Washington's insistence that all Arab and Muslim-majority countries normalise relations with the state of Israel as a reward for its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Which borders of Israel did Egypt and Jordan - let alone the Palestine Liberation Organisation - recognise when they normalised relations in 1978-1979 and in 1993-1994, respectively? What about the Arab countries that signed the Abraham Accords in 2020-2021?
These are essential geopolitical questions when one is dealing with a settler-colonial superpower demanding that decolonised countries and colonised peoples recognise its settler-colonial proxy state in the Middle East and normalise relations with it. The hunger for land The very essence of European settler-colonial states since their inception has been the continuous theft of indigenous territory and the expansion of their borders. From the United States to South Africa, and from Canada to Australia, New Zealand and Israel, the hunger of settler-co…
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