GCC: The Muslim Judas

The file photo shows former Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (R) shaking hands with Tzipi Livni, Israel’s ex-minister for foreign affairs.

Suspicions have been growing for years about a growing behind-the-scenes relationship between Israel and members of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council. The name that has come up a lot over the years is Qatar, with which the Israeli relationship is a lot more open and has spanned trade to even face-to-face meetings and handshakes between high-level officials.

The past numbers of years, though, have consistently brought forth two names in the more secretive relationship between Israel and the Persian Gulf Arab monarchies: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The most recent example of a blurring of lines between Israeli and Saudi policies, for example, is Saudi media's 'tacit' support for Netanyahu's much derided speech at the US Congress in opposition to essentially any deal between the West and Iran over a falsely-hyped nuclear issue.

In fact, Saudi media attacks on Obama, and in support of Netanyahu, had already begun in the lead-up to the Israeli PM's US Congress address.

It may be an understatement for us to say that for the Saudi establishment to quite openly ask, 'Who could believe that Netanyahu has taken a better stand than Obama with regard to the Iranian nuclear file?' is 'tacit' support. This is an especially pertinent sentiment when seen in line with recent reports about the likely Saudi approval of Israeli flyovers over its territory in the hypothetical case of an Israeli attack on Iran.

To look further back, even with the death of King Abdullah, and the ushering in of King Salman onto the throne, 'analysts' and 'experts' were confident the secret aligning of Israeli-Saudi interests would continue unabated. The aligning has less to do with who is at the helm, but seemingly, the very core understood interests of both entities.

It is not just Iran which has been at the forefront of the Saudi sell-out of Muslim interests. Many said that during Israel's latest summer offensive on besieged Gaza, the Saudi monarchy's official silence as well as media campaign against Hamas was in line with supporting Israel for the invasion, among other reported forms of help the kingdom was forthcoming with.

Since the death of its founder, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE has undergone a slow but noticeable transition. While even under Sheikh Zayed support for the Palestinian cause was always just limited to condemnations and the common aid shipments, since his passing, his sons and competing Emirates' Sheikhs have worked to align themselves more enthusiastically with US, and by default, Israeli interests.

It is now an open secret that the Emirati Sheikhs are obsessed with arms and security, and UAE media as well as behind-the-scenes dealings reflect this. At the end of 2014, a report came out about private undeclared flights between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv, all to further security-related trade between the UAE and Israel. The UAE has positioned itself such that it can collaborate with Israel on 'shared concerns.'

In case anyone thought that a stretch too far, the same media outlet then followed up with proof of such security trade in a more recent report on the use of an Israeli system of mass surveillance in the UAE's capital where 'every person is monitored from the moment they leave their doorstep to the moment they return to it.' .

Controversy at the beginning of 2014 due to the visit of the Israeli Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom to attend an International Renewable Energy Agency meeting in Abu Dhabi resulted in Kuwait pulling out of the meeting. The UAE had to assure everyone, after much criticism on social media, that its declared policy of not recognizing nor dealing with Israel had not changed. A sign that the governments of the region know that, for now, it is best to keep such things hidden.

What are we to conclude when countries that should be aligned more with Palestinian and Muslim interests increasingly align themselves with the interests of the settler apartheid entity known as Israel?

For all the pomp and ceremony in the Persian Gulf Arab monarchies, it is hard to escape their respective hypocrisy towards the Muslim world. While sitting comfortably in their gold-laced palaces, which they'd rather keep out of the public's eye, as observed in the Saudi anger at US media when it published pictures of the Saudi king's desert palace on an Obama visit, these men sell-out their nations and region.

That they have never seriously countered the Israeli occupation with any worthy move to defend oppressed Palestinians, regardless of their infinite riches and influence is truly shameful. Instead, they spend on arms and training to suppress those seeking freedom in Bahrain, and to support militants, many of whom have joined the [un-]Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Their obsession and hatred for the Islamic Republic of Iran blinds them to the realities on the ground. They are being used by an enemy who is taking advantage of the prize (the entire Middle East region, its resources, its peoples, its talents, and even its faith) they have awarded to it on a silver platter.

One must, at some point, ask these kings of the Arab world: where and with whom do your priorities lie? Why do your policies continue to align with that of Israel? When will you awaken from your slumber and blinding hatred?

Waqar Rizvi is a political critic, with a background in divinity, philosophy, and engineering. He's lived and studied in the UAE, Canada, and now Iran, and is originally from Pakistan, thus giving him a wide range of interests related to Islamic, North American, South Asian, and Middle Eastern Affairs. He has trained as a news presenter under Canadian broadcast journalist and voice coach, Cathy Sobocan. Before joining PressTV as a news anchor, a position which he currently holds, Waqar was an English teacher and radio host at the Call of Islam Radio station. He has also helped write, edit, and translate texts related to religion, as well as documentary and program scripts.