BetweenTheLines

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook I t was perhaps no coincidence that on September 4, 2020, an imam at Mecca’s Grand Mosque dwelt on Prophet Mohammed’s kindness to a Jewish neighbour. The reference, days before the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain signed agreements on September 15, 2020, to normalise ties with Israel, was seen as part of the groundwork for other Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia to follow suit. The thaw in Arab-Israel relations is a culmination of years of behind-the-scenes work that Arab leaders have been hinting at. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in 2018, backed the Israelis’ 'right to have their own land'. Bahrain defended Israeli airstrikes in Syria the same year, saying Israel ' has the right to defend itself .' A year later, Bahraini foreign minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa called Israel a part of the region’s heritage . ALSO READ: Hardline-Reformist Binary Ignores Core Of Iranian Political System Bin Salman

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook A  large number of Indians appear to have found something to cheer about in the middle of the devastation Covid-19 has caused in India—the Israeli dispossession of Palestinians. Unqualified expression of support for Israel has trended on social media in India as Israelis continued bombing the Palestinian enclave of Gaza and killed at least 119 Palestinians, including 31 children. The axiom that e nemy of my enemy is my friend  is clearly at work here and highlights the extent to which society has been dumbed down through sustained demonisation of Muslims over the last decade. The vilification is an important source of sustenance to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime, which looks up to Israel and has sought to emulate its policies particularly in Muslim majority Kashmir. It has been taken to such levels that many Indians mechanically side with Israel even with zero understanding of the issue, forgetting India’s deep and h