Kuwaiti Daily ‘Arab Times’ Calls for Normalization With Israel

An editorial published in the Kuwaiti daily Arab Times this weekend to a somewhat surprising position when it called for the Gulf states to normalize relations with Israel while describing the Palestinians as “insulters” who “curse the Gulf leaders and people” and “use all of the defamatory and abusive words in their dictionary against us.” The editorial, penned by Arab Times Editor-in-Chief Ahmed al-Jarallah, lamented that despite being the targets of Palestinian “insults and curses,” the Gulf countries “overlook all that by sending them aid.” Al-Jarallah also slammed the Palestinian leadership for supporting authoritarian leaders such as the late Saddam Hussein, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Moammar Gadhafi, as well as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, adding that this was “just the tip of the iceberg.” Al-Jarallah questioned how the Gulf Cooperation Council states benefited from supporting the Palestinians. “Is Palestine still our cause for which we bear all this harm caused by the Palestinians?” he asked readers.  Rather than mediating between Jerusalem and Gaza City when Hamas launches rockets into Israel, and then helping to foot the bill for rebuilding what is destroyed in Israeli counterstrikes, “Let [the Palestinians] rebuild what they destroy by their own acts,” the Kuwaiti editor urged. “All the Gulf states should normalize relations with Israel due to the fact that peace with this most advanced country is the right thing to do. Let the foolish fend for themselves,” he concluded. The editorial isn’t completely unprecedented: Al-Jarallah has spoken out in favor of normalization before. It remains to be seen whether any official response will come from the Al Sabah dynasty that runs Kuwait.