By Matin Jamshidi

Resentment against Israel boiling in Arab world

September 9, 2024 - 21:50
Self-proclaimed ‘man of security’ has turned into man of insecurity

TEHRAN — A Jordanian driver, identified as Maher Thiyab Hussein al-Jazi, killed three Israelis on Sunday at the Israeli-controlled border crossing that connects Jordan with the West Bank.

The Israeli military said the man approached the Allenby Bridge from Jordan in a truck, exited the vehicle and opened fire on forces operating the bridge.

The Jordanian citizen’s shooting at the border crossing shows the depth of anger against Israel. The majority of people in the Arab world are filled with a strong feeling of rage against the Israeli rulers, however, persons like Maher Thiyab Hussein al-Jazi sacrifice their lives in defense of Palestinians that there is no prospect for their agonies.

On Jun 3, 2023, four months before the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, an Egyptian border guard also crossed into Israel and killed three soldiers. The Egyptian officer knew that he would be killed but he defied all the dangers to vent his anger at Israel.

The anti-Israeli feeling has run deeper since Israel started the sadistic war on Gaza.

Jordanians have held regular protests against the Gaza war despite harsh restrictions on speech and public gatherings.

The driver’s brother Shady Al-Jazi said his brother’s anger at Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza may have been a motivating factor.

“He used to work as a truck driver and would cross (the bridge) often to offload the truck and then return back to Jordan. But his grief over what’s happening to the Muslim nation, seeing all the killing in Gaza, and every one of us who feels passionately for his brethren, this could motivate him,” he told Jordanian news outlet Ammon in an on-air interview, the Washington Post reported.

In reaction to the incident, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is “surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran's axis of evil.”

But it is ideologically driven extremists, including Netanyahu, who have put Israel in such a precarious situation. They cannot get out of this self-created quagmire otherwise there is a U-turn in Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians.

Netanyahu is notoriously famous for telling lies and making nonsensical remarks. Even when people gathered outside Capitol Hill to protest the Israeli war on Gaza while he was addressing the American Congress on July 24, he called protestors "useful idiots" of Iran and claimed that Iran is funding and promoting anti-war protests. 

Netanyahu has lost direction and badly gone mad. He is not even listening to the Israelis who want an end to the war in Gaza. About 750,000 people took to the streets on Saturday night in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

In the campaign against his rivals for recapturing power he called himself the “man of security”. But he has put the entire Israel in jeopardy.    

Netanyahu’s attempts to demonize Iran for Israel’s troubles neither work nor deceive people. Every person with a common sense can easily understand the hatred toward Israeli rulers. They are noticing that Netanyahu’s army has been committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip since October last year. They are also seeing that the settlers have killed about 700 Palestinians in the West Bank during these 340 days.

The anti-Israeli feeling is also boiling high in many non-Arab countries including the United States. The protests in American universities against the war on Gaza and calling President Biden “genocide Joe” for shipping lethal arms to Israel are examples of impatience and resentment against the savage war on Gaza.

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