Gulf States Abandon Palestinian Cause: The Quiet Israeli Partnership

In September 2025, an emergency Arab-Islamic summit convened in Doha after an Israeli airstrike on Hamas figures in Qatar. While leaders issued strong condemnations of Israel’s actions and reaffirmed Palestinian statehood, the summit produced no concrete sanctions or unified policy shift. This diplomatic display — loud in rhetoric but light on follow-through — underscored a deeper inconsistency: public Arab solidarity remains intense, but behind the scenes, Gulf states are quietly deepening ties with Israel as they abandon the Palestinian cause.

What the summit highlighted is not a rupture from normalization, but the extent to which the Palestinian cause has ceased functioning as a central organizing principle for Gulf strategies. The gulf between public declarations and private alignments now lies at the heart of a geopolitical transformation: Arab states abandon the Palestinian cause not as a temporary concession, but as a structural pivot.

For decades, Palestine has been the rallying cry of the Arab world. From the Khartoum Resolution of 1967 to the intifadas of the 1980s and 2000s, Arab leaders pledged unbreakable solidarity. But today, while international media counts Gaza’s dead, Gulf customs officials are processing record Israeli trade. This contrast exposes a decisive shift: Arab states abandon the Palestinian cause not as a temporary tactic, but as a fundamental realignment that has made old slogans about Arab solidarity increasingly hollow.

The Abraham Accords Thrived During Gaza’s Bloodiest Year

When the Abraham Accords were signed in 2020, critics predicted they would collapse at the first sign of war. Surely, it was said, a major Israeli–Palestinian confrontation would force Arab leaders to put solidarity with Palestinians ahead of new partnerships with Israel. The crisis of October 7^th seemed to offer the perfect test. Yet the results could not have been more different.

Trade between Israel and the United Arab Emirates surged from tens of millions of dollars before 2020 to $3 billion in 2023, with growth continuing into 2024 even as Gaza burned. Bahrain’s trade with Israel rose nearly 900 percent in the first seven months of 2024. Morocco’s trade with Israel grew by more than sixty percent in just five months. Far from being derailed by war, these relationships deepened under fire.

The lesson is clear. Economic diversification and long-term prosperity mattered more to Gulf monarchies than ritual declarations of loyalty to the Palestinian cause. Instead of breaking the Accords, the war confirmed them.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Condemnations, Private Partnerships

Saudi Arabia has not formally joined the Abraham Accords, but its behavior has been even more revealing than that of the signatories. In public, Riyadh went through the familiar motions. After October 7^th, the Saudi Foreign Ministry issued condemnations of Israeli actions, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman became the first Saudi leader to use the word “genocide” when describing Gaza.

Behind the curtain, however, cooperation with Israel expanded. Israeli technologies are already embedded in Saudi modernization projects, from artificial intelligence to cybersecurity to renewable energy. At least one Israeli firm claims its data analysis informed the early decisions behind Vision 2030, including the lifting of the ban on women driving. Intelligence ties also remained intact. Israel received advance warning of Iran’s April 2024 missile attack through Saudi channels, and the Saudi–Jordanian land corridor that bypasses Houthi threats in the Red Sea kept Israeli goods moving even during the fighting.

This is what abandonment looks like in practice: public outrage provides political cover, while private cooperation secures national interests. The pattern is too consistent to be accidental. It is a strategy.

The Silence of the Arabic Press

This realignment is not openly acknowledged in Gulf media. Arabic-language outlets still highlight condemnations of Israeli strikes and gestures of solidarity with Palestinians, but they carefully avoid reporting on the Israeli technologies powering Saudi Vision 2030 or the Emirati and Bahraini trade figures setting records in wartime. Coverage of these partnerships appears almost exclusively in English-language Israeli and Western outlets.

The silence is deliberate. For elites, Israeli cooperation is normalized. For the public, it is still taboo. By managing information this way, governments can shield themselves from popular backlash while embedding cooperation more deeply at the institutional level.

Why Gulf States Abandon Palestinian Cause for Israeli Cooperation

The reasons for this abandonment are straightforward. The Gulf’s overriding security concern remains Iran, and Israel provides intelligence, missile defense, and cyber capabilities that Palestinians never could. Economic diversification is the key to survival for oil-based economies, and Israel’s innovation ecosystem provides exactly the tools that Vision 2030 requires. Domestic legitimacy now comes from prosperity, not from championing distant revolutionary causes. And Hamas’s October 7^th attack drove home the point that Palestinian militancy threatens regional order far more than it advances justice.

Saudi Arabia’s quiet alignment is especially telling. Unlike the UAE or Bahrain, it has not even needed a formal normalization agreement to move forward. Its partnership with Israel is already a reality. That makes it the precursor to a broader transformation.

The End of Palestine as Arab Political Axis

For half a century, Arab regimes used Palestine as both sword and shield. It was a way to deflect domestic criticism, to justify authoritarian control, and to claim legitimacy through opposition to Israel. That frame is collapsing.

Today, Gulf monarchies secure legitimacy through visible reform and economic delivery. Their futures depend on trade corridors, solar fields, and artificial intelligence, not on endless rhetoric about liberation. Palestinian leaders can no longer count on unconditional Arab support. Palestinian maximalism can no longer hold Arab development hostage. And Palestinian statehood no longer serves as the prerequisite for Arab–Israeli normalization.

While Western diplomats continue to speak of two-state solutions as though they were around the corner, the reality on the ground tells another story. Gulf customs officials process Israeli goods. Saudi technicians install Israeli software. Institutions created by the Abraham Accords celebrate record-breaking achievements during wartime.

Conclusion

The Gulf has moved on. The world has yet to catch up. The Palestinian cause, once the axis of Arab politics, is no longer central to the region’s security, prosperity, or legitimacy. In its place stands a quiet but decisive alignment with Israel that is more durable than slogans and more profitable than solidarity. The shift is not temporary. It is structural. And it is likely irreversible.

NOTE: For a deeper dive into the full analysis, including historical context and detailed sources, read the extended version on my Substack newsletter.

This is the first article in my series on the Quiet Abandonment of a Palestinian state.