Link to article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/10/israel-morocco-agree-to-normalise-relations-in-us-brokered-deal
Thursday, December 10th, a US-brokered deal led Morocco and Israel to agree to normalize their relationship. Morocco has agreed to set aside hostilities with Israel after Donald Trump said he would recognize Morocco’s control of the disputed Western Sahara territory. Morocco has Jewish lineage and history, so it is not surprising that Morocco has decided to recognize Israel. This also marks Morocco as the fourth country to recently normalize relations with Israel.
According to the details of the agreement, Morocco and Israel will resume all diplomatic relations, and host direct flights between the two countries for all citizens.
Trump’s decision to recognize that Morocco has sovereign control over Western Sahara is a direct blow to Polisario, the militia group fighting to end Moroccan presence in Western Sahara. However, this choice is not exceptionally radical, and the UN, a political IGO, is in the beginning stages of granting Morocco full sovereignty over the disputed territory.
But more indirectly, Trump’s action handed more recognition, and therefore international power, to Israel. This is a huge disadvantage for Palestine.
Jared Kushner also claims that it’s almost certain that Saudi Arabia will also normalize relations with Israel soon, but Saudi Arabia has announced that they will only recognize Israel if the agreement is agreeable and respectable to Palestinians.
Palestine has been upset at the growing number of countries beginning to recognize and normalize relations with Israel. Palestinians affirm that Israel should give up more territory to Palestine before it gains recognition from other Arab countries.
Bassam al-Salhi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, claimed that the recognition of Israel under these circumstances disrespects the Arab Peace Initiative. The 2002 agreement offered an outline of how to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The king of Morocco assured Palestine on Thursday that it still supports a two-state solution.
The US’s involvement supports the realist perspective, because Trump is trying to maintain international power without worrying about the reciprocations for groups like Polisario or Palestine. However, the situation can also be seen as supporting the liberal theory because the US is helping Israel without direct reciprocity.