Indonesia and Malaysia face Israel dilemma
It is going to be fun to watch how Southeast Asia's two Muslim nations cope with the looming normalization of ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Normalization talks between Saudi Arabia and Israel are reportedly advancing apace with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, back in Saudi Arabia for the umpteenth time since October 7, saying that “intensive work” had been done over the past month.
Saudi-Israel normalization, along with some kind of defense agreement between the US and Saudi Arabia, is going to reshape the Middle East. It is about the Sunni Arab kingdoms modernizing and containing Shia Iran, which along with Qatar, is the world’s chief sponsor of Islamist terror.
The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is not about Palestinian nationalism. Gaza is the latest battleground in the millennia-old civil war in Islam between Sunnis and Shia. The Iran-backed Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 was largely about derailing this normalization.
Southeast Asia’s two Muslim-majority nations, Indonesia and Malaysia, are watching this burgeoning Sunni-Jewish alliance closely. Having spent seven years in Indonesia as a student, editor, and foreign correspondent, I can report that anti-Semitism is rife in both places. Accurate reporting about the Israel-Palestinian conflict is as rare as the Sumatran tiger.
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