By Afshain Afzal

In the latest development, King Salman bin Abdulaziz has donated Saudi Riyal 30 million while Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has donated Saudi Riyal 20 million to the Palestinians of Gaza. In another development, the Saudi Minister of Defense, Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, has met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department in Washington and discussed ways to end Israeli aggression against unarmed Palestinians of Gaza. However, Washington has some other plans too where Secretary of State Blinken will visit Israel, Jordan, Tokyo, Japan, Korea, and India from 2 to 10 November 2023.

There is no doubt, that Israel played an aggressor but the actors who desire to continue creating a rift between Jews and Muslims to keep them away from the path of peace are this time unsuccessful. Brigadier General Yahya Saree, a spokesperson for the Houthi forces, in a statement to local TV said, “Our armed forces launched a large batch of ballistic and winged missiles and a large number of drones at various targets of the Israeli enemy.” Brigadier General Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary said, “The missiles were fired by Houthi forces in Yemen and were launched toward targets in Israel but US warship near the coast of Yemen shot down four cruise missiles and 15 drones over a period of nine hours as they were heading north along the Red Sea. These statements were only meant to win the Jewish card and earn billions of dollars under the head of “Security of Jewish State against Muslim Terrorism”. The Jewish civilians must have realized by now that Hamas is not a terrorist organization not Muslims are against the Jews, however, recognition of State of Israel is a separate issue.

Washington has exposed some of its cards; using Iran to capture the stage but it failed. Then it was Hizbullah but it failed too. It was followed by Qatar as chief negotiator and persuading Palestinians to leave Gaza and bring surrendered expelled Hamas but it failed. Now it is Houthi rebels in Yemen but nothing much is expected that may change the scenario. As things are unfolding, it can be safely said that Israel and Hamas are going to have a dialogue very soon through the good offices of Turkey and Saudi Arabia. There is no doubt that Israeli Shin Bet and Mossad planned extremely well along with above actors and attacked their own people on Israel innocent Jew civilians as well as some military personnel on 7th October. The state-sponsored terrorism and drama to build consensus against Hamas has been exposed and it is time that peace efforts in the Middle East, especially Statehood to the Palestinians must be worked out before it ends with chaos and disaster in other parts of the world.

If we recall, a Houthi delegation visited Saudi Arabia in the third week of September 2023 and there was agreement in principle on a ceasefire between Saudi Arabia and Yemen but after the announcement that Saudi ambassador to Palestine, Nayef al-Sudairi would visit West Bank on 26 September, a day earlier on 25 September, a suspected Houthi drone attack at Saudi-led coalition near Saudi Arabia border with Yemen killed at least four Bahraini soldiers and wounded multiple others. Similarly, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a statement said, “We need to use the last political opportunities to stop the war and if the situation gets out of control, no side will be safe from its consequences.” The U.S. intelligence community has also issued a clean chit that Iran is not currently seeking a direct war with the US and is not behind the 7 October attack on Israel. We should not forget that politeness in the tone is due to US agreement with Iran to transfer $6 billion in frozen funds through Qatar. As things are reflecting a clearer picture, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are attempting to resolve the issue. It is high time that both Jews and Muslims of the sacred land of Palestine must cooperate to bring long-lasting peace.