Morocco-Israel-Algeria: Who betrayed whom? - opinion
It should be noted that the journey undertaken by the Israelis and the Moroccans since the 1960s brings these two nations closer, to have eventually reestablished relations under the Abraham Accords.
By HAKIM ARIFPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government's cabinet formalizes the normalization agreement with Morocco.(photo credit: CHAIM TZACH/GPO)
History tells us that Sultan Moulay Abderrahmane, who reigned from 1822 to 1859, denounced the French military intervention against this Maghrebian territory, later called Algeria. However, France had made a very advantageous offer to King Mohammed V: to give up his support of the Algerian resistance against negotiations on the despoiled Moroccan territories. An offer that has been rejected by the sovereign, who continued to support the revolution.A century later, King Mohammed V had opposed France’s Vichy regime, a proxy of Nazi Germany, in its attempt to subject Moroccan Jews to the same fate reserved for those based in Europe. Hence, as much as 250,000 Moroccan Jews escaped the Holocaust.“I totally disapprove of the new anti-Jewish legislation and I refuse to associate myself with a measure that I do not approve of. I wish to inform you that as in the past, the Israelites remain under my protection and I refuse that a distinction be made between my subjects,” stated the Alawite sovereign during the 1941 throne speech. In an unimaginable challenge, the late king had previously taken care to invite Jewish notables to the ceremony, placing them next to French officials and members of the German armistice commission.And here is the rest of the story. Jews have never forgotten King Mohammed V’s attitude. Decades later, his portraits take pride of place in the living rooms of Israelis originated in Morocco. As for American Jews, they awarded him a prize. For Israelis, Morocco is a country to befriend.At the other end of history, the Algerian authorities show an evil animosity toward Morocco. And this has been going on since the sixties. Their project aiming to cut Morocco in two captures their full attention. If they have no idea how to develop their country and pull it out of the slump, they could at least try to stall the development of their neighbor countries.It should be noted that the journey undertaken by the Israelis and the Moroccans since the 1960s brings these two nations closer to each other. It is therefore obvious that they eventually ended up re-establishing their relations under the Abraham Accords. While airlines resumed their flights between Morocco and Israel, the land border between Morocco and Algeria remains closed, and it is not known when it will reopen.Israel intends to take advantage of Morocco’s strong influence in Africa. Meanwhile, Algeria is devoting considerable effort to break this influence, but to no avail, they ought to admit. All at a time when the Algerian people demand a regime change, expressing their anger against the army, which is holding them hostage.Algeria has found a back-up to help in its destruction plan: South Africa. Hey, wasn’t it Morocco that helped Nelson Mandela in his fight against apartheid? The South African leader has, however, affirmed and reaffirmed this declaration on several occasions.Well, the moral of the story is that there are two kinds of countries: those that make history and those that try to twist it. The first category has made good progress in different areas, whereas the second has either completely vanished (the USSR for example), or continued to survive the course of civilization.
