Israeli media comment with annoyance on the daily scenes of hostility by Arab fans towards the occupation, and describe the failure of Israeli correspondents to extract any positive statements about “Israel” as shameful.
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Israeli media: the truth and a painful slap at the World Cup in Qatar. Hostility continues and normalization is fragile
The Israeli media commented with great annoyance on the scenes of negative interaction of the Arab public with Israeli correspondents, who are arriving in Qatar to cover the news on the World Cup, and have been trying to extract “positive statements” since the beginning of the matches. which are used in the standardization process.
An article in said Newspaper Israel Hayom The Israeli headlined “The World Cup in Qatar is a mirror for the Israelis: they don’t like us and they don’t want us either”.
He explained that Israelis “saw for the first time the Gulf enthusiasts and the experience of rejection, abandonment, hatred and non-acceptance of Israelis in an Arab Muslim country.”
Read also: An Israeli reporter from Qatar: Despite normalization, Arab peoples reject our existence
The article noted, “Anyone who claims that Gulf state residents have no hostility toward Israel has seen that they have been deceived and has witnessed a different reality.”
He went on to say: “News correspondents at Israeli stations enthusiastically traveled to Qatar, set up cameras and waited for a number of Arabs living in the Gulf and other Arab countries to come and praise Israel, but soon found themselves exposed to the contempt, avoidance and ridicule of these Arabs”.
Moroccan fans inside #World_Qatar They refuse to speak to a journalist after learning he is Israeli.#World_Qatar_2022 #World Cup 2022 #FIFA World Cup #Morocco #Palestine#FIFA World Cup pic.twitter.com/1tvyukSpsc
– Al Mayadeen Channel (@AlMayadeenNews) November 27, 2022
Scenes filmed by Israeli media cameras in Qatar showed a group of fans from Morocco refusing to speak to an Israeli journalist and chanting about Palestine and against the occupation, despite the Israeli journalist’s shouts that “your government it’s normalized with us… we must be at peace now!”
Israeli media have commented on the refusal of some Arab fans, when they discovered that the journalist who was asking for them was an Israeli, to interview him and confront him saying “there is no Israel, there is only Palestine”. he didn’t agree to be interviewed on Israeli television.”
Slap and shameful state
He added, “Only those who don’t understand the atmosphere in the Arab world at the level of the general public and the average citizen will rush to install a camera and beg an Arab for an interview with an Israeli station.”
He described the humiliation Israeli correspondents were subjected to and the need to lie and hide their identities, saying, “It is shameful to see an Israeli journalist begging and hugging his interviewee live to urge him to say a good word about Israel , to show that they consider that there is no Israel but only Palestine”.
blow to normalization
He added: “Really, this is a resounding slap in the face to those who think that normalization is within reach and that normalization with Arab countries is just a matter of time.”
He said: “The behavior of the average Arab citizen towards Israel indicates a hostility that is more than 70 years old and indicates that the root of the problem is still alive and kicking and slapping us.”
The article stated that this is the reality and the truth, and that “those who don’t want to see should close their eyes, but the bitter and difficult, and in my view painful, reality is that if the Palestinian question is not resolved in an acceptable way for all parties, we are not and will not be welcome in Arab countries, even in countries with which normalization agreements have been concluded.
He underlined that “just look at the normalization agreements with Egypt to understand how we have not made any progress in dealing with the Egyptian people, who are still the Arabs most hostile to Israel, and we have remained on the same mistaken concept of only agreements between country leaders”.
#Watch_close A circulating video of Brazilian fans chanting for Palestine in Qatar, coinciding with World Cup matches #Brazil #World_Qatar #Almayadeen_Go pic.twitter.com/XCb5fkZrBz
— Go Al-Mayadeen (@AlmayadeenGO) November 25, 2022
Standardization agreements have a glass ceiling
Former Shin Bet official Doron Matza, V An article on Makor Rishon’s website. Entitled ‘Hatred of Israel in Qatar refers to glass ceiling of normalization agreements’, it notes that ‘the rude treatment of Arab football fans with Israeli media representatives surprised his friends’ correspondents, who opened up to them eyes on the reality in the Middle East and Israel’s relationship with the region”.
He concluded: “They don’t like us in Qatar and, apparently, throughout the Middle East, and this is the conclusion journalists have drawn in light of the unpleasant interactions with Saudi, Qatari, Iranian and other fans.”
He added, “It turns out nothing has changed.. While it’s nice to have hope, the strength and necessity of reality must not be lost on us.”
And he underestimated the value of official normalization agreements with Arab regimes in terms of influencing the people, which he said “were formed against less ideological elements in the region, such as the UAE.”
The article concluded: “The significance of these issues is clear. The normalization agreements did not place the Middle East in the reality of the end of history. There was no synchronization between normalization with the leaders and normalization with the people.”
He stressed that “the events that took place on the sidelines of the World Cup in Qatar show that Israel’s regional status and the content of the ‘normalization agreements’ have a glass ceiling.”
Read also: Video: Lebanese fans refuse to speak to an Israeli journalist in Qatar
