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https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2023/12/359373/israels-war-on-palestinians-moment-of-reckoning-for-us-moroccan-relations
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* SUPPORT US * CAREERS * CONTACT * SIGN IN * * * * * * News * Politics * Economy * Opinion * Lifestyle * Features * Society * Education * Western Sahara * World Cup U-17 * Gaza * Home * News * Politics * Economy * Opinion * Lifestyle * Features * Society * Education * Western Sahara * World Cup U-17 * Home * News * Politics * Economy * Opinion * Lifestyle * Features * Society * Education * Western Sahara * World Cup U-17 * Gaza 1. Home 2. Gaza GAZA ISRAEL’S WAR ON PALESTINIANS : MOMENT OF RECKONING FOR US-MOROCCAN RELATIONS There are increasing signs that the Biden administration is moving to pressure Morocco to bow to America's pro-Israel directives and rhetoric amid the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza. * Samir Bennis And * 0 * Dec. 06, 2023 6:57 p.m. King Mohammed VI of Morocco and US President Joe Biden Washington DC - In international relations, every word, every statement, every image carries a significant political meaning that should be considered while weighing its consequences and ramifications. Policymakers and observers dealing with the question of Western Sahara were recently poignantly reminded of this elemental principle in the wake of two visits to the Polisario Tindouf camps in Algeria by Elisabeth Aubin, the US ambassador to Algeria. The takeaway from these surprise visits by the American diplomat is that the Biden administration will have no qualms about using the Western Sahara dispute to pressure Morocco if the latter decides to adopt positions that are not in line with American interests — especially with regard to Israel. Some may downplay the political significance of the American ambassador’s visits to the stronghold of the Algerian-backed separatist group. Ambassador Aubin’s surprise trips, they may suggest, were essentially aimed at ensuring that the US’s aid to distressed Sahrawis refugee in the Tindouf camps reaches its intended destination and contributes to improving the social and health situation in the Polisario-run camps in the wake of the latest UN Secretary-General’s report calling for more humanitarian assistance to the population of the camps. Some may even argue that the ambassador might have decided to make these visits on her own, without consulting Washington. But such a reading overlooks the crucial fact that an American ambassador cannot take such important steps without a greenlight from the State Department or the White House. Throughout the past decades, former US envoys to Algeria avoided visiting the Tindouf camps so as not to antagonize Morocco. Even more pertinently perhaps, high-ranking US diplomats have until now avoided ambiguous, morale-boosting visits to the separatist Polisario Front’s political nerve center because Washington has long been aware of all the Polisario and Algerian leadership’s well-documented, systematic smuggling of international aid meant for the distressed Sahraiws in the Tindouf camps. The US is also aware of Algeria’s failure to comply with all Security Council resolutions calling for a census of the population of Tindouf so that the international community can confirm their identity and actual number. In this sense, every visit to Tindouf by a senior US diplomat carries a subtle political message in line with the prevailing strategic winds in Washington. For example, Ambassador John Desrocher’s March 2018 trip to the Polisario-run camps, the first such visit by a sitting Algerian ambassador, took place six days after former President Donald Trump announced on X (formerly Twitter) the appointment of John Bolton as his security adviser. It thus goes without saying that, given Bolton’s well-documented sympathy for the Polisario Front’s separatist dreams, this visit was seen as a signal from him that he intended to change the way the American administration approached the Sahara, which he ultimately failed to do. However, the context in which the last two visits of a US ambassador to Tindouf took place is different from the situation that prevailed five years ago. Most notably, Ambassador Aubin’s ill-advised visits come three years after the US recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara. Whatever the excuse, an American ambassador’s visit -- sudden or not -- to the Tindouf camps in the wake of reports of the Polisario’s armed attack in the city of Es Semarna at the end of October, sends a negative message to Rabat. If anything, it suggests that the US administration under Biden is increasingly becoming an unreliable partner that does not respect Morocco’s interests or the sensibilities of its people. This visit can also be seen as a clear message to Algeria that the American administration does not intend to exert any pressure on the need to carry out a census of the Tindouf camps, and that it will not take any step that would pressure the Algerian regime to assume its responsibilities and participate in the UN-led political process to reach a final solution to the conflict. In addition, the photo published by the Ambassador with one of the women living in the camps, behind which appears a portrait of the Secretary General of the Polisario, Ibrahim Ghali, who has declared war on Morocco, implies significant bad faith on the part of the US administration towards Morocco and a lack of respect for one of its main strategic allies in the MENA region. In other words, Ambassador Aubin’s ill-advised trips to the Polisario Front’s separatist headquarters shattered the animating spirit of the Trump administration’s historic December 2020 announcement of America’s unambiguous support for Morocco’s territorial integrity and its sovereignty over Western Sahara. Indeed, the US’s December 10, 2020 Sahara Proclamation did not merely vaguely applaud Morocco’s efforts to find a lasting solution to the ongoing Sahara dispute. Instead, it wholeheartedly embraced the Moroccan Autonomy Plan, describing it as the best and most viable route to a genuine settlement of the territorial question. In doing so, the USresoundingly dismissed the Polisario's separatist agenda and confined it to the realm of the impossible or fantastical. In other words, the decision to unreservedly embrace the Moroccan autonomy plan was meant to render the Polisario Front irrelevant and redundant in the eyes of US policymakers. However, an analysis of the political rhetoric of the current US administration on the Sahara question over the past three years shows that Washington’s attitude towards the Moroccan side is a calculated one that does not show any intention of helping resolve the lingering dispute in line with Morocco’s territorial integrity. Rather, over the past three years, the US has increasingly used ambiguous language to maintain some balance in its relations with Algeria, mainly by avoiding the impression of unconditional support for Morocco. WASHINGTON ANNOYED BY MOROCCO’S REFUSAL TO CONDEMN HAMAS The current international context, dominated by Israel’s punitive, heinous war on the Palestinian people in Gaza to avenge the October 7 assault by the Palestinian resistance groups’ Hamas-led assault on southern Israel, must be taken into account in order to understand Ambassador Aubin’s trip to the Tindouf Camps. Due to the magnitude of the shock caused by the Palestinian groups’ surprise attack and the psychological and human damage it caused in Israel, as well as in the US and Europe, Washington expected all of its allies to express unequivocal solidarity with Israel and vigorous condemnation of Hamas, which both the US and the EU consider to be a terrorist group. The US even had higher expectations of the Arab countries that have established diplomatic relations with Israel under the auspices of the US-brokered Abraham Accords. Indeed, the Biden administration expected America’s Arab allies, including Morocco, to unequivocally describe Hamas as a terrorist movement. However, the Moroccan Foreign Affairs Ministry’s statements in the wake of the 7 October attack did not live up to the expectations of both Israel and the US administration. Given their long-standing and well-documented opposition to Israel’s decades-long occupation and oppression of Palestinians, Moroccan authorities did not use any language that could have been interpreted as suggesting that Morocco considers Hamas as a terrorist organization. Instead of single-handedly condemning the 7 October attack as terrorist, the official statement of the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the violence from all sides and called for de-escalation and calm. Morocco thus reiterated its “principled position” in support of the Palestinian cause, urging a return to dialogue and negotiations as the only path to a comprehensive and lasting solution - while warning of the political consequences of obstructing the political process. As such, the US and Israel considered Morocco to have fallen short of their expectations by both failing to express its solidarity with Israel and by failing to unequivocally condemn Hamas as a terrorist group. Signs of this American-Israeli dissatisfaction with Morocco were evident in a blog post by Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, known for its support of Israel. While acknowledging Morocco’s condemnation of all attacks against civilians, Satloff expressed dismay that none of the Arab countries, including Morocco, had condemned the Hamas movement or called the attacks it carried out as terrorist attacks. Morocco’s second sin, from the American and Israeli perspective, is that Rabat has taken no steps to prevent the hundreds of pro-Palestine demonstrations organized across Morocco since the outbreak of Israel’s brutal war on Gaza. In the midst of the media war and narrative battle between the Palestinians and Israel, Tel Aviv and its main ally, the United States, expected Morocco to ban pro-Palestinian protests and prevent the Moroccan people from expressing their absolute and unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian people and denouncing the crimes committed by Israel against them. It can be argued that the decision of the Moroccan authorities to allow these demonstrations came as a shock to the United States, reminding them that despite all efforts to marginalize or downplay the Palestinian issue and to remove Israel from its diplomatic isolation, the Moroccan people will continue joining its brothers in the Arab, Muslim world in their commitment to refuse to deal with Israel as long as it occupies Arab lands, mistreats the Palestinian people and deprives them of their legitimate right to an independent state. Morocco’s third sin was its condemnation of the Israeli occupation forces’ shocking attack on the Al-Maamadani Hospital on October 17, which resulted in the killing of more than 500 civilians and the injury of more than a thousand. Despite the Israeli government’s numerous attempts to distort the truth and convince the global public opinion that it did not carry out this attack and that it was instead the result of a misfired Hamas rocket, Morocco did not change its initial condemnation of Israel’s outrageous, deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure in its indefensible war on Gaza. Meanwhile, Morocco’s fourth sin was to express its dismay at the silence of the so-called international community in the face of Israel’s unrelenting targeting of Palestinian civilians. In particular, the North African country has, in recent weeks, repeatedly taken issue with the continued refusal of influential international powers to heed calls for a humanitarian ceasefire to end the indiscriminate killing and oppression of Palestinains, including children, women, and the elderly. On November 2, for instance, the Moroccan Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement expressing concern over the dire situation in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli occupation forces’ criminal bombing of civilian facilities, including hospitals, schools, mosques and churches. The Moroccan ministry particularly expressed Morocco’s dismay at the failure of the UN Security Council to adopt a binding resolution that would have forced Israel to heed the overwhelming global call for a ceasefire. Even if Morocco did not make it clear, the language it used in this statement was directed at Western countries - especially the US, which had rejected all calls for a cease-fire and instead supported Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas by mercilessly shelling residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure in Gaza. This Moroccan position has arguably aroused the ire of Israel and its American ally, especially since most of the Western media have uncritically adopted the Israeli narrative. Although Morocco largely fell short of satisfying Moroccans’ call for a much bolder response to Israel’s reprehensible war on Palestinians – such as severing diplomatic relations with Israel or at least closing the Moroccan liaison office in Tel Aviv – the country’s rejection of the Israeli talking points and its defiance of the US’ subtly expressed call on all its allies to stand in solidarity with Israel did provoke the wrath of both Israel and the US. Therefore, Washington had to make a forcible move aimed at pressuring Morocco into reconsidering its defiant attitude to the US-led, justificatory narrative on the unfolding Gaza genocide. Needless to say, implicitly threatening to undermine Morocco’s advances on the Western Sahara diplomatic front is the most effective tool in Washington’s pressure arsenal vis-à-vis the North African country. The fact that Algeria, a country that has historically boasted and flaunted its support for the Palestinian cause, decided on November 2 to ban demonstrations in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza, has made it easier for the US to blackmail Morocco. Indeed, in the current global context, Algeria’s decision to prevent Algerian football fans from entering stadiums across the country to use Algerian league games as a platform to condemn the West’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and to express their undying solidarity with Palestine was a gift to Israel and the United States. If anything, this move deprived the Palestinian people of the moral support of the Algerian people, while assuring Israel that there is no unanimous Arab position on the stance to be taken towards Israel. Even more significant, Algeria did not participate in the emergency Arab-Islamic summit hosted by Saudi Arabia on November 11. While the Arab street did not have high expectations of the results of this summit, Algeria’s non-participation shocked many in the region and put a dent in the Arab world’s principled denunciation of the calamitous situation in Gaza, giving the misleading impression that there is no Arab consensus on the stance to be adopted towards Israel. KING MOHAMMED VI WILL NOT BOW TO AMERICAN PRESSURE As part of its strategy of putting pressure on Morocco to reconsider its dismissal of Washington’s talking points on the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza, it appears that the Biden administration will not stop at only voicing its displeasure with Rabat by sending an envoy to the camps on multiple occasions. More seriously, some sectors within the Biden administration appear to have organized prominent figures known for their hostility toward Morocco to launch a public relations assault on the country. It is thus no coincidence that three American media outlets -- Forbes, the Washington Times, and Politico -- have all recently published op-eds to harm Morocco’s global reputation and challenge the historical and legal validity of its stance on the Western Sahara dispute. To be sure, this tendency of using an aggressive and PR campaign to coerce Rabat into abandoning its assertiveness is reminiscent of France’s strategy in the wake of its recent diplomatic rift with Morocco. Paris overwhelmingly used its media machine as a tool to pressure Morocco to reconsider its growing assertiveness and defiance toward France, but the strategy ultimately failed. Andit appears that Morocco is not ready to bow to any outside pressure. This was perhaps more poignantly evidenced by King Mohammed VI’s message to the Chairman of the Committee for the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on November 29. In his message, the king -- known for refusing to bow to pressure from any party for his commitment to the independence of his political decisions -- used a stronger tone than that of all the previous statements issued by the Moroccan Foreign Ministry since October 7. In particular, King Mohammed VI stressed that “the Israeli military reprisals in the Gaza Strip constitute serious violations that contradict the provisions of international law and international humanitarian law.” Stressing that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the Palestinian territories and the unified Palestinian state, he also expressed his “rejection and condemnation” of all Israeli transgressions and violations, including the policy of collective punishment and forced displacement of the Palestinian people. This royal message will likely intensity the discomfort of Americans and Israelis who -- due to their misunderstanding of the Moroccan political system and the personality of King Mohammed VI -- believed that Morocco’s decision to gradually resume its diplomatic relations with Israel signaled a radical departure from its long-standing support for the Palestinian cause and its advocacy for Palestinians’ right to an independent state. Given these rapid developments in the international and regional political arena, the Moroccan political class should be vigilant and aware of the historical moment the region and the entire world are now experiencing. As the US and Israeli political classes have been shaken by their colossal failure to manage the war and their loss of the media and narrative battles, their next moves may lead to political and strategic changes that almost no one in the US nor Israel could have anticipated a few months ago. To be sure, the shock of Hamas’s daring and myth-shattering 7 October attack has been so unprecedented that several US media outlets and research centers have ordered their staff to fully support Israel and not to consider any reports or articles presenting an opposing viewpoint. Meanwhile, some media outlets and thinks tanks, according to my interviews and conversations with some of their staff, have threatened to fire anyone who tries to show some kind of objectivity in their coverage of the Israeli aggression on Gaza Even more alarming -- -- some members of Congress have pushed forth a bill calling to cancel the visa of anyone who displays support for Hamas or the Islamic Jihad movement, or describes the two groups as movements of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation. In response to a letter of inquiry from Senator Marco Rubio, who was behind this proposal, the US State Department said that the law authorizes it to revoke visas if there is evidence that foreigners in the US support groups that Washington considers to be terrorist groups. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas moved in the same direction, confirming the possibility that his department could revoke visas for anyone showing support for Hamas. Therefore, there will likely be more attempts in the coming days or weeks, whether from Washington or Tel Aviv, to pressure Morocco by using the Western Sahara card or other issues of strategic importance to Rabat. Morocco should therefore be prepared to address more attempts to coerce it into reconsidering some of its positions in exchange for symbolic support of its Western Sahara stance. MOROCCO NEEDS TO REASSESS ITS RELATIONS WITH THE US AND ISRAEL For all of these reasons, it may be time for Morocco to comprehensively rethink its approach to Israel and the United States. In this regard, perhaps the Moroccan government’s first step in such a direction should be to reduce the level of communication and interaction with the Israeli government in the foreseeable future. The world, at least as far as the Middle East is concerned, will not be the same as it was before the Hamas attack on October 7. The most important fact revealed by this war is that Israel is a state built on the shedding of Palestinian blood, the violation of their rights, and the erasure of their identity, and that it is a state built on ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination against the Palestinians. The war has also revealed that the Jewish state has expansionist aspirations that go beyond the conquest and occupation of Palestinian territory. Israel's geostrategic ambitions in the region are based on a condescending view of the Palestinians and the use of religious texts to legitimize its expansionist goals and its policy of mass murder of the Palestinians. All this calls for reflection on the part of the Moroccan political elite and civil society groups to determine the measures Rabat should take in the future in order to preserve Morocco’s stability as well as its cultural, political, and religious identity. Nevertheless, some have called on Morocco to maintain its friendly attitude towards Israel, arguing that the country would benefit enormously from strengthening its ties with it, especially in the technological, military and security fields. But if Israel's loss on the narrative front of the Gaza war should teach us anything, is that continuing to be on good, friendly terms with Israel despite its atrocious war crimes in Gaza could cause serious, irreparable damage to Morocco’s international reputation. A country like Morocco, which has suffered the consequences of colonization, occupation, oppression and intimidation by colonial powers, should not continue to strengthen its relations with a colonial state that flagrantly violates all international conventions. Israel has openly demonstrated that it is an occupying power that does not respect any of the humanitarian values in which the Moroccan people believe and on which the Moroccan state was built 12 centuries ago. As such, Moroccan journalists, academics, and political actors must be vigilant in mobilizing to counter some American observers’ claims that security and intelligence cooperation with Israel is a matter of national security for Morocco and is essential to the preservation or continuity of the Moroccan monarchy. Such claims disregards the reputation, competence and bravery of the Moroccan talents working in the Moroccan security and intelligence services. Morocco's competent and widely respected security and intelligence services have not only succeeded in protecting the country from major threats to its stability and security, but over the years have also played a key role in ensuring the security of many European countries by foiling a number of terrorist plots. More to the point, how can a country that failed miserably to anticipate or respond to the October 7 attack, or even to make any military gains in the brutal aggression it has launched against the Palestinian people, be considered a protector or guarantor of Morocco's stability or national security? As many military and security experts have pointed out, the weakness or unpreparedness of the Israeli military intelligence and security services since the October 7 attack has shattered all the myths previously propagated by the Western media about the unparalleled competence and enviable effectiveness of Israeli intelligence. Many Morocco experts often have little or no real understanding of Morocco’s political system or history, and their analysis of the country’s newfound regional primacy and growing global assertiveness often reflects stereotypical images of monarchies in other Arab countries. This leads them to lump all Arab monarchies together, ignoring the political and historical specificities of each nation. In the face of such lazy, sweeping generalizations, it should be stressed that, unlike some monarchies that were established in the 1930s thanks to British support -- and which still need American and Israeli security and military support to ensure their continuity -- the Moroccan monarchy’s strength and historical legitimacy derive from the Moroccan people’s attachment to it. Indeed, there is a strong popular consensus that the monarchy is the country's guarantor, faithful protector of its stability and independence. In addition to debunking the myth of Israel as a security blanket for Morocco, the Moroccan academic community and media should also confront all voices that try to lure the Moroccan public into believing that strengthening ties with Israel will speed up the resolution of the Western Sahara dispute. Such a perspective only aims to ignore or dismiss the exceptional competence and flexibility that Morocco and its diplomacy have demonstrated over the past five decades in maintaining its effective sovereignty over the Sahara. Moroccan diplomacy has demonstrated its resilience and flexibility in overcoming all the challenges that Morocco faced during the last five decades, adapting to various changes and strategically gaining time to score additional points in the diplomatic war of attrition imposed by the Algerian regime. For example, in the years preceding the US recognition, Morocco succeeded in dismantling the Abuja-Algeria-Pretoria axis through its rapprochement with Nigeria. The country also succeeded in neutralizing the UA’s pro-Polisario agenda after its return to this pan-African entity in 2017. Within the Security Council, Morocco has succeeded in ushering in a new era in the way the UN body deals with the Sahara dispute. Since the adoption of Resolution 2440 in 2018, the Security Council has put more emphasis on the need for the parties to work towards a realistic, practicable and mutually acceptable political solution based on compromise. More importantly, the Council began to mention Algeria as a party that should directly participate in any negotiations leading to a political solution, meaning that Algeria should no longer be considered an observer but a full-fledged party to the conflict. Prior to all these breakthroughs, and to the credit of Moroccan diplomacy and resilience, during the diplomatic crisis that erupted between Morocco and the UN Secretariat in March 2016 following Ban Ki-moon's visit to the camps, Morocco withstood all the pressure from the US and other influential countries to reconsider its decision to expel the 75 members of MINURSO’s civilian component. Hence, it is crucial to emphasize that the US’s recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces in Western Sahara has not and will not contribute to a final settlement of the issue in favor of Morocco. Although this recognition has given Morocco a new advantage and allowed it to strengthen its diplomatic position, it has in no way been a decisive blow to the Algerian regime and its proxy separatist group in southern Morocco. THE WAY FORWARD FOR MOROCCAN DIPLOMACY As I have suggested in several of my analyses on the UN-led political process in Western Sahara, resolving the Sahara dispute remains the exclusive preserve of the UN. This means that despite the significant advances Morocco has made on the Sahara diplomatic front, Algeria is still able to convince some influential parties to hinder the implementation of all recent UN Security Council resolutions that clearly support the Moroccan autonomy plan. And so, the only way for Morocco to prevail in this diplomatic confrontation over the Sahara is to redouble its efforts to win the narrative war that the Algerian regime has been waging against its territorial integrity for the past four decades. What this means is that Morocco should continue its struggle to score more points to weaken Algeria’s diplomatic activism on the Sahara and undermine the Algerian regime’s ability to maneuver some powerful parties to obstruct UN Sahara resolutions. Furthermore, the more Morocco works to strengthen the foundations of its economy, diversify its strategic partnerships, and increase the competitiveness of its economy and its political influence on the regional and global stages, the more success it will have in convincing powerful global actors to take a stance in favor of its territorial integrity and other Moroccan strategic interests. The goal, then, is for Morocco to make the cost of Algeria’s support for the Polisario Front higher and ultimately unbearable. To do this, Morocco must work tirelessly to increase its regional and global influence. In addition, Moroccan political discourse should stress the absence of a link between Morocco’s decision to re-establish relations with Israel and the Western Sahara issue. Morocco’s resumption of relations with Israel in December 2020 marked a return to the same level of relations that existed between the two countries between 1994 and 2000, unlike the Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which established full diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level. As they strive to explain Morocco’s strategic thinking to the outside world, Moroccan scholars should make sure to stress that it is not in Morocco’s interest to link its just cause, which is supported by solid historical and legal arguments, with the resumption of relations with a country that has occupied Palestinian territories and has blatantly and repeatedly violated all international conventions and resolutions regarding Palestinians’ right to an independent state. It would thus be more judicious to link any potential Moroccan-Israeli ties with Israel’s pledge (which it has unfortunately not honored) to demonstrate its goodwill towards the people of Palestine by complying with all Security Council and UN resolutions aimed at enabling the people of Palestine to exercise their right to self-determination and to establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. At the same time, it is imperative that Moroccans start emphasizing to their American counterparts that their country’s desire to strengthen its military, security, and trade ties with the US does not make it an American vassal whose strategic decisions are dictated by American interests. They should also make clear that Morocco is shocked that a country it has long considered to be a strong and reliable ally appears to have no qualms about using Western Sahara to blackmail Morocco. Since the US is Israel’s official sponsor and defender on the global stage, it should also be stressed that the advancement of Morocco’s diplomatic relations with Israel at the ambassadorial level is conditional on Israel halting its settlement policy in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In addition, Israel should put an end to its blockade on the Gaza Strip and express a clear intention to engage in serious rounds of negotiations to pave the way for a two-state solution based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. In other words, Israel must withdraw from all the Palestinian territories it has occupied since the June 1967 war, including the West Bank and Jerusalem, the occupied Syrian Golan and the territories it occupies in southern Lebanon. Moreover, Israel, in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948, should seek a just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees. The political class in Washington should also be warned that without the right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, Israel’s security will remain in jeopardy, no matter what actions it takes to maintain the current situation in the Palestinian territories or to circumvent the rights of the Palestinian people. As a result, the American authorities need to rethink some of the stereotypical, patronizing, and ultimately misleading rhetoric they use about Morocco's political scene. It should be noted, for example, that just as the U.S. considers the defense of Israel's security and existence to be of strategic, critical importance to American interests and national security, Morocco's defense of the Palestinian people's right to defend their land in the process of establishing their independent state is closely linked to Morocco's national security. Indeed, the overwhelming majority - if not all - of Moroccans support the Palestinian cause and have a deep emotional attachment to Palestine. In that regard, contrary to what some authors and Western media sources have often claimed, Morocco’s security cooperation with Israel or the US is not -- and has never been -- the primary guarantee of the continuation of the Moroccan monarchy. Rather, the continued existence of the Moroccan monarchy for the past twelve centuries is rooted in the strong bond between the King and the people. This special relationship of trust between the monarchy and its subjects is built on the foundations of religious allegiance, which is considered the basis of governance in Morocco. And so, what the US -- and Western -- policymakers and intellectuals need to understand is that the opinions expressed by the Moroccan state are merely a reflection of the sentiments of the Moroccan people, which the King listens to and takes into account when determining his stance on this and other political issues. Samir Bennis is the co-founder and publisher of Morocco World News. You can follow him on Twitter @SamirBennis. © Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. SUPPORT Your support allows us to continue delivering quality journalism that is accessible to audiences across the globe. Every contribution, however big or small, is valuable for our mission and readers. SUPPORT MOROCCO WORLD NEWS FROM AS LITTLE AS $10 – AND IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE. THANK YOU. Support MWN Remind me in January * 0 * | 0 * * * * * * * Login COMMENTS 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Long live the King, reality at its best, thank you for the in depth clarification of the current political scene. 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