Bahrain's Non-Visit to Israel

It's a good-news, bad-news sort of thing: On one hand, Bahraini government officials touched down on Israeli soil for the first time in the history of Israel (since 1948). On the other, they did so only to retrieve five Bahraini citizens Israel took prisoner when it captured a humanitarian ship and its 21 passengers and crew members who were on their way from Cyprus to deliver supplies to Gaza (where, as Sara Roy of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies notes, "96 percent of Gaza’s population of 1.4 million is dependent on humanitarian aid for basic needs."

If the circumstances of the trip weren't bad enough, the Bahraini officials went out of their way to assure their people, and the world, that they did not, in fact, go through Israeli customs, therefore they did not really pass through Israel. They were there merely to retrieve their nationals. Not to enact a breakthrough in Bahraini-Israeli relations. This, even though Bahrain was enlightened enough to name a Jewish ambassador to the United States last year (Huda Noono).

The Gaza blockade is a shame and an outrage. No question. But it isn't the only blockade Arabs should be worried about. Their own blockade of Israel is equally a shame and an outrage. It has no purpose, no sense, not even a moral basis: if a blockade's intention is to change a situation, to force an issue, the Arab world's refusal to engage with Israel on any basis isn't doing the trick (anymore than Israel's imprisonment of Gaza is doing Israel, or the cause of peace, let alone human rights, any favors). To the contrary. It's institutionalizing prejudice and retarding improvements.

It's also creating absurd situations, like the Bahraini officials' non-visit to Israel on July 4. Another opportunity wasted.

See Also:

• Israel Hijacks Humanitarian Ship Bound for Gaza
• Bahrain: Shiite Majority, Sunni Rule
• Michael Jackson in Bahrain
• Bahrain Names Jewish Woman Ambassador to the U.S.
• Morocco's Spat With Iran Over Bahrain