As the fracture between supporters of Israel and the Palestinians widens and intensifies along with the fighting, NewsNation host Chris Cuomo is cautioning against taking sides – but when it comes to other Arab states around the world, the former CNN anchor pulls no punches.
“The Middle East holds no easy answers, never has,” Cuomo said Tuesday night on “Cuomo.”
“What will ensure Israel’s safety? How that safety can be balanced with the rights and needs of the Palestinians? But I do think there’s a little bit too much of a binary focus in this country when viewing the conflict,” he continued. “All that binary controversy should not come as a surprise here anymore – everything’s looked at through the lens of division. We’re addicted to grievance.”
But Cuomo sees a third factor in what’s become, for many, an increasingly black-and-white issue:
“There is something being missed in all of this focus on limiting the right-and-wrong analysis of who should do what to justify Israel when it comes to Palestine’s welfare,” he said. “There is the inclusion of the Arab community in this analysis. For all the talk of ‘Arab brotherhood,’ Arab states condemning Israel and encouraging uprisings and basically holy war against them – the same countries, even those bordering Palestine, have offered no solutions for the Palestinians other than erasing Israel. No safe haven for Palestinians … and barely any humanitarian aid. Did you know that? Shouldn’t it matter?”
Cuomo then brought up statistics showing that top donors to Palestinian humanitarian causes in recent years were top-heavy with the U.S., Germany, the E.U., Sweden and Norway.
“Where are the Arab states? Where are all the oil economies? … Why have the Arab neighbors been so slow to help their brothers? Syria, Egypt, Iran – which as we know is pulling all the strings, right? Look at the paltry amounts from these countries – you don’t even see Egypt or Iran on the list. I wonder why. Even the UAE is barely represented.”
Cuomo noted that not a single one of these countries has indicated it would accept any refugees from the conflict – Egypt, in fact, has pledged to spend “millions of lives” to prevent it.
“Why? Perhaps it’s because they don’t want to help perceived efforts to remove Palestinians from their land,” Cuomo said. “Or maybe they just don’t want any more Palestinians. The brotherhood breaks down pretty fast once it’s not a simple matter of taking sides against Israel. Even now.”
Whatever is to become of the Palestinians during and after this latest conflict, Cuomo said Israel cannot be left to deal with them on its own.
“It has to be a broader solution,” he said. “[Arab countries] are just too happy to sit by and hope that Israel is weakened by the situation – and they are getting their way.”
Watch the entire monologue in the video above.
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