Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): For Bahrainis, September 11 no longer means the date of the terrorist attack on the United States. Starting from today, September 11 represents another event that challenged the feelings of the Bahraini people, with the announcement of Manama's normalization of diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv under the auspices of Washington.

Commenting on the announcement of the Bahraini-Israeli normalization, CNN Jerusalem correspondent, Oren Liebermann, said that the move was not surprising at all, but rather expected that the Israelis would begin Gulf normalization from the gateway of Manama, which did not hide its support for Israel, and publicly received official delegations on several occasions. It also strongly opposed the "terrorism" of Palestinian organizations and the Lebanese Hezbollah party against Israel.

It was also not surprising for Bahrainis as well. Bahrain has paved the way for normalization since 2013, and it was the first to welcome the Emirati move. What the King of Bahrain revealed when he received US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, two weeks ago and US President's advisor, Jared Kushner, over 10 days ago, seems like nothing but a Saudi step on the brakes in order to improve some of the terms.

Upon those meetings, the King of Bahrain said that his country follows Saudi Arabia in such situations. Therefore, the move was not purely Bahraini, but rather Bahraini with a Saudi green light, and it is expected to be followed by Gulf normalization agreements in the near future.

24 hours before the announcement of Bahraini normalization, Jared Kushner, the senior  advisor to the US president and his son-in-law, said that the Saudi and Bahraini airspace has become completely open to Israeli aircraft, and no denials have been issued from Riyadh or Manama, which confirmed that normalization was already in effect, and what remained was only official announcements to formalize the matter.

But until now, no one knows the political benefit that Bahrain has gained from this normalization. It is free normalization, apparently, similar to the Emirati normalization. It is a Gulf gift to Trump, who is suffering from a decline in his popularity, while the elections near, and it is also a free gift to Netanyahu, who's suffering from a political crisis following three consecutive inconclusive elections, and suspicions of corruption being investigated by the Israeli judiciary, which have greatly affected his popularity.

On the popular level, this agreement left the Bahraini people feeling there was betrayal of the Palestinian cause, and intense anger at the authorities' dismissal of the feelings of the people who had always been loyal to the Palestinian cause. These feelings were translated by thousands of tweets written by Bahrainis under the hashtag "Bahrainis against normalization", in an explicit objection to this disastrous agreement.

Both the authorities in Bahrain and Israel are aware that official normalization does not and will not ever mean normalization on the popular level. The people of Bahrain will continue to refuse this agreement, deeming it unlawful. The Bahraini people will also always consider Israel to be nothing but a racist murderous occupation and invader of lands and holy places.

Arabic Version