Bahrain has made overtures to Zionist regime in a bid to normalize ties with the regime in defiance of growing public discontent in the Persian Gulf country.
According to Press TV, an informed Bahraini diplomatic source has told the Middle East Eyenews portal that Israeli and Bahraini officials had high-level contacts with the focus on exchanging visits between businessmen, influential social and religious figures.
The contacts would in time be followed by official announcements of business deals between Tel Aviv and Manama, the source added.
He also claimed that such moves were part of a new reality in the Middle East, noting, “Israel does not threaten our security or conspire on us.”
An official announcement of the establishment of Bahrain-Israeli ties could be released next year, he concluded. Bahrain and Israel have no formal diplomatic ties.
In September 206, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Ale Khalifah offered condolences to Zionist regime over the death of the regime’s former President Shimon Peres.
Rest in Peace President Shimon Peres, a Man of War and a Man of the still elusive Peace in the Middle East
— خالد بن أحمد (@khalidalkhalifa) September 29, 2016
Bahrainic citizens took to Twitter to express their outrage at the foreign minister’s move.
"How could he (Preses) rest in peace while the cries of mothers whom had lost their children hunt him to the grave? How could he rest in peace and the blood of martyrs in Palestine and Lebanon cries for vengeance,” Khalel tweeted.
Khalil Bhazaa, another Twitter user, said, "You offer your condolences to a man who led an occupation … a person who participated in the expulsion of an Arab population from its original homeland.”
In December 2016, a video clip was shared on social media, showing Bahraini dignitaries and traders dancing next to rabbis in an Israeli celebration in Manama.
More than 400 Bahraini judicial activists blasted Bahraini officials for hosting the event. The Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, also denounced the celebration as a “humiliating and disgraceful display,” where Bahrainis “hosted a Jewish, Zionist, racist, extremist delegation and danced with them.”
Most recently, Bahrain's Prince Nasser presented on behalf of his father, King Hamad bin Isa Ale Khalifah, the Bahrain declaration on religious tolerance at the pro-Israeli Museum of Tolerance in the US city of Los Angeles.
Moreover, Israeli newspapers reported that the Bahraini king had called for an end to the Arab boycott of Israel in comments to Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
