THERE is a saying, that when Washington sneezes the whole world will catch a cold.

Ironically, it was China that sneezed first, in the form of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak that leads to a pandemic of COVID-19 on January 23, 2020.

In a year of near darurat (emergency), where the Malaysian economy contracted in the 2Q 2020 by 17.1 per cent (highest since 1998), with Indonesia, doing no better, given the growing proliferation of the epidemic of fear among Indonesian producers and consumers, therefore, jamming up the private sector investment and consumption.

Thus, it is the wrong time to work with Israel, let alone to acknowledge it as a state, when Israel has continued to betray and violate with intent and intensity all its human rights commitments towards the Palestinians.

As things are, it is not merely Malaysia that is against the deal to establish a diplomatic relationship with Tel Aviv but Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in Indonesia, which is perhaps the world's biggest Muslim NGO that holds moderate view on the need to keep politics and religion perpetually separate.

NU knows that the circumstances and the timing, even the most basic conditions currently, are inappropriate to grant Israel any diplomatic recognition.

Turkey, and Iran, are out-raged as well. The recognition of Israel does not attach any conditions on the lifting of the siege of West Bank or Gaza by Israel.

Nor does it stop Washington DC from moving its embassy back to Tel Aviv, instead of Jerusalem.

Assuming more Muslims are outraged, as more and more Muslim countries objects to the practice of UAE, surely there will be more rallies all across the Muslim world from Marakesh in Morrocco to Mindanao in the Philippines. What then?

First and foremost, the social / physical distancing that has been enforced by the likes of Malaysia, to keep the Malaysian and Muslim population from being sickened by Covid-19, will break down.

The Muslim world risks further exposure to the pandemic. The rallies, surely won't be virtual, but real. And, based on the cases in India, Latin America and North America alone, we have seen how infectious the virus of SARS Cov II can be. In fact, SARS Cov II are making a return in Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, indeed, even in Hong Kong, if not Japan too, all of which are countries/entities that were otherwise once considered safe but have now become vulnerable again.

Even New Zealand, after five weeks of seeing no cases, have begun to witness the return of some Covid-19 cases, which Prime Minister Jacinda Adern has had to admit on August 13 2020, after declaring two months ago that New Zealand was free of the dreaded disease, that New Zealand, which is entering a general election soon, has to be on full alert.

United Arab Emirates may have their own strategic calculations to work with Washington DC and Israel. Both countries may have made some break through in finding the vaccine of Covid-19.

United Arab Emirates, in order to gain the advantage of the best sciences of the US and Israel, may have decided to lower their risk barrier against Israel.

If such is their calculations, United Arab Emirates could equally work with Germany, France, Russia, Japan, indeed some 300 companies that are accelerating their efforts to find the cure, difficult as this endeavor may be. Indeed, as recent medical literature research suggests that most if not all vaccines will have a 90 per cent failure rate.

And, if 10 per cent happen to be successful, the vaccine may only be effective for a short duration of one to two years or less, before the whole world needs to be vaccinated with a second booster shot again.

Precisely due to the potential high failure rate, Bill Gates Foundation is sponsoring seven research trials, knowing 90 per cent of them may fail anyway. Be that as it may, if United Arab Emirates want sustainable access to any potential vaccines from the US and Israel, not all seven are necessarily beholden to Washington DC or Israel.

They are under no obligation not to assist (emphasis of the author) the United Arab Emirates, let alone the whole of the Muslim world. All said, the anger and emotions of the Muslim world right now, which is formed of some 57 countries, must not be further inflamed. They must remain calm, and focus on a two state solution, with Palestine and Israel existing side by side, not Palestine as a proverbial Baluchistan that is broken up into sheer ramparts.

Why is calmness more important than ever, though ? For what it is worth, the World Health Organization has postulated that the pandemic could be a gigantic global wave; that cannot be flattened in the near future. The United Nations itself has issued a warning that more states may go to war due to their adverse conditions battling all the attendant ramifications of Covid-19; potentially to avoid a direct handling of the public health crisis that has become more entrenched. Wars would be used an an excuse to avert the direct handling of Covid-19.

Thus, the Muslim world, or those supportive of the causes of the Palestinians, should not gather in mass rallies. If they do, they must do so with the necessary precautions on social distancing, and they must wear the proper masks. For what it is worth, even Israel itself, one might add, has been heavily hammered by Covid-19; as is the United States too.

These are two examples of why one should not be hasty in making any diplomatic moves in a perilous time, especially to recognise the weak government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which may collapse anyway, due to personal allegations of corruption, which he has vehemently denied. More importantly, Palestinians themselves, should not gather in large numbers.

Rather, they should urge their supporters across the world to stand in solidarity with them. Not by physically demonstrating without any precautions.

They should understand that in such a time of emergency, as is the pandemic, the Islamic jurisprudence of Islamic schools of thoughts do oblige all Muslims to protect their lives first, and that of others, based on the first priority of the Maqasid Al Shariah. As the Quran said, "To kill one is to kill the entire humanity, to save one is to save the whole of humanity too."


* Dr Rais Hussin is the president/CEO of EMIR Research, an independent think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research

* The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.