From the protest squares in the Lebanese northern city of Tripoli, the cleric Saleh Hamed moved to London to attend a meeting for a number of Arab thinkers who advocate the restoration of ties with the Zionist entity.

Boycotting ‘Israel’ is a failure, and has only helped that country while damaging Arab nations that have long shunned the Jewish state, NYT quoted a small new group of Arab thinkers from across the Middle East who are pushing to engage with ‘Israel’ on the alleged theory that it would aid their societies and further the Palestinian cause.

The New York Times added that the members praised Hamed who attended in spite of the possibility of reprisal upon his return.

“We do not deny the rights of the Jews to have a country,” Sheikh Hamed said, citing the Prophet Muhammad’s kindness toward Jews. But he was careful to add that the Palestinians “should have their lands according to the 1967 borders.”

The meeting was blasted by the head of the Palestinian mission in London who belittled the attendees as an “extreme fringe of isolated individuals.” From Tunisia, whose new president has called it treasonous to engage with Israel, he said, to Lebanon, where protesters are waving the Palestinian flag alongside their own, “the sentiment of the vast majority of the Arab world is going in the other direction.”

Source: Al-Manar Website and other websites