The Palestinian cause has historically been the main Arab political cause and it was supported by multiple different groups and ideological factions even the ones that opposed each other.

Saddam and Iran both hated each other but supported Palestine. Saudi Arabia and Iran hated each other but supported Palestine. Zionism was a no-go zone no matter which faction, group, or state you supported.

The Arab Spring, the Syrian Civil War, the 2016 Saudi executions and attack on the Saudi mission in Iran, the 2017 Qatar crisis all had major implications for Palestine. It shifted focus to new active ideological and geopolitical divisions

The Shia vs Sunni sectarian division was the biggest divide but the 2017 Qatar crisis was significant too. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt against Qatar. Turkey vs Saudi Arabia. This created multiple factions and helped create an overt Zionist constituency in the Arab world

There were some Zionist sympathizers before but nothing like the UAE Zionists who literally praise Netanyahu. The Qatar crisis also helped set the stage for the Abraham Accords. The UAE led an explicit Zionist bloc and worked with Trump to create an anti-Palestinian alliance

Saudi Arabia stayed out of the Abraham Accords and wanted more concessions to normalize relations with Israel but many Saudis had figured out the change in state policy and started promoting anti-Palestinian narratives to align themselves with Israel when the time comes

Palestine had lost active political support from many different factions and there were a lot of different anti-Palestinian narratives in the region. The popular opinion was still pro-Palestine although there was a decline in active support

The ideologically mobilized factions had different priorities. Many Sunni Islamists prioritized anti-Shia narratives, UAE nationalists promoted an explicit Zionist alliance. They portrayed Zionism as secular and anti-Zionism as Islamist

The UAE nationalists used anti-Turkey, anti-Iran, anti-Qatar narratives to support Zionism. Saudi nationalists embraced soft UAE nationalist narratives in anticipation of formal Saudi-Israeli normalization

The Abraham Accords were a historic low for the Palestinian cause even though the accords did not have popular support in the Arab world or even in the countries that signed it

Even Fatah opposed the accords. The UAE nationalists condemned Fatah. This is significant because the accords were a rebuke against the entire Palestinian nation and cause. Not just Hamas and the Palestinian resistance but also against the accommodationist Palestinian Authority

This is slightly more speculative although based on sources and the timeline makes sense. Hamas and the Palestinian resistance started planning militant operations just after the accords were signed. Hamas had tried diplomacy before and made offers for a 10 year truce

Of course Hamas had always supported armed resistance but the planning for this specific military operation likely started after the Abraham Accords isolated Palestine

The geopolitical environment in 2024 is different from what it was in 2016 or even 2020 The Al Ula summit in 2021 brought an end to the Saudi/UAE-Qatar crisis that began in 2017 The Iran-Saudi rapprochement in Beijing in 2023 ended the Saudi-Iran crisis that began in 2016

There was less active anti-Palestinian political activism in the Arab world in 2023 than there in 2020 even before the war. The Second October War has completely reshaped the predominant narratives and brought the Palestinian issue to center stage

*than there was in 2020