To grasp quickly the core of the Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates (UAE) accusations against Qatar, it is best to focus on the demand that the Aljazeera television, radio, and online network should be closed, along with half a dozen other media operations that Qatar initiated or funds. Aljazeera has become a proxy of sorts for all the things that the Saudi-Emirati camp fears will happen in the Arab region and inside their own borders — free flow of information, public debate of ideas, peaceful contestation among different social and political ideologies, all quarters of society holding each other accountable through constitutional means, and activist citizen organizations engaging each other and their governments in a public sphere.

The Saudi-Emirati demand to close Aljazeera mirrors the central modern Arab tradition since the 1950s of governments tightly controlling the flow of information and facts and the exchange of ideas in society. This has destroyed much of the human vitality and national integrity of many Arab societies, leading to the sad, violent state of our region today. It is no surprise that some Arab elites want to keep things this way; Aljazeera shows that the majority of Arab men and women want otherwise.