A major and positive political event in the Middle East has been drowned out today in Poland by reports of the horrors taking place in Belarus. But this is a real and enormous success for Jerusalem, Abu Dhabi but, above all, Donald Trump.
Israel and the United Arab Emirates have established diplomatic ties and Israel will postpone the annexation of the West Bank. This is a historic event for the Middle East.
This is an important day for Israel, but above all, this is a huge success for Trump.
Following the UAE’s example, other Arab countries will soon be likely to establish ties with Israel.
The main reason for the normalization of the relations between the Arab world and Israel is their common enemy — Iran.
The U.S. president announced today that the United Arab Emirates and Israel will soon sign a series of agreements that essentially constitute the third accord in the history of Israel peace agreements with the Arab world after the agreement with Egypt in the ’70s and with Jordan in the ’90s. At the same time, this will be the first Arab country to establish ties with Israel which does not border the Jewish state and as a result, has no direct, military reason to make a deal with it.
In exchange for establishing full diplomatic relations, Israel will, for the time being, suspend the declared annexation of the West Bank. The annexation plans announced some time ago enraged the Arab world and were condemned by the EU, among others, including Poland.
As good news from the world does not abound these days, we should relish the information that Trump has presented us with today.
First, this is a huge success for Israel which, since its inception, has been in a formal state of war with the majority of Arab countries. Establishing relations with the UAE could open the floodgates, and other Arab countries are likely to establish ties with Israel very soon.
This, of course, is profitable for both sides. For Israel, this means stability and a greater sense of security as well as the end to the fight with the Arab world for a position in the international community and over every decision of each of the international organizations, e.g., of the United Nations or even of the International Olympic Committee.
Establishing ties will allow both parties to open up to mutual investment. Arabs have plenty of money while Israel has perfected industry, especially high-tech. The combination of capital and new ideas is natural.
Primarily, Israel and the Arab countries can concentrate on the greatest threat to both sides: Iran. It’s not the Jewish state, but jostling Iranian Shia Muslims who keep the leaders of the Arab Sunni states awake at night.
Trump is another great winner in this event. Americans have prevented a diplomatic catastrophe that the annexation of the Western Bank by Israel would have caused, and at the same time, they have improved the security of Israel by convincing another Arab country to normalize its relations with Jerusalem.
The biggest losers are, of course, the Palestinians who have lost another ally in the Arab world. In truth, however, the leaders of the Arab countries have treated Palestinians as a bargaining chip in their relations with Israel, or worse, as a force that stood in for them in subsequent conflicts with Israel. After all, sending Palestinians to fight the Israeli army is much easier than sending your own troops.
Obviously, just like everything in the Middle East, the jigsaw puzzle announced today – establishing ties with the UAE in exchange for postponing annexation of the West Bank – is undoubtedly far more complicated. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have a lot of explaining to do to Israeli hawks on the right as to why this deal benefits Israel.
It is obvious that Trump will have to pay Netanyahu something in exchange for the opportunity to declare a real success for his administration. How, when and what will the price be? To find out, we will have to follow reports from the Middle East closely in the coming months.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.