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Friday, August 14, 2020

08/14 Links Pt1: Michael Oren: Stunning Israel-UAE deal upends the ‘rules’ about peace-making in Middle East; Norm Coleman: They told us the sky would fall if Trump stood by Israel. They were wrong.

From Ian:
Eli Lake: Why the UAE Chose to Normalize Relations With Israel
For the Gulf States in particular, normalization of ties with Israel has historically been tied to the full withdrawal of forces to the pre-1967 lines and recognition of a Palestinian State. These principles were affirmed almost two decades ago through something known as the Arab Peace Initiative. The UAE had previously endorsed that initiative. Now the UAE and Israel have agreed to sign agreements to establish reciprocal embassies in their countries without any agreement for Israel to remove its forces from the West Bank.

The UAE is not the first Arab country to formally recognize Israel. Egypt signed the Camp David Accords in 1979 in return for the Sinai, while Jordan signed its agreement in 1994 at the height of the Oslo Peace Process. It’s notable that the UAE has signed its agreement with Israel when there are no peace negotiations whatsoever.

And that is the most striking element of the normalization agreement. It reflects two realities of today’s Middle East: First, Israel and most Gulf states have been quietly cooperating for the past 20 years. The Israelis and the Emiratis in particular have shared intelligence and private diplomatic initiatives to roll back Iranian influence in the region.

The other important reality is that no one in the Middle East can say with a straight face that Israel is the source of the region’s instability. Experience is a cruel teacher. Israel had nothing to do with the collapse of the U.N.-recognized government in Yemen — the Iranian-supported Houthis did. Israel had nothing to do with the collapse of Syria — that was the fault of the country’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad. And Israel had nothing to do with the rise of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. In all of these cases, the regimes and groups most vocally opposed to Israel also served as the region’s chief arsonists.

This is something Arab leaders in the region understand better than many advocates for Palestinian sovereignty in the West. As Osama bin Laden once observed, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.” In assessing the region, the UAE’s leaders have seen one state thrive as its neighbors burned. They have chosen the strong horse.

Noah Rothman: There Is No Going Back
Indeed, even before the rise of The Squad and their allies, a contingent of progressive congressional Democrats sought to bar the disbursement of U.S. military aid to Israel under the guise that its treatment of Palestinians was “inconsistent with the values of the United States.” These lawmakers aren’t going out on a limb—they are responding to the demands of the Democratic base. In 2019, A Gallup survey found that, while most Americans maintained favorable views toward Israel, “liberal Democrats” had become more sympathetic toward Palestinians overall.

Joe Biden does not appear eager to cater to this wing of their party. He has said that he will preserve the U.S. embassy’s new home in Jerusalem. He would return to the Iran nuclear accords only if and when Iran is no longer in violation of its terms—an unlikely prospect. He has even praised, albeit obliquely, the work the Trump administration did to yield today’s achievement. “The UAE’s offer to publicly recognize the State of Israel is a welcome, brave, and badly-needed act of statesmanship,” Biden said in a statement. “A Biden-Harris Administration will seek to build on this progress and will challenge all the nations of the region to keep pace.”

Perhaps Joe Biden is friendlier to Israel than his party’s progressives, but these statements are not the product of an abiding affection for Israel. They are acknowledgments of the world as it is. There is no going back to the status quo circa 2015. The United States cannot abandon its strategic commitments to the region and its partners in pursuit of the fanciful idea that Iran will suddenly become a responsible actor, or that the Sunni states it is currently at war with by proxy will acquiesce to their own defeat. If he becomes America’s 46th president, Biden will have to govern—and preserving America’s interests in the Middle East involves maintaining its alliances and partnerships.

Biden’s left flank remains committed to the hidebound notion that Israel is the true obstacle to peace in the region, but the region itself has moved on. What seems to look like progress to progressives would, in fact, be regression.
Commentary Magazine Podcast: Living Through History
Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz, Noah Rothman

The historic announcement that Israel and the United Arab Emirates will pursue a peace accord reflects changing dynamics in the Middle East that the European and American left simply refuse to acknowledge. But there will be no turning the clock back.
Michael Oren: Stunning Israel-UAE deal upends the ‘rules’ about peace-making in Middle East
The impending peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is more than just a stunning diplomatic breakthrough. It represents a fundamental shift in the paradigm of peace-making.

For more than 50 years, that paradigm has been based on seemingly unassailable assumptions. The first of these was that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the core dispute in the Middle East. Resolve it, and peace would reign throughout the region. The premise was largely dispelled by the Arab Spring of 2011 and the subsequent civil wars in Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Yemen. Still, a large body of decision-makers, especially from Europe and the United States, continued to regard a solution to Israel-Palestine as the panacea for many, if not most, of the Middle East’s ills. Then-secretary of state John Kerry’s intense shuttle diplomacy, which paralleled the massacre of half a million Syrians in 2012-14, proceeded precisely on this assumption.

The next assumption was that core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was settlement-building in Judea/Samaria, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Freeze it and the dispute would be easily mediated. This, theory, too, collapsed in the face of facts. Israel withdrew from Gaza, uprooting 21 settlements, in 2005, and then froze settlements for much of 2009-10. The conflict nevertheless continued and even worsened, but that did not prevent foreign policymakers from persisting in the belief that peace is incompatible with settlements.

And, in addition to ceasing construction in the territories, Israel was expected to give virtually all of them up. This was the third assumption — that peace with the Arab world could only be purchased with Israeli concessions of land. This belief is as old as Israel itself. The first Anglo-American peace plans — Alpha and Gamma — were predicated on Israeli concessions in the Negev and elsewhere. After 1967, the principle applied to areas captured by Israel in the Six Day War and, after the return of Sinai to Egypt in 1982, to Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. The same secretary of state Kerry repeatedly warned Israel that failure to forfeit those areas would result in its total international isolation.

Yet another assumption held that “everyone knows what the final agreement looks like.” With minor modifications and territorial swaps, this meant that a Palestinian state would be created along the pre-1967 lines with a capital in East Jerusalem. The Palestinians would give up the so-called right of return for Palestinian refugees, agree to end the conflict with Israel and to cease all further claims, and to accept the formula of “two states for two peoples.” Israel, in turn, would remove dozens of settlements, redivide its capital, and outsource West Bank security either to the Palestinians or some international source. Of all the assumptions, this was the most divorced from reality. Not a single aspect of it was achievable. In fact, no one knew what final agreement looked like.
LIVE: Netanyahu Addresses Historic Israel-UAE 'Abraham Accord' Peace Deal




Rabbi Marc Schneier (Arabnews): The UAE and Israel agreement is only the tip of the iceberg
For years, I have heard from Gulf leaders about their desire to establish relations with Israel and it’s no secret that Israel was excited by the prospect as well. As news spread today about the UAE and Israel formally announcing the normalization of relations, many asked me why now and what do I predict will happen next? My answer is simple — this is just the beginning of normalization between Gulf states and Israel and, in fact, I will be so bold as to predict that at least one more Gulf state will establish diplomatic ties with Israel by the end of 2020.

There are a few main factors in the timing. First is the global pandemic. As I shared in my op-ed for Arab News in June, the Gulf states had a powerful incentive to work constructively with the State of Israel when it came to combatting COVID-19. Both the Gulf and Israel are deeply concerned about the disruptive impact of COVID-19 on their societies, and the Gulf is particularly concerned about the economic damage they have incurred due to the crash in the global price of oil. Given the high stakes, these countries are increasingly looking to Israel to help them find solutions. This public health crisis presented the perfect opportunity to transcend political differences and we saw that when UAE Ambassador to the UN Lana Zaki Nusseibeh told an Israeli journalist in May that her government would be willing to work with Israel on a vaccine. Shortly thereafter, the UAE worked directly with Israel to send two Etihad planes with medical supplies.

The other key factor is the increase in regional tensions with Iran. In many ways, this issue has been something both countries have faced for years, but they needed a catalyst to spark action; something that the more timely COVID-19 pandemic triggered. However, the UAE — and many of its neighbors — recognize that Israel could be a tremendous help there as well due to its mighty military.

By making this bold move, the UAE has paved the way for other Gulf states to establish relations with Israel. In the last three years, I’ve heard from three other Gulf states about their genuine desire to establish relations with Israel. They’ve shared, “Rabbi, with our resources and wealth and Israel’s brain trust and technological prowess and innovation, we can become the most powerful region in the world.” It was always a question of who would make this move first, but once the first Gulf state made this announcement, others said they would follow. Now that the UAE has made this announcement, we will see at least one more Gulf state establish diplomatic ties with Israel by the end of 2020.
David Horovitz: ‘Historic’ indeed: UAE ties mark Israel’s biggest diplomatic advance since 1994
Thursday’s announcement that Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to establish full diplomatic relations merits all the “historic” epithets with which it was unveiled in Washington by US President Donald Trump and greeted in Jerusalem by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel’s foundational desire to establish good relations with its neighbors, and its strategic interest in widening peaceful ties in the region, has for the first time yielded an accord-in-waiting with a non-adjacent Middle East state — an influential and technologically advanced regional player. And it holds the promise of further warming relations with others prepared to break the taboo on normalization.

It bolsters Israel’s existing peace partners, Egypt and Jordan. It constitutes a blow to Israel’s enemies, led by Iran.

And it postpones Netanyahu’s counter-productive promise of unilateral West Bank annexation.

Trump’s plan comes to life
The announcement marks a resounding success for the president and his administration, notably senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, seven months after Trump’s “Peace to Prosperity” vision for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement was unveiled at the White House.

The UAE, as was noted in the joint statement issued by Trump on behalf of the US, Israel and the UAE on Thursday, was present when that vision was unveiled. Now, Abu Dhabi’s agreement to ties with Israel gives the administration’s plan tangible resonance.

The breakthrough, as announced Thursday, includes an Israeli commitment to “suspend” Netanyahu’s oft-declared intention to begin annexing the 30 percent of the West Bank allocated to Israel in the Trump plan. Instead, the joint statement specifies, Israel will “focus its efforts now on expanding ties with other countries in the Arab and Muslim world.”

A Channel 12 report late Thursday suggested that a US, Israel, UAE signing ceremony, just a few weeks from now, might attract other regional participants newly prepared to publicly associate with Israel. Kushner, in a briefing, said further ties were now “more inevitable.”
A Historic Peace Treaty with the United Arab Emirates


From Mossad overtures to frenetic US diplomacy: How UAE deal reportedly happened
Mossad head Yossi Cohen made several clandestine trips to the UAE in the past year, and the Mossad arranged for secret shipments of medical equipment from Israel to the UAE after the onset of the pandemic, the Times reported.

Cohen has met often with representatives of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt in a years-long effort to build relations with the Gulf States, the Times said.

Channel 12 added that establishing relations with Arab states is considered the responsibility of the Mossad.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year announced his intention to annex the Jordan Valley — some 30 percent of the West Bank — and all settlements on July 1, with backing from US President Donald Trump’s administration. That angered and concerned the UAE which lambasted the move both publicly and privately, the Walla news site reported.

But the report said the matter ended up as an opportunity after Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to the US, proposed in late June the idea of normalization in exchange for halting annexation plans to Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, Avi Berkowitz.

Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner reportedly liked the idea and told Berkowitz to work on it, and on June 27 Berkowitz came to Israel and met three times with Netanyahu in as many days.
Israeli delegation said headed to UAE next week to move forward on deal
An Israeli delegation will travel to the United Arab Emirates early next week to meet with the Gulf state’s top leadership, according to a Friday report, a day after the two nations announced an agreement to normalize relations.

Channel 12 news said a senior Israeli official would lead the team, while the Ynet news site reported this would be Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, who is said to have led normalization efforts over the past year.

The Prime Minister’s office said that National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat would lead the preparations for the talks “in coordination with all the relevant parties.”

The statement gave no details on when the talks would take place or who would lead the delegation.

Some aspects of the normalization agreement may be signed during the visit, Channel 12 said. It also said the sides would schedule a meeting between the leaders of the two nations to take place within the next few weeks.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he believed a deal-signing ceremony at the White House could take place in about three weeks.

Meanwhile on Friday the UAE’s Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash said the positive reactions to the agreement from around the world were “encouraging.”
Vivian Bercovici: Bibi’s Back
“Peace for Peace,” Bibi repeated several times amid his brief remarks to the nation on Thursday evening.

Celebrating the announcement of the “full normalization” of relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel two hours earlier by President Donald Trump on Twitter, Netanyahu was downright giddy. “Together, we have a fantastic future,” he enthused, even lapsing from his customarily formal and polished delivery and laying on a little slang.

Benjamin Netanyahu, by any measure, is an extraordinarily accomplished, brilliant, polished, and unpredictable man. So many times, he has been at the brink of political destruction, and each resurrection is more astonishing than the last.

On Thursday morning, Netanyahu woke to a nation that was slaughtering him in the polls and beyond exasperated with his mismanagement of the Coronavirus crisis. The economic devastation in Israel is widespread and, likely, in the early days yet. His government was in danger of immediate collapse.

There’s no doubt that the truly historic agreement announced late Thursday afternoon, Israel time, had been in the works for some time, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that its announcement may have been pushed ahead a touch by the sharp-edged reality of Israeli politics.

It was important to all involved that it be announced and implemented on Netanyahu’s watch. For all its unpredictability, the Middle East craves and needs stability. A ground-breaking agreement and moment like this would be best served with the principals in power.

And now, the chances of Netanyahu becoming much more popular in Israel, overnight, are very real.
Trump’s Middle East Triumph
Today’s announcement demonstrates all of this. Where Obama cozied up to Iran and cooled towards Israel, President Trump has unabashedly supported Israel while confronting Iran. This peace agreement has come, not in spite of the U.S. moving its embassy to Jerusalem and killing Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, but precisely because of those moves. Israelis and more than a few Arabs have breathed an enormous sigh of relief at America’s renewed strength.

Consider the key concession Israel has made here: It has agreed to suspend its plan to summarily annex a significant fraction of the West Bank. If you look at the U.S.-sponsored peace plan from earlier this year, you will see that, in the case of a two-state solution, Israel would still maintain control of the border between the West Bank and Jordan. In other words, Palestinians in the West Bank would be surrounded by Israeli security forces, as they almost entirely are in Gaza.

The reason this is necessary is that, by turning Gaza into a platform for missile terrorism after the Israeli withdrawal in 2005, the Palestinians have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank would be suicide — unless it can control all of the West Bank’s borders. If you look carefully at the annexation plans that have been floated, they would leave Israel in permanent possession of virtually all of the West Bank’s frontiers with Jordan. Any crossings — the West Bank’s outlet to the world – would be under Israeli control.

There is another scenario, however. There is a possible future — though it may seem impossible to us today — in which Arabs stop hating Jews and lose interest in destroying Israel. In that future, Israel would have no more to fear from a free border between the West Bank and Jordan, or between Gaza and Egypt, then Sweden has to fear from its border with Finland. In that future, Palestinian Arabs live free and prosperous in and out of Israel. In that future, Iran has become democratic, or the threat from the mullahs has been diminished to the point where they can no longer support terror groups on Israel’s borders. In that future, Hamas and Hezbollah are isolated and wither.

In that future, Israel has full diplomatic relations with all of its neighbors, and no need to annex territory or control anybody’s borders or even continue its “occupation” of Palestinian areas. President Trump took a major step toward that future today. It is triumph for peace in the Middle East, and it will pay dividends for decades to come.
Sohrab Ahmari: Trump wins the Nobel Prize for Israel-UAE peace deal (not)
OSLO, December 10, 2020 — Fresh off a surprise ballot-box victory in November that stunned pundits and pollsters back home, and by turns baffled and enraged his Democratic opponents, a newly re-elected President Trump accepted the Nobel Peace Prize Thursday in the Norwegian capital.

The Norwegian Committee awarded the prize to the 45th president for his role in brokering the historic normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates in August — and, “more generally, for not launching idiotic invasions, not drawing the United States into bloody quagmires and not ponderously lecturing other countries about liberal democracy.” (The language of the award citation was unusually blunt; then again, these are unusual times.)

For his part, Trump used his ­Nobel Lecture to remind the gathered dignitaries that his “America First” posture — emphasizing national sovereignty and the well-being of the American working class — had paradoxically proved more conducive to stability and world peace than had the high-minded “democratization” and “liberal-world-order” vision that had long animated America’s post-Cold War strategy.

Without mentioning Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, Trump archly hinted that “some American leaders of the past” had made catastrophic mistakes that, among other things, “alienated reliable American allies, gave succor to our enemies and plunged much of the Middle East and North Africa into civil war and disorder.”

The “Arab Spring, mindlessly supported by many in the American elite,” Trump said, had ­“empowered radical nonstate ­actors like the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State” and ­resulted in the “utter decimation” of the region’s indigenous Christian communities.

He added that the “American opinion class had cheered the ­regional ferment from the safety of their luxe apartments in Dupont Circle and Midtown Manhattan, while millions of actual Middle Easterners had paid the price in the form of failed states, civil wars and the world’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.”
Norm Coleman: They told us the sky would fall if Trump stood by Israel. They were wrong.
Look up.

That’s right, look up. The sky is still there.

When President Donald Trump moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, the old-guard Washington foreign policy community said the sky would fall. When President Trump approved the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights to formalize Israel’s northern border, those same policy wonks ducked because they were sure the sky was falling. And, when President Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House to announce a “Vision for Peace” that would include the application of Israeli sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, the wonks were cowered in the basement, terrified of being hit by that falling sky.

The ambassadors of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman, who were in attendance, appeared to have no such fears. And not only will the sky not fall over the establishment of diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the region will now be more secure and more prosperous for everyone.

The wonks, perhaps, didn’t notice that while they were trying to hold back reality in hopes that the Palestinian Authority just needed more time, more money, and more Israeli concessions to become a contributing partner, and while they assumed a “two state solution” would have Iran-supported Hamas disappear, Israel and the Gulf Arab states were already moving forward. Together.

The driving factors for both parties include Iran, American elections, and Arab irritation with the two-headed Palestinian Authority-Hamas governments.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is under enormous financial pressure, thanks to President Trump’s “Maximum Pressure Campaign.” There has been substantially less money for Tehran to pay off its allies and Shiite militias in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza. Last week’s horrific explosion in Beirut simply compounded the difficulties for Iran’s Hezbollah proxy. And at home, angry Iranian citizens have been demanding more freedom and better services — including a better response to COVID-19. Demonstrators have chanted, “Not for Gaza, not for Lebanon — only for Iran.”

Under internal and external pressure, the government in Tehran may collapse or it may strike out at its neighbors, and it certainly will try to hang on until after the U.S. election in November. The mullahs hope that their preferred choice, a Democrat administration, will look for ways to bring Tehran back to negotiations and be willing to pay a high bribe to do it. That is, of course, how it worked in 2015 with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Jason Greenblatt to i24NEWS on Israel-UAE Historic Peace Deal


Emirate Jewish Community and Special Advisor to Bahrain King on Israel-UAE Peace Deal


Why the Israel-UAE Normalization Matters
We learned today that Israel is going to establish “full normalization of relations” with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Also, Israel will forgo its plans to annex parts of Judea and Samaria, in the West Bank.

These are two separate yet linked headlines. created by President Donald Trump. Israel and the UAE are bride and groom. Trump is the matchmaker. His achievement, and Israel’s, should not be dismissed.

Israel gained good relations with an Arab country. And by gaining it, it sends a message that cannot be lost on other countries: normalization is here, and those refusing to join in will be left behind. More specifically Israel, proves the point that time is on its side. It proves the point, made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu many years ago, that resolving the Palestinian issue is not the key to Middle East peace, or to normalizing relations with the Arab world.

Strategically speaking, it is a crucial message. Especially for those still stuck on the notion that the road to Baghdad goes through Ramallah, or some other version of this old, updated notion. Netanyahu proved his critics wrong. He does not move forward with resolving the Palestinian conflict and yet, he advances Israel’s relations with the Arab world.

For many months, annexation in Judea and Samaria was the big prize Israel was expecting. Annexation is controversial, and many have opposed it but it was the main diplomatic course the government was getting ready to follow.

The Trump administration got cold feet. Whether that is good or bad is up for debate, and Israelis will engage in that debate. But at some point Israel realized that annexation with Trump’s blessing was not happening. He and his staff should be praised for sensing that ditching annexation had a price tag; that the U.S. and Israel could use the threat of annexation to get something else in return.


Jewish, Pro-Israel Groups Welcome News of UAE Peace Deal
Jewish and pro-Israel groups praised on Thursday the news of the normalization deal reached between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations stated, “The Abraham Accord, as it is being called, is the most significant diplomatic development in the Middle East since the 1994 peace agreement between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In taking this historic step, the UAE is paving the way for additional Arab and Muslim states to normalize their ties with Israel, which can help transform the region and enhance the prospects for a true and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This agreement is a bulwark against the forces of extremism and radicalism in the region. ”

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee said, “The establishment of full diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE represents a historic breakthrough for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East. We greatly appreciate the efforts of President Trump and his administration in facilitating this major diplomatic achievement.”

“We applaud Israel and the UAE for their constructive and productive diplomacy in reaching this momentous agreement,” it added. “The UAE joins Egypt and Jordan in paving the path to peace through recognition and engagement rather than seeking to isolate and boycott the Jewish state.”

“With this announcement, Israel and the UAE are joining the United States in launching a Strategic Agenda for the Middle East to expand diplomatic, trade, and security cooperation,” AIPAC went on to say. “We urge other Arab states and the Palestinians to follow their lead. The Palestinian leadership, in particular, should end its boycott of Israel and America and return to the negotiating table.”

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder said, “The World Jewish Congress enthusiastically welcomes the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, a tremendous step forward for these states, the region, and the peace process. This is an historic moment, facilitated in great part by the Trump administration, that demonstrates that diplomacy and dialogue can lead to progress and cooperation.”




Obama Alums Lash Out After Trump Announces Israel-U.A.E Peace Deal
Prominent Democrats took to social media to lash out at President Donald Trump after Washington helped broker a historic peace deal normalizing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

The deal received high marks from national security experts—former White House Iran staffer and Foundation for Defense of Democracies adviser Rich Goldberg said it was "likely the greatest foreign policy achievement of any president in a generation." And national security adviser Robert O'Brien even suggested the deal should make Trump a front-runner for the Nobel Peace Prize.

But Democrats lamented the passage of the deal, which opens the door for formal channels of communication, bilateral security agreements, and future collaboration between the two countries.

For Obama alum and Iran deal mastermind Ben Rhodes, the deal was "dressed up as an election eve achievement from two leaders who want Trump to win."

"We won’t be fooled by another Trump/Netanyahu deal," Squad member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) said. "This Trump/Netanyahu deal will not alleviate Palestinian suffering—it will further normalize it."

Biden surrogate and Obama national security alum Ned Price accepted that the deal was a success, but qualified his praise. "This is a rare victory for Israel's long-term interests under Trump, who's done little but imperil them," he wrote.

Price, Rhodes, and other top Obama security staffers and Biden campaign advisers have often cried foul at President Trump’s close relationship with Israel, particularly so in 2017, when the White House moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.






Liberal Columnists Praise Trump’s Mideast Deal: ‘Huge Achievement’
Anti-Trump foreign policy pundits set aside partisanship and politics to praise the president’s new peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which was announced in the White House on Thursday morning.

Tom Friedman of the New York Times called the agreement a “geopolitical earthquake,” noting that it opened the door to future peace agreements and further isolated the Iranian regime, which had been waging terrorist wars across the region:

For once, I am going to agree with President Trump in his use of his favorite adjective: “huge.”

The agreement brokered by the Trump administration for the United Arab Emirates to establish full normalization of relations with Israel, in return for the Jewish state forgoing, for now, any annexation of the West Bank, was exactly what Trump said it was in his tweet: a “HUGE breakthrough.”
…
It was Trump’s peace plan drawn up by Jared Kushner, and their willingness to stick with it, that actually created the raw material for this breakthrough.
…
The U.A.E. and Israel and the U.S. on Thursday showed — at least for one brief shining moment — that the past does not always have to bury the future, that the haters and dividers don’t always have to win.

David Ignatius of the Washington Post — who once published information that led to former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn being fired and prosecuted — was similarly effusive, noting that Trump’s peace plan had notched a big win:




Who else deserves credit for UAE deal? Obama and the failed JCPOA
There are a lot of people who deserve credit for the peace deal that was announced Thursday in Washington between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

First and foremost are the leaders themselves – President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed. Then, there are the staffers and advisers who did the heavy lifting – Jared Kushner, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Special Envoy Avi Berkowitz, Israeli Ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer, head of the Mossad Yossi Cohen and UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba.

But there is one person who also deserves credit but was not mentioned in any of the speeches in Washington, Jerusalem or Abu Dhabi. His name – Barack Obama.

It was President Obama who helped bring Israel and the Gulf states together and it was Obama who helped set into motion the deal that was announced on Thursday. More specifically, it was his failed policy in the Middle East and his embrace of the regime in Iran – culminating in the 2015 nuclear deal – that helped push Israel and the moderate Gulf states together.

The reason is because when the Gulf states understood where the US was headed – toward Iran, and not away – they looked around to see who could be their ally (for intelligence, military and technological purposes) and saw only one country – Israel.

It was Israel which for the last 10 years has been waging a daily battle against Iran. It is Israel that fights Iran in Syria, in Gaza and in Lebanon and it is Israel that works covertly to stop Iran’s nuclear program. It is not the US, the UK or Russia. It is Israel.
Palestinians fume over Israel-UAE deal
Palestinians from across the political spectrum on Thursday strongly condemned the normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, dubbing it a betrayal of Arabs and Palestinians.

Many Palestinians and Arabs took to social media to express outrage over the agreement, with some calling it a “new nakba,” or catastrophe. They also used a variety of pejoratives against the Gulf state and its leaders, including the “United Zionist Emirate” and “dogs” and “traitors.” Others referred to the announcement as a “black Thursday for Arabs and Palestinians.”

Palestinian officials said they did not have prior knowledge of the agreement.

“Israel has annexed the United Arab Emirates instead of annexing the West Bank,” a senior Palestinian official told The Jerusalem Post. “This is a very dangerous development that requires a response not only from the Palestinians but the whole Arab world.”

The agreement was in violation of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which states that the Arab countries would establish normal relations with Israel only “in the context of a comprehensive peace and a full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967,” the officials said.

The Palestinian Authority announced on Wednesday night that it has decided to recall its ambassador to the United Arab Emirates in protest of the normalization agreement with Israel.
Palestinians on Temple Mount trample, set fire to picture of UAE leader
Palestinians taking part in Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem trampled and then set fire to a poster of the United Arab emirates leader to protest the normalization deal announced Thursday between Israel and the UAE.

The worshipers took turns stamping on the poster of UAE de-facto ruler Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in a sign of disrespect, while waving a Palestinian flag over it. They then tried to set the poster on fire.

The incident continued until Israeli policemen stepped in and took the poster away, while Palestinians chanted “Allahu Akbar.”

Palestinians also held protests against the deal in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In Nablus, in the northern West Bank, they burned posters of bin Zayed, US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israel-UAE Agreement: A Message to Iran, the Palestinians and Biden
The Israel-UAE agreement is extremely important. This is the third peace agreement between Israel and an Arab country. The other two were signed with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994). It will increase the prospects for peace, stability and prosperity in the Middle East. For several years Israel and several Gulf states have been closely collaborating mainly on security issues and under the table. Now, these relations are being opened and upgraded. People across much of the Sunni Muslim Arab world don’t perceive Israel anymore as an enemy, but rather as an ally. It will increase the legitimacy of Israel's existence as a Jewish state in the Middle East.

A combination of both threats and opportunities have pushed for the agreement. The threat both countries are facing is Iran's quest for hegemony and domination in the Middle East via violence, terrorism, military interventions, and nuclear weapons, from Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to Yemen. The Arab Gulf states are especially prone to the Iranians threats. The Israel-UAE alliance is expected to more effectively deal with Iran.

It also sends a message to Biden and the Democrats, who during the Obama years concluded a nuclear deal with Iran, viewed by Israel and the entire Sunni Arab world as weak and ineffective. Biden said he would restore the Obama approach and the Israel-UAE agreement is telling him to better consider the interests of American allies in the region.

Opportunists exist at the fields of technology and economics. Israel is a start-up nation and leading the world in innovation and advanced technologies and artificial intelligence in the fields of medicine, agriculture, solar energy and water desalinization, areas important for the Gulf states. The UAE is also seeking breakthroughs in these and other areas. The UAE has resources while Israel has the human power to promote innovation, sustainability and entrepreneurship.
Was COVID-19 a catalyst for Israel-UAE peace?
The COVID-19 global pandemic has infected more than 21 million people and killed more than 75,000. But did coronavirus help heal the Middle East?

“The Gulf and Israel have been working together to combat COVID-19, and if they continue to do so, they could be the region that finds the cure to benefit people around the world,” wrote Rabbi Marc Schneier only days before the announcement Thursday that Israel and the United Arab Emirates had agreed to full normalization of relations.

According to Schneier - an American rabbi and president of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding through which he has spent much time in the Gulf states, including in closed-door and strategic meetings with top officials - the last few months have brought with them “natural partnerships between Israel and its Gulf neighbors” as they each try to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus and reduce its tragic impact on their economies and citizens.

Schneier said that he has an expression: no tension, no deal - meaning that to make any deal in life there needs to be tension beforehand.
Already, before the virus, the Gulf states and Israel were both struggling with the ongoing existential threat created by the Iranian terror regime.

But in the last eight months, two new tensions came to the surface. The first is the tension over the controversy of annexation, which was brought about at the end of January through the historic “Deal of the Century” plan presented by US President Donald Trump.

A month later, the COVID-19 plague started infecting the world.
Erdogan: Turkey may suspend ties with UAE over Israel deal
President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey was considering closing its embassy in Abu Dhabi and suspending diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates over its accord to normalize ties with Israel.

Erdogan was speaking to reporters in Istanbul after the Turkish Foreign Ministry said history will never forgive the "hypocritical behavior" of the UAE in agreeing such a deal.

The Foreign Ministry said the Palestinian people and administration were right to react strongly against the agreement, which recasts the order of Middle East politics from the Palestinian issue to the fight against Iran.

"History and the conscience of the region's peoples will not forget and never forgive this hypocritical behavior of the UAE, betraying the Palestinian cause for the sake of its narrow interests," the ministry said in a statement.

"It is extremely worrying that the UAE should, with a unilateral action, try and do away with the (2002) Arab Peace Plan developed by the Arab League. It is not in the slightest credible that this three-way declaration should be presented as supporting the Palestinian cause."






Will Bahrain be next to normalize ties with Israel?
The Persian Gulf state of Bahrain on Thursday welcomed the historic peace deal reached between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, saying it raised chances of regional peace, state news agency BNA reported.

Bahrain praised the United States for its efforts towards securing the deal, which will see Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi forge full diplomatic ties.

The peace deal made the UAE the first Persian Gulf sheikdom to forge official diplomatic relations with Israel and the third Arab country overall to normalize relations with the Jewish state, following of Egypt and Jordan.

Manama's endorsement of the deal – and a remark by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner to reporters that "there is a chance" that another Arab state would sign a peace deal with Israel in the coming weeks – have prompted Arab media to report that the country in question is Bahrain.

The Palestinians, who lambasted the UAE's decision to strike peace with Israel as a "betrayal of the Palestinian cause," are said to be monitoring these developments with profound concern, as they fear the accords heralds more comprehensive rapprochement between Israel and the Gulf states.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi welcomed the peace treaty, saying, "I followed with interest and appreciation the joint statement between the United States, United Arab Emirates and Israel to halt the Israeli annexation of Palestinian lands and taking steps to bring peace in the Middle East.

"I value the efforts of those in charge of the deal to achieve prosperity and stability for our region."


UAE's burgeoning Jewish community hails 'historic' peace agreement
In the wake of Israel's historic peace treaty with the United Arab Emirates, Chabad Rabbi Levi Duchman, who serves as the rabbi in the Jewish community in Dubai, told Israel Hayom on Thursday: "We are extremely excited. This is a historic day for all people in the Middle East and for humanity at large."

"We built a Jewish community – we have Torah study, kashrut (observance of Jewish dietary laws), a community and strong support from the government. I'm not surprised that our leaders are so special. I believed this would happen," said Duchman. "The United Arab Emirates is a leader in all that is good for humanity. I believe that as a result of the peace agreement more Jews will join our community. We are prepared; the infrastructure is ready."

The Jewish community in the UAE consists of 2,000 people. Dubai's Jewish congregation operates out of an unmarked villa in an upscale neighborhood.

Though its members keep its precise location secret, the synagogue's existence and the tacit approval it has received from this Islamic sheikhdom represent a slow rebirth of a burgeoning Jewish community in the Persian Gulf, uprooted over the decades after the creation of Israel.

The UAE's rulers have sought to boost the community by hosting interfaith events and pledging to build a massive multi-faith complex that includes a synagogue, part of their efforts to burnish the country's image to the West.

Chief UAE Rabbi Yehuda Sarna told Al Arabiya English on Thursday that the peace agreement is forward-looking and the product of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan's vision.

"I believe that what we are observing is the unfolding of His Highness' vision of tolerance, synergy, and the fusion of past and future," said Sarna, adding that the country's Year of Tolerance last year, which welcomed Pope Francis to capital city Abu Dhabi, was one example.
Iran, Turkey excoriate UAE over peace deal with Israel
Iran and Turkey lashed out at their regional rival the United Arab Emirates on Friday over its decision to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel in a US-brokered deal, accusing it of betraying the Palestinian cause.

Iran's Foreign Ministry called the deal a "dagger that was unjustly struck by the UAE in the backs of the Palestinian people and all Muslims." Turkey said the peoples of the region "will never forget and will never forgive this hypocritical behavior" by the UAE.

The UAE, which has never fought Israel and has quietly been improving ties for years, said the agreement put a hold on Israel's plans to unilaterally annex parts of the occupied West Bank, which the Palestinians view as the heartland of their future state.

But the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the UAE had no authority to negotiate with Israel on behalf of the Palestinians or "to make concessions on matters vital to Palestine."

The agreement would make the UAE the first Gulf Arab state – and the third Arab country, after Egypt and Jordan – to have full diplomatic ties with Israel. The Palestinians say the deal amounts to "treason" and have called on Arab and Muslim countries to oppose it.
Erekat: I never expected this poison dagger to come from an Arab country
Israel’s agreement to establish diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates marks a watershed moment in its relations with Arab countries, but the Palestinians say it puts a just resolution of the Middle East conflict even farther out of reach.

The UAE presented its decision to upgrade longstanding ties to Israel as a way of encouraging peace efforts by taking Israel’s planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank off the table, something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly rebuffed by insisting the pause was “temporary.”

From the Palestinian perspective, the UAE not only failed to stop annexation, which would dash any remaining hopes of establishing a viable, independent state.

It also undermined an Arab consensus that recognition of Israel only come in return for concessions in peace talks — a rare source of leverage for the Palestinians.

“I never expected this poison dagger to come from an Arab country,” Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official and veteran negotiator said Friday. “You are rewarding aggression. … You have destroyed, with this move, any possibility of peace between Palestinians and Israelis.”
Erdogan says Turkey could suspend relations with UAE after Israel deal
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that his country could suspend diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates after a landmark deal between Israel and the Gulf state.

“I gave an order to the foreign minister. I said we could suspend diplomatic relations with the Abu Dhabi administration or withdraw our ambassador,” Erdogan told reporters.

In the deal announced on Thursday by the US, Israel pledged to suspend its planned annexation of parts of the West Bank in exchange for a normalization of ties with the UAE.

The Palestinian Authority on Thursday announced the “immediate” recall of its ambassador to the UAE in protest at the deal.

Erdogan is a strong advocate of the Palestinian cause who has frequently criticized Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, Turkey still maintains diplomatic ties with Israel.

Earlier this year he criticized Washington’s Middle East peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as “treason”.








Progressives: Peace Deal Between Israel and UAE Terrible for Middle East Peace (satire)
Once upon a time, prior to the advent of Twitter, any relationship between an Arab country and Israel would be cause for celebration, yet given the current climate in the Middle East, some are unsure of the normalizing of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

While the historic deal between Israel and the UAE was lauded by many as a historic accomplishment, there were some who were concerned that it would harm their personal beliefs about how reality ought to be. Meade Benjamin, who is a cofounder of Code Pink, says that the agreement between Israel and the UAE is a step in the wrong direction for the Middle East, and that “we’ll never have peace in the Middle East if they keep signing Peace agreements with Israel.” Code Pink is a progressive organization that seeks to support other peaceful movements in the region like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hamas, Hezbollah, and just random groups of men who enjoy getting together on Saturdays for those special weekend beatdowns on women and small children.

Also concerned about the prospects for another book deal and speaking tour is former Obama administration official Ben Rhodes, who noted, “I can’t be wrong, history is the problem”. Former Obama Secretary of State John Kerry, who once said that Israel would find itself further isolated and a Pariah state, was last heard crying into a pillow through his bedroom door and refusing to come out.

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