Remember "linkage"?
It was the opinion of supposed Middle East experts that all problems in the region could only be solved if Israel gave in to Palestinian demands for "peace."
Jimmy Carter said in 2006, "I don’t think it’s about a linkage policy, but a linkage fact. There is no doubt: The heart and mind of every Muslim is affected by whether or not the Israel-Palestine issue is dealt with fairly. ...Without doubt, the path to peace in the Middle East goes through Jerusalem."
Carter's National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski similarly said, “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the single most combustible and galvanizing issue in the Arab world.”
The idea lasted even into the 2010s, even as the Arab Spring and ISIS and the Syrian civil war erupted, with the New York Times keeping the flame alive: "While resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the magic bullet for the region that some once thought, it still resonates widely, whether among the crowds in Tahrir Square or the militants of Hezbollah, who cite Israel in rallying around President Bashar al-Assad of Syria."
The Palestinian leaders quickly realized that this false theory works to their advantage, as they would routinely say that if Israel doesn't give in to their demands, the entire Middle East would erupt into chaos and terrorism against the West would return. Mahmoud Abbas' spokesperson ludicrously claimed that ISIS would cease to exist if Israel just did what Palestinians demanded.
The Israel/UAE agreement has proven all of these theories wrong.
But the people who were so emotionally invested in making the Palestinians the center of the Middle East issue - giving them veto power over any peace plan, veto power they used liberally - now are turning linkage on its head. They still say that the Palestinian issue is the central issue, and therefore they are disappointed that the UAE doesn't agree with them!
This tweet by Human Rights Watch's Ken Roth epitomizes everything that is wrong with the "human rights community" and the far Left altogether:
All the kvelling about the Israeli-UAE flight does nothing to change the oppressive, discriminatory "one-state reality" for occupied Palestinians. Only equal rights will do that. https://t.co/3rI2KRiML0 pic.twitter.com/qSyvQMZs32
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) August 31, 2020
One would be forgiven if they thought this tweet came from the pseudo-Jews at IfNotNow. Roth uses the Yiddish word "kvell" as if to prove his Jewish bonafides before literally criticizing peace.
But look at what he is saying: that the moribund Palestinian issue is still the central issue in the region, and solving every other problem does not change that fact.
The discredited linkage theory has been turned on its head. Instead of claiming that the Palestinian issue is the key solving all Middle East problems, now the problem is in solving other Middle East problems without giving the Palestinians veto power over what Israel does with other Muslim states.
This makes it clear that even the people who pushed the linkage theory didn't believe it. They made it into a self-fulfilling prophecy because they opposed anything that showed it to be wrong.
This absurd formulation was repeated by another supposed expert, Aaron David Miller:
So far, however, the new accord has brought us no closer to serious negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, who accuse the UAE of betrayal for rewarding Israel without concern for Palestinian rights.
The "peace experts" are 100% wrong, just as they were during the "linkage" heyday. This accord does bring the Palestinians closer to the negotiating table because they can no longer rely on the automatic Arab support for their intransigence and refusal for peace.
The only people who don't see this fact are the ones who automatically blame Israel for the lack of a peace treaty with the Palestinians. But it was their own support for "linkage" that caused the Palestinians to refuse to seriously negotiate to begin with!
This is a new Middle East, and the people who preferred the old Middle East are having a bad day.