David Horovitz is the founding editor of the Times of Israel. It is that of “Still Life with Bombers” (2004) and “A Little Too Close to God” (2000), and co- of “Shalom Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin” (1996). In the past he edited the Jerusalem Post (2004-2011) and The Jerusalem Report (1998-2004).
Last time I checked, Israel had not provided general agreement on all facets of the Trump administration’s “Peace for Prosperity” proposal, but had accepted it, adding its conditional provisions to a Palestinian state, as a basis for negotiation. Abbas rejected the plan even before it was submitted, even though the Authority has been and is invited to submit the amendments and reservations it considers very important to its interests. This preventive stance echoed its custom in 2017, when the Palestinian Authority rejected U. S. President Donald Trump’s popularity of Jerusalem’s uns specified borders as israel’s capital and severed all ties with the administration, after negotiating his demands in the holy city.
Now, in fulminant opposition to the despicable United Arab Emirates and its appalling act of “treason,” even though the standardization agreement provided for the indefinite suspension of the unilateral Israeli annexation of 30% of the West Bank, Ramallah contacted the Arab League and the Organization of Islam. Cooperation for early support. And, at the time of writing, this has been reduced to nothing.
Jared Kushner publicly hopes that the 22 Arab states will eventually reach a peace agreement with Israel, noting Tuesday that “it makes sense for them to do so. “But Palestinians deceived through Abbas, one of the 22 Arab League states, best friends themselves with Iran, Turkey, Kuwait and, miserably, the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, on the extremist axis.
Interviewed in the UAE media during the holidays in Abu Dhabi, Kushner said he hoped it would only take “a few months” before the next Arab state followed the example of the United Arab Emirates. This moment is crucial: a rite of signature between Israel and the United Arab States. Emirates at the White House this month would give Trump a wonderful election boost. An avalanche of Arab states preparing to normalize with Israel on Sunday would justify Kushner saying that his father-in-law has been “writing a script for a new Middle East. “since his first foreign vacation as president in May 2017 for Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican.
Since this week, the Saudis have been repressing themselves, reaffirming their commitment to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative they formulated, but far from condemning the new normalization, as Abbas would have hoped, they were transparent to the United Arab Emirates and, through extension, to Israel.
On Monday, they legalized El Al LY971 to fly over its airspace, allegedly making an exception because Kushner and the U. S. delegation were on board. On Tuesday they let the same aircraft, Flight LY972, return in the same direction, even without the Y on Wednesday, announced that their airspace will now be open to “all the countries” they serve and from the United Arab Emirates, which Netanyahu understands means that flights from Israel can also take the lead when heading east , reducing flight times and airfares. Riyadh is certainly also doing its calculations for the US presidential election, perhaps wary of alienating President Joe Biden, but also wary of a conciliatory technique with Iran.
Trump’s first overseas vacation, forgotten, not only took him to Riyadh, Jerusalem and Rome, but also visited the Palestinian territories, reunited Abbas in Bethlehem on May 23, 2017 and insisted on the Israeli public, adding Netanyahu, on his last occasion here, a few hours later, that Abbas and the Palestinians “are in a position to achieve peace. . . I know you’ve heard that before. I’m telling you. That’s what I’m doing. They are in a position to achieve peace. »
On August 13 of this year, a few hours after the Israeli-Emir diplomatic bombing was delivered, Trump said the same thing: “I think the Palestinians . . . should be part of what we do . . . I see peace between Israel. “Palestinians. I see that’s happening. I believe that when these very large, hard and rich countries arrive, I think the Palestinians will follow them, of course.
For now, all the symptoms of resistance to such obvious logic are emerging. Driven across the United Arab Emirates to capture the moment, with the annexation on the table, and recommit, they make Abu Dhabi a new enemy and inspire boycott moves. Insured across the United States that Trump’s plan is not written in stone, they insist on treating it as if it were all an accomplished fact.
It is glorious that, a quarter of a century since our last agreement with Jordan in 1994, a filthy and wealthy Arab country has our third spouse for peace, and that others can stick, but the United Arab Emirates is three hours away. . . even about Saudi airspace. The Palestinians, who call the peacemakers traitors and align themselves with those who reject the region, are here. The entire “scenario for a new Middle East” cannot be completed without them.
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An earlier edition of the publisher’s memorandum was sent in ToI’s weekly update email to members of the Times of Israel network on Wednesday. To get those editor notes as soon as they are published, sign up for the ToI network here.