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The flight brought hope for closer ties between Israel and the Arab world and a diplomatic delegation, President Trump’s law-and-law, Jared Kushner.
By David M. Halbfinger
JERUSALEM – A plane chartered by El Al with Israeli and U.S. diplomats landed in the United Arab Emirates at 3:38 pm local time on Monday, the final touch of a first symbolic direct flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi that authorities said would pave the way.for formal diplomatic and industrial relations and may simply motivate other Arab nations to adhere to the normalization of relations with the Jewish state.
Israeli and U.S. delegations, led by Jared Kushner for Trump’s management, and Israel’s national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat arrived in Abu Dhabi for a day and part of what has been described as “professional” meetings with opposing Emirati numbers on issues such as health, industry and security.
But the essence of these encounters is secondary, and not closely, to the Israeli jet show El Al on the Abu Dhabi track.The aircraft carried the flags of the 3 nations and, with “peace” newly inscribed on the pilot’s orientation window.in English, Hebrew and Arabic, it served as a backdrop when a group of Israeli diplomats descended on an Emirati red carpet, with Emirati television broadcasting the contest live.
On his way home, Mr. Ben-Shabat, who wore a kipá and spoke Arabic fluently.”I am proud and very pleased to be here as head of the Israeli delegation,” he said.”We arrived here to convert the No limits to cooperation that we can expand in the fields of science, innovation, tourism, aviation, agriculture, energy and many other fields.
And Kushner, who led the Trump administration’s diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, said he had “asked pilots to fly faster, because there is a wonderful urgency between the peoples of both countries to break the old barriers, to meet others, to form new, hopefully, very deep friendships.
The 3-hour, 20-minute flight from Ben-Gurion Airport, with flight number LY971, a nod to the Emirati country code, marked another vital first: about an hour, the pilot announced that the plane had entered Saudi airspace.While Saudi Arabia has allowed Air India aircraft to use their airspace to succeed in Israel, officials said it was the first time it had explicitly allowed an Israeli advertising aircraft to cross its skies.
Avoiding Saudi airspace would have meant about seven hours of flight time, said Captain Tal Becker, who had the honor of making history as El Al’s most experienced pilot.
Although he took a stand in the Emirates, the message sent through Israeli and American officials was addressed to the Palestinians.
“The very few who have criticized this peace agreement,” Kushner said in Abu Dhabi, “are those who have long reveled in failure and trapping their own companions in anguish and poverty.However, they exploit power to poder.su rhetoric has become tired and the region is loose.
He added that “the Middle East is full of other brilliant, hard-working, tolerant and cutting-edge people and the long term belongs to them.”
Similarly, on Sunday, together with Kushner and U.S. national security adviser Robert O’Brien, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the ongoing agreement with the United Arab Emirates.”veto” Israel’s efforts to gain acceptance in the region.
“As more and more Arab and Muslim countries enter the circle of peace, the Palestinians will still perceive that their veto has dissipated and that they will find it difficult to stay out of the peace community,” he said.Netanyahu.
While Hamas, the militant organization running the Gaza Strip, condemned Monday’s flight, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh expressed his objections more with anger.
The El Al plane for the Abu Dhabi race, a 737-900 equipped with a missile defense formula, is named after Kiryat Gat, a city in southern Israel that was built in part in the Arab village of Fallujah, home to several thousand Egyptian infantrymen.surrounded in 1948 by the Israeli War of Independence.
In a weekly cabinet assembly in Ramallah, Shtayyeh alluded to this story: “We are deeply saddened to see an Israeli plane called Kiryat Gat, the agreement that was built on the lands of Fallujah, where Gamal Abdel Nasser bese, land in the Emirates., in a transparent and shameful violation of the Arab position on the Arab-Israeli conflict.”He said.
“We wanted an Emirati aircraft to land with its passengers in liberated Jerusalem, but we live in the difficult Arab era,” he added.Shtayyeh.
The Israeli-Emirati agreement, which is expected to be concluded in Washington in the coming weeks, received more with interest than with jubilation among Israelis, who are more involved with the spread of coronavirus and its battered economy than with the option of visiting Abu Dhabi.in a pandemic-free future.
Announced on August 13, he gave Netanyahu an elegant exit from his impeding effort to annex the West Bank territory that Palestinians need for a long-term state, gave the Emirati the opportunity to achieve his reputation in the West that has engaged in conflicts in Yemen and Libya, and gave President Trump a victory forged in foreign policy amid a complicated re-election campaign.
He also exposed a dating that is one of the less guarded secrets of the Middle East, with the United Arab Emirates and Israelis who have long cooperated on national security issues, that is, to confront their unusual adversary, Iran.
But the American impulse that accompanied it to sell the F-35 poaching to the Emirati, who for years pressed to buy it in vain, provoked consternation in Israel over the prospect of radically changing the balance of the army in the Middle East and weakening Israel’s strong advantage.
Kushner said he expected Trump and Trump. Netanyahu are discussing the F-35, but said Netanyahu “has complete confidence and trust that President Trump will do the right thing: with Israel, to make sure that he extra strengthens the defensive dating that we maintain.
Adam Rasgon contributed to Tel Aviv and Mohammed Najib from Ramallah, West Bank.
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