Tel Aviv City Council is illuminated by the flags of the United Arab Emirates and Israel when countries announced that they will soon be identified as full diplomats on August 13, 2020.
Oded Balilty / AP
For the first time in more than 25 years, Israel can succeed in a historic diplomatic agreement with an Arab country. U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the close pact he helped negotiate.
CONNECTIONS: Israel’s hasty reopening serves as an uplifting narrative
Israel and the United Arab Emirates appear to be in a position to identify a complete normalization of relations. In this context, Israel has agreed to suspend annexation plans in the West Bank. But Palestinian leaders are not happy with what they see as a betrayal across some other Arab country.
Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and a recent prominent member of the Council on Foreign Relations, spoke to The World presenter Marco Werman about the ramifications.
Martin Indyk: Well, it’s a standardization agreement. I don’t think there’s a peace treaty to point out here. But the bottom line is that there will be a complete normalization of relationships. And that means ambassadors, embassies in capitals and building direct communication, adding direct flights and a number of other deals they seem to have in mind to negotiate. There is no formal confrontation between the United Arab Emirates and Israel to end. But the fact that an Arab state in the Gulf is fully normalizing its relations with Israel is a genuine breakthrough here.
Well, there’s been a lot of cooperation under the table, so to speak, for about 10 years, since Israel and the United Arab Emirates have developed a non-unusual interest in dealing with the risk they see in Iran. This has been reinforced in recent years through an unusual fear of Turkey. That’s what drives him. What is holding it back is the Arab consensus, so far, that normalization deserves not to take place, in the absence of progress, if not an agreement, between Israel and the Palestinians. Instead, what happened today was that he was shot down. In return for the absence of annexation, there would be a total standardization. Therefore, the United Arab Emirates can claim that it protects Palestinian interests from the annexation to which Netanyahu in the past made the decision to move forward.
Yes. And I can believe that Palestinians feel a sense of betrayal, but they deserve never to have been in the upper branch of this tree of contrary normalization. The most productive solution for them is the solution they have tried in the past, and they deserve to re-check, which is to deal directly with Israel. But I think that for some time now the Gulf Arabs, as we have noticed with Bahrain and Oman, who have already advanced in their relations with Israel in recent years, have felt that they deserve to stop maintaining their own relations. with Israel as a hostage to the Palestinians. And then, I think we can see others following in the footsteps of the Emirati, maybe Bahrain, maybe Oman. I don’t think about Saudi Arabia yet, but you never know.
Well, the timing is very political. Trump’s peace plan was going nowhere and the annexation had become politically tense. It was originally proposed through Trump to Netanyahu, to assist [the Israeli prime minister] in his re-election. But the Arab reaction to annexation, I think, has kept it all going. So I think [Trump] traded it this time for anything else. [As] I said, no annexation – in exchange for standardization. And then I think he’ll claim some credit for that. This does not resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This does not eliminate any of the risks Israel faces in the region. But this helps Israel’s relations with a vital Arab country in the Gulf. And that’s vital for Israel. And I think that’s vital to the UAE. In the end, I think it will be vital for peace [with the Palestinians].
This interview has been modified and condensed for clarity.
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