PHOTO ABIR SULTAN / POOL THROUGH THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that full diplomacy would be established with the United Arab Emirates at a press convention in Jerusalem today.
JERUSALEM – Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced that they are building full diplomatic relations as a component of a US-negotiated agreement that forced Israel to finalize their questionable plan to annex the occupied West Bank lands sought by the Palestinians.
The historic agreement was a key foreign policy victory for President Donald Trump as he sought re-election and reflected a conversioned Middle East in which shared considerations about Iran’s arch-enemy far outweighed classic Arabic for Palestinians.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the agreement amounted to a “betrayal” and would be rescied.
The agreement makes the United Arab Emirates the third Arab country, after Egypt and Jordan, to have complete diplomacy with Israel. They announced this in a joint statement, saying that agreements were expected between Israel and the United Arab Emirates in the coming weeks in areas such as tourism, direct flights and embassies.
Trump the deal is a “truly historic moment.”
“Now that the ice has been broken, I hope that more Arab and Muslim countries will stay in the United Arab Emirates,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
At a televised national conference, Netanyahu echoed Trump’s comments.
“Today we are us ushering in a new era of peace between Israel and the Arab world,” he said. “There is a possibility that we will soon see more Arab countries join this expanding circle of peace.”
But Netanyahu said the annexation plan was “temporarily suspended,” apparently contradicting statements by Emirati officials who said he was not on the table.
Emirati officials described the agreement in pragmatic terms. Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati official, said they had dealt a “deadly coup” to a competitive Israeli initiative and hopes to reshape the area.
“Is it the best? Nothing is the best in a very complicated region,” Gargash added. “But I think we use our political records well.”
Omar Ghobash, Deputy Minister of Culture and Public Diplomacy, told The Associated Press: “I don’t think anything was written in stone. We’re opening a door. We hope that the Israelis will see the benefits of this step.”
“I think they’re political maneuvers in a very complex political society,” he added.
Israel and the United Arab Emirates have no percentage borders and have never made war. But the United Arab Emirates, at the top of the Arab countries, has long rejected diplomatic relations with Israel in the absence of a peace agreement with a Palestinian state on lands captured through Israel in 1967.
However, this steadfastness for the Palestinians has begun to weaken in recent years, largely due to shared hostility towards Iran and Iranian representatives in the region. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the daily leader of the United Arab Emirates, also accumulates Israel’s distrust of Islamist teams such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the ruling militant hamas organization in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu has long boasted of fostering closer behind-the-scenes ties with Arab countries than is publicly acknowledged. The United Arab Emirates has kept few secrets about these nascent ties, allowing Israeli entrepreneurs to enter the country with foreign passports and welcoming Israeli officials and sports personalities. Next year, Israel will participate in the delayed Expo 2020 of the United Arab Emirates, with the global fair to be held in Dubai. A secret synagogue also attracts practicing Jews to Dubai.
However, the timing of the agreement was unforeseen and, in all likelihood, similar to the next US election.
For Trump, he has given a primary touch to a president lagging behind in opinion polls and facing strong complaints about his handling of the coronavirus crisis. It is also a rare achievement for his Middle Eastern team, led by Councilman and eler-law Jared Kushner, whose plan for the Middle East has made little progress since it was unveiled this year.
Israel and the United Arab Emirates are among the few foreign allies close to Trump, and today’s agreement would possibly have been felt as an election gift.
Israeli-American Joel Rosenberg, who met with the crown prince in 2018 along with other evangelical Christians, said the announcement could influence a devout electorate who might “have difficulty deciding” between Trump and so-called Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
Today’s deal provides “the sense that this is historic” and a replacement for Trump to “have a number of moments in the coming months.”
In a statement, Biden praised Israel for freezing the annexation plan.
“The United Arab Emirates and Israel have led towards a stronger, nonviolent Middle East,” he said, adding that a Biden presidency “will seek to build on this progress.”
Netanyahu won a diplomatic victory at a time when his fragile coalition government has been affected by infighting and facing the consequences of early elections. He also faces a corruption trial for fees stemming from a series of scandals.
But even he welcomed the deal.
Netanyahu has noticed its popularity plummeting as the country grapps with a new coronavirus outbreak, street protests and an increase in unemployment following past lockout measures.
For the United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai dotted with skyscrapers and Abu Dhabi’s rolling oil-rich sand dunes, they are honing their crusade abroad to be noticed as a beacon of tolerance in the Middle East, even if they are ruled by autocratic leaders. It is also the stigma related to Israel’s popularity and can open the door for neighboring countries to keep up.
The Gulf of Bahrain State welcomed the agreement.
Overall, Netanyahu paid a lower price. Although the long-awaited annexation plan is pending, a prestigious half-century quo is maintained in which Israel maintains its West Bank profession and continues to expand its dozens of settlements while Palestinians live in small autonomous enclaves. These settlements are now home to some 500,000 Israelis.
Palestinians claim that the entire West Bank, captured by the 1967 Middle East war, is the center of a long-term state. Trump’s Middle East plan envisages granting Israel permanent control of 30% of this territory, while providing Palestinians with limited autonomy in the rest. After adopting the plan, Netanyahu resigned from moving forward with last month’s annexation in the face of fierce foreign opposition and reluctance of White House officials.
Palestinians rejected Trump’s Middle East plan from the beginning.
Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, convened an assembly of its top high-ranking leaders tonight, and then his spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said the deal amounted to a “betrayal.” He added that the United Arab Emirates opposed the resolution and suggested that other Arab countries not adhere to demand “at the expense of Palestinian rights.”
The official Palestinian news firm WAFA said the Palestinian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates recalled.
In the face of Palestinian criticism, OFFICIALS in the United Arab Emirates said the agreement had avoided annexation and maintained the hopes of a Palestinian state.
“The United Arab Emirates is its gravity and the promise of an appointment to unscrew a time bomb that threatens a two-state solution,” Gargash said.
Israeli extremists have accused Netanyahu of not having the opportunity to annex parts of Israel’s biblical land. Naftali Bennett, a pro-colon lawmaker, welcomed the agreement but said it was “tragic that Netanyahu did not capture the moment.”
Netanyahu insisted that “there are no changes” to his annexation plans. He said Israel would “wait temporarily” at Trump’s request.
Still, Netanyahu can simply make both his bets before an imaginable replacement of the White House. Biden has made it clear that he will oppose any annexation.
Yoel Guzansky, principal investigator at tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, said the agreement would consolidate Netanyahu’s legacy among Israel’s most sensitive leaders.
“There is Rabin with Jordan, starting with Egypt,” he said, referring to the ministers who concluded The Other Israel Peace Accords. “Now there’s Benjamin Netanyahu. It’ll be in the history books.”
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