Jewish and pro-Israel groups lauded Morocco's announcement on Thursday it would normalize ties with Israel.
Noting Israel had signed four such deals in the past four months, Aaron Klein, strategic adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said, "The Teutonic plates are shifting."
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"The entire concept of peace that we are seeing unfold now between Israel and the UAE, between Israel and Bahrain, Israel and Sudan, now Israel and Morocco, a lot of this traces back to the Netanyahu Doctrine, peace through strength, peace in exchange for peace," Klein said, Thursday.
Hailing what he called "another outstanding accomplishment for the current administration," Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, a Jewish American advocacy group, said, "Normalizing ties with Israel is the new normal in the Middle East, which decades of expert commentary told us was the 'impossible dream.'"
He said that "instead of a cold détente attained via surrender to unreasonable demands, these new agreements promote true peace based upon common security needs and mutual medical, technological, and financial benefits."
In a statement, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said, "History has once again been made with the announcement that Israel and Morocco will normalize diplomatic relations."
American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris said, "Morocco's announcement is further affirmation of the growing recognition by Arab leaders that establishing relations with Israel will be mutually beneficial."
Republican Jewish Coalition national chairman and former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) called the announcement an "important step towards greater stability and peace in the region."
"Morocco and Israel have agreed to reopen their liaison offices, with the intention of opening embassies later. Official contacts, economic cooperation, and direct flights between the two countries will also commence," he said in a statement. "All of these steps – and we hope to see even more to follow Jewish, pro-Israel groups praise Morocco-Israel deal – will enhance the security and prosperity of both countries."
B'nai B'rith International CEO Daniel Mariaschin told JNS that "official ties between Morocco and Israel make sense for many reasons, not the least of which is the storied history of the Moroccan Jewish community, and its many contributions to life in Morocco and Israel. We want to recognize the important role played by the United States in bringing this about. This is yet another vital building block in bringing peace and stability to the Middle East and North Africa."
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Nathan Diament, executive director for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, told JNS that the latest agreement "will help unite nations in the Middle East region to deter Iran's aggression and improve Israel's security and economic bonds with its neighbors." He said his organization looks forward to more countries joining the expanding circle of "peace and security."
The agreement included the United States recognizing the disputed territory of Western Sahara as part of Morocco, becoming the only Western country to do so. The deal also includes agreeing to grant overflights and direct flights to and from Israel for all Israelis. Israel and Morocco also agreed to immediately open respective embassies in Rabat and Tel Aviv.
'A recognition of two historical realities'
"These landmark diplomatic agreements set the Middle East on a different path, where reconciliation replaces rejectionism, and old enemies become new friends," said a statement from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. "We salute the American, Israeli, and Moroccan diplomats who achieved this historic agreement, and we look forward to the exchange of ambassadors and embassies, economic cooperation, and greater cultural bonds between Israel and Morocco in the days ahead."
Christians United for Israel founder Pastor John Hagee said that "with each of these announcements, we get one step closer to true peace in the region. It is our sincere hope that the Palestinians see the benefit of ending their conflict with Israel and will one day soon choose to finally 'beat their swords into plowshares,'" citing a phrase from the Book of Isaiah.
Jason Guberman, American Sephardi Federation executive director, said there was not a political, but also historical significance to the development.
He said the announcement "is a recognition of two historical realities: the Kingdom of Morocco's territorial integrity, which includes sovereignty over the Moroccan Sahara, and the kingdom's independent leadership in forging a decades-old relationship with Israel."
He said Morocco agreeing to establish diplomatic, economic, and other ties with Israel "must be understood in its context," as "900,000 Moroccan-Sephardic Jews live in Israel and keep the sacred chords of memory with the kingdom alive through their traditional observances, building bridges with Moroccan Muslims and travels to Morocco."
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org
