The United Arab Emirates made a brave, important decision when it opted to normalize relations with Israel without waiting for us to make peace with the Palestinians. The Emirati decision this past weekend to end its boycott of Israel, which was made by acting leader of the UAE Sheikh Mohammed Ben Zayed, is especially important, and we can hope that other Arab states will do the same, whether they establish diplomatic ties with or wait.
The fact that the Arab world didn't attack the Emirates and responded with a mix of support and silence is encouraging. Apparently, they learned from bitter experience after the boycott of Egypt after Cairo signed a peace treaty with Israel 40 years ago. The two Muslim states that criticized the UAE most harshly were non-Arab countries: Iran and Turkey (which does have diplomatic relations with us).
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The El Al flight that takes off today for Abu Dhabi is not some minor event, and even it's true that Israel and the Emirates have maintained business and defense ties for decades, secret relations cannot be compared to open diplomatic relations. It's day and night.
In 1994-95, after the Oslo Accords, we went to the Gulf States and North Africa and opened diplomatic missions in several countries, where Israeli representatives filled the role of ambassador. Back then, we hoped that as a result of the annual economic conferences in which Israel took part, and as negotiations with the Palestinians progressed, that soon the missions would become official embassies and we would be able to normalize with pragmatic Arab states. But that window of opportunity closed when Israel changed its policy on the Palestinian issue at the start of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first term. What the prime minister is doing today, with help from the Trump administration, rectifies what he ended 25 years ago, and this is a good thing.
But we have to remember that the UAE deal is no substitute for peace with the Palestinians. If we don't hurry up and draw a border between Israel and a future Palestinian state, the current situation – regardless of the welcome normalization with some of the Arab world – will turn into a one-state reality in which a minority will rule over the majority and that, heaven forbid, would be the end of the Zionist dream.
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