Yes, I'm jealous that I am not able to take part in a historic celebration that joins the country of which I am a citizen, Israel, to two countries to which I belong through language, ethnicity, and religion – the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Maybe it should have been held in Jerusalem, the most important city to the three Abrahamic religions, and the city that symbolizes peace?
No big deal, peace can come out of Washington, too, with all the joy and rejoicing.
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The signing of the agreement between Israel, the security, technology, and science superpower, and the two most advanced countries in the world in terms of technology and economy – Bahrain and the UAE – is a major event, but no less important, it is an enormous change in the relations between the Jewish people and the Arab peoples.
I can feel this change in conversations I have with activists and public leaders in our two new friends. We can assume that if it hadn't been for coronavirus, we would already be seeing them in Israel, and Israelis being hosted there.
There is no doubt that one of the motives for this agreement is the ayatollah regime in Iran, whose activity in the Middle East these past two decades has posed actual danger to many countries and a number of Arab peoples – in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, for example. Iran's insistence on securing non-conventional weapons is proof of its aspirations of expanding and creating destruction.
The leaders of the UAE and Bahrain did well to join, if indirectly, the efforts to build a united front, especially in the Persian Gulf, and thereby help check the dangerous, totalitarian Iranian regime.
The two deals are also proof that Arab countries already have their own independent positions that are unrelated to the general Arab stance, both when it comes to Israel and when it comes to domestic Arab issues. These two countries acted courageously in deciding to launch full relations with Israel and not continue secret ties through third parties.
The argument that the deal between Israel and Bahrain and the UAE neglects the Palestinian issue is not only incorrect, it wrongs the Palestinian people. The Palestinian leadership, which has been divided for nearly two decades, knew that it was possible to make peace and could have turned the crisis into an opportunity for leverage on Israel as part of the agreement, even without being a signatory.
The fatal mistake that the Palestinian leadership, and incidentally the Arab leadership in Israel, is making is to take a public stance opposing the leaders of the UAE and Bahrain in a manner that allows for a wave of aggressive discourse about the Bahraini and Emirati peoples. This is raw material for hatred that decrease any possibility of aid and support for the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip, not to mention the real danger to the Palestinian communities in those two countries. We saw the same thing during the Gulf War, when Palestinians were deported from Kuwait because of the PLO's support for Iraq.
But there is room for optimism: in conditions of peace and mutual trust, it will be possible to jump back on the peace wagon. Sooner or later, the tsunami of peace will wash over Ramallah, too.
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