I have traveled to many world capitals as a journalist, covering Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's various foreign trips. I was with him at the White House when US President Donald Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and in other memorable occasions. But no journalist has had the opportunity to cover him sign a peace deal since he was reelected some 10 years ago.
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In fact, no reporter has ever been able to relay the words, "I have just witnessed two reconciliation deals being signed between Israel and two Arab countries," but that is exactly what I will report on Tuesday afternoon. So my departure to Washington is nothing short of thrilling.
There have been many tells over the past several years indicating something brewing between Israel and the Gulf states. Israeli ministers and athletes were welcomed to various events; there was Netanyahu's visit to Oman, and his repeated references to the emerging alliance between Israel and the moderate Arab states, and there were persistent reports on the alleged security cooperation between the two sides and mysterious flights back and forth. There was also Saudi Arabia granting overflight rights to Air India flights carrying Israelis from Tel Aviv to Delhi, and the unraveling of the Arab League, whose statements are echoed only by the Israel media.
But there is one thing that the Israeli media overlooked: the Gulf states have begun to warm up to the Jews even before they embraced Israel.
On January 1, 2017, Prince Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa, representing his father the King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, signed the Declaration for Worldwide Religious Tolerance alongside Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. This essentially signaled to the world that Bahrain was welcoming Jews with arms wide open.
Israeli reporters did not cover this too extensively because we make a clear distinction between our Israeli identity and our Jewish ethnic identity. Our Arab neighbors, and most of the world, don't see any such distinction. For them, Israel and the Jews are one and the same. So it is no coincidence that the Jewish communities in both the UAE and Bahrain have come out of the shadows in recent years. Rabbis have been allowed to conduct services openly, and kosher food has been presented without any qualms. In Saudi Arabia there is still no Jewish community and that is why peace is still farther away when it comes to Riyadh.
I experienced this new attitude toward Jews first hand when I arrived in Manama for the "Peace to Prosperity" workshop the Trump administration held to unveil the economic component of its peace plan. The Bahraini authorities allowed us, on the very same day that the workshop was held, to carry out prayer services in the tiny synagogue in the capital together with senior Trump officials.
The footage of then-Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt and others praying, with tallit and tefillin on them, along with other Israeli and Jewish reporters, made it all around the world. This was a clear signal that as far as the Bahrainis are concerned, the Jews are welcome there. With Jews from around the world welcome, it was just a matter of time before Jews from Israel would be invited. On Tuesday that time will have come.
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