"This is a great turning point in the history of Israel and in the history of the Middle East. It will have a great and positive effect on every citizen of Israel. I also promise you, according to what I see here, that additional countries are on the way," Netanyahu added.

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The prime minister said that even as he was involved in this "important diplomatic work," he was keeping in mind that "these are difficult days for us all" and he had spoken with Finance Minister Israel Katz and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein.

"We will continue to work together for you, citizens of Israel, so that we might overcome the coronavirus and also bring peace," the prime minister said.

Earlier Monday, a member of the prime minister's entourage touched on the fact that the details of the agreement had  yet to be made public, saying, "There is a great deal of sensitivity surrounding the ceremony and the details of the agreements that will be signed [Tuesday] at the White House, so at this stage, we cannot volunteer information."

The official did say that the deals Israel is about to sign with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain would be significantly different.

"With the Emirates, Israel will sign a peace agreement, as well as the detailed declaration of peace that was announced a month ago. With Bahrain, a 'declaration of peace' will be signed, because the announcement was made only a few days ago," he explained.

Another high-ranking Israeli official added that because normalization was a "complicated" process involving four countries, the details had not yet been finalized, even with only 24 hours left.

"We have never seen two states sign a peace deal with Israel at the same time. It's exciting for them and for us. But because we're talking about four sides, it is highly sensitive and the details still haven't been made public," the official said, pointing out that it is not unusual for the details of peace agreements to be published only after the deal is inked.

Officials who travelled to Washington with Netanyahu denied on Monday claims by Meretz chairman Nitzan Horowitz that Israel had promised to freeze settlement construction as one of the terms of the deals with Bahrain and the UAE.

Horowitz tweeted on Monday: "Not only the deal for [F35] planes and a cancellation of the annexation. In the deal with the Gulf states, Netanyahu has also agreed to freeze settlement construction."

According to Horowitz, no matter how much Netanyahu might "deny the cancellation of annexation and the plane scandal, calling it 'peace for peace,' that is the agreement given to the Americans and the Gulf states. Which proves how critical the Palestinian issue is to any diplomatic progress."

One of the officials in Washington with Netanyahu said, "As a politician, Horowitz has even worse sources than he had as a journalist."

According to the current schedule for Tuesday's historic peace signing, Netanyahu is due to arrive at the White House at 11:15 a.m. EST (6:15 p.m. Israel time). He will meet US President Donald Trump at 11:20 a.m. (6:20 p.m. Israel time). The deals will be inked at 12 p.m. EST (7 p.m. in Israel), to be followed by joint statements.

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The list is to be submitted to the United States government, which is expected to approve the sale of F35 fighter jets and other advanced military technology to the United Arab Emirates under the Israel-UAE normalization deal.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to broach the subject in an upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Israeli officials are worried about the US selling advanced military technology to the Emiratis, particularly the F35 stealth fighter, which thus far has been used in the Middle East only by Israel. The concern is not that the Emiratis would employ the aircraft, as well as other military technology they are slated to receive, against Israel, but rather that the sale of the F35 to the UAE will spark a Middle East arms race that would lessen Israel's qualitative strategic advantage.

Another concern, which is not being publicly voiced, is that a different government could take power in the Emirates or other Gulf states.

"Right now, we are benefitting from the winds of peace, but we live in an unstable region in which the winds can change quickly," said a senior defense official involved in these developments. "Therefore, we always take care to be at least one step ahead of all the other countries in the region, and preferably, more than that."

However, Israel understands that Washington is determined to sell the F35 to the Emiratis, and possibly to Saudi Arabia at some point in the future. Given that, recent weeks have seen a round of meetings and consultations that resulted in a decision not to "sit by" but to take action to ensure that Israel's retains its strategic advantage.

The defense official said the matter had already come up in meetings between high-ranking Israeli and American officials. A number of American officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have made statements affirming the US commitment to Israel retaining its strategic advantage in the Middle East.

The leader of the IDF team is head of the Force Design Directorate, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, and includes senior commanders from a few IDF branches, with special emphasis on the Israeli Air Force. Bar himself is an IAF man and considered a leading candidate for the top IAF position when Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin's term is over.

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So what does Israel plan to ask for? An idea was floated to request F22 aircraft, but tossed because of the planes' high cost and expensive maintenance. The team is now looking into asking the Americans to approve the supply of advanced weapons systems to Israel, and move up the delivery date on which various other defense requests from Israel were due to be delivered, including fuel aircraft, V-22 Osprey helicopters, and another squadron of fighter planes, most likely F15s.

Until the list is finalized, it will not be approved by the political leadership. However, Netanyahu, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochaci have approved the work of the team itself and the general direction it is taking.

The official who spoke to Israel Hayom said that during Netanyahu's meetings with Trump, he would bring up the subject and that some of the subjects could be moved forward at a later date.

Meanwhile, Congressional Democrats have called on Trump to ensure Israel's Qualitative Military Edge (QME) in any weapons sales to the United Arab Emirates.

The letter from nine congressional Democrats makes the legal and foreign-policy arguments for maintaining Israel's QME and reminds the administration that Congress must approve any pending arms sales that could have a detrimental effect on Israel's security.

"While we celebrate the recent agreement brokered between Israel and the UAE, and resolutely want it to succeed, we have to also ensure that Israel maintains its QME," the Democrats said.

"We must, therefore, carefully scrutinize any proposed sale of advanced military technology like the F-35 to any nation in the region and make certain that we will continue to fulfill our legal and strategic QME commitment to Israel's basic security needs," they wrote.

"This is especially troubling given the years of opposition to such a sale by the Israeli national security community, including strenuous opposition voiced recently by both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz."

The letter was signed by Reps. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Ted Lieu (R-Calif.), Elaine Luria (D-Va.), Max Rose (D-NY), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.).

Part of this article was reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Well, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

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Let's start with a little background. The American weapons industry is one of the strongest, richest, and most powerful lobbies in the world. It is so strong that American administrations are afraid of it, and cover up its failures. Because it is so critical to the US economy, presidents and legislators have always helped sell advanced weaponry to the world, including Arab countries. Israel has objected, to no avail.

In 1980, for example, the US sold Egypt the F-16 fighter jet, the most advanced in the world at the time. Egypt was our biggest enemy. Only seven years earlier, in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, it had done serious damage to our air force. Israel had signed a peace treaty with Egypt only a year before the sale, and it hadn't even been implemented. Still, it was clear to leaders in Israel and Washington that the risk – which was much greater than the case of the UAE – was worth it. So what is all the current fuss about?

Let's move on. Saudi Arabia, which is even closer geographically to Israel than the UAE is, has been operating F-15s for 40 years already, even though the Saudis led the vanguard of hatred for Israel in the Arab world. Israel knew about those planes and ignored them because there was nothing to be done. None of the people clutching their pearls now expressed any worry about the Saudi planes back then.

Again, in the 1980s, the US sold Saudi Arabia its AWACS early warning aircraft. With our supporters in Washington, Israel campaigned to stop the deal but failed miserably. Not only did the Saudis receive the aircraft, which controls the skies of the Middle East, but Israel – who had also requested it – was turned down. Where were commentators Nahum Barnea and Amnon Abramovich?

And now we arrive at the present day. While it was still in the design stage, the US intends to export the F-35 around the world. Thus far, it has been sold to many of the US's friends, such as Turkey. It was former President Barack Obama who approved the sale of the little stealth fighter to the sultan. President Trump, who along with Netanyahu is being accused of being so greedy that he is willing to sell off Israel's security, stopped continued sales of the F-35 to Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was also buying S-400 missiles from Russia. We're lucky that only four of the F-35s out of the planned 120 were actually delivered to Turkey.

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The fuss over the sale of the planes to the UAE? The bottom line is that the US hasn't even decided whether or not to sell the advanced aircraft to the Emiratis, so any claims that the deal was "shady" are debunked. Second, even if the UAE eventually gets the sought-after stealth fighter, it won't set any precedent. Worse enemies of Israel, who lie closer to our borders, have received more advanced aircraft, and no one here was affected. Therefore, we should keep things in proportion this time as well.

Third, the evidence dispels any base for claims about "stealth fighters in exchange for peace." Prime Minister Netanyahu had made public all the steps he and his people took to oppose the sale of this aircraft to the UAE. They still object to it. Moreover, a conversation between the head of Israel's National Security Council and the commander of the Israeli Air Force about the possibility that the Emiratis might purchase the F-35 took place before any possibility of a peace deal with the UAE was even on the table. Meir Ben-Shabbat spoke with Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin on June 2, and the "sovereignty in exchange for peace" deal was presented to the Emirati envoy only 10 days later, on June 12.

Later, at the end of June, White House envoy Avi Berkowitz visited Israel to look into what could be done about the matter of Israel applying sovereignty to settlements in Judea and Samaria. In other words, when Netanyahu supposedly dispatched Ben-Shabbat to "send out feelers" with the head of the air force, none of this was happening yet. So we have multiple layers of falsehood.

There is no deal for the US to sell the Emiratis the F-35. If one is reached, it will have nothing to do with Israel, and in any case, it would present little risk in comparison to the deals of the past. So we can turn off the alarm.

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