Peace deal breaks taboos, ends West Bank annexation: Gargash Anjana Sankar /Dubaianjana@khaleejtimes.coFiled on September 16, 2020 | Last updated on September 16, 2020 at 06.36 am
Forging new ties with Israel does not mean that the UAE is backtracking on its commitment to the Palestinian cause.
The suspension of annexation in the West Bank as agreed by Israel in the peace deal with the UAE is "real and long lasting" Dr Anwar Gargash, the UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, has said.
"I think the commitment of suspension of annexation is very clear and the presence of the United States as a mediator and an interlocutor of this deal assures me that this suspension is real and long lasting," Dr Gargash said in a virtual Press briefing on Tuesday.
He addressed the media hours before the historic Abraham Accord was signed between the UAE and Israel. The signing of the accord is considered to be a historic breakthrough in Arab-Jewish ties.
Dr Gargash said the concession the UAE received from Israel to suspend any annexation will "keep the two-state solution on the table and takes away the threat of annexation of lands".
UAE committed to two-state solution
Forging new ties with Israel does not mean that the UAE is backtracking on its commitment to the Palestinian cause, the minister stressed. "The UAE today has not changed its political position; it remains the same and that position is in support of Palestinian rights to a viable, independent state in East Jerusalem, that is their capital."
The minister said the Arab Peace Initiative (also known as the Saudi Initiative) to end the Arab-Israeli conflict remains at the heart of the UAE's collective approach to resolution of the two-state solution.
However, the policy of "not communicating and empty chairs" does not yield results, said Dr Gargash. According to him, Palestinians have more of a chance in realising their national aspirations with the doors of communication left open.
The UAE's decision to normalise ties with Israel that was swiftly followed up by Bahrain - the fourth Arab country and the second GCC nation to extend a hand of friendship to Israel - has angered some in Palestine.
But Dr Gargash argued that once "much of the anger to do with the polarisation in the Arab world subsidies", there will be a realisation in Palestine that Israel's new allies in the Arab world will only help leverage their cause.
"It will actually help the Palestinians in impressing that the path forward needs compromises and a path forward needs more rational approach in arriving at better solutions for everyone," he said.
He added that it is also an opportunity for Israel to show the peace that actually yields positive results "because it will only encourage the region to break many of the demonisation and counter demonisation that we have seen over the years".
Deal to strengthen country's image as an open society
Voicing optimism and confidence on how the Abraham Accord will set the region on a more prosperous and peaceful path, the minister said it will also bolster the UAE's standing regionally and globally as an open and progressive economy and society.
"On the bilateral side, we have for a long time spoken about religious tolerance, about cultural tolerance. And I think we are really putting this clearly across by saying that political issues, political differences need to be resolved but need not be obstacles towards communication; need not be obstacles towards building healthy bilateral relations," said Dr Gargash.
"We believe that this will make the UAE more competitive ... and will at the same time help the UAE become more of a global player in terms of breaking taboos and walls."
Breaking the psychological barrier
Dr Gargash said the UAE has broken the psychological barrier by putting years of hostilities behind and forging new ties with Israel. "This was the most difficult thing."
He said when His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, took the decision, "the heaviest burden was the psychological barrier ... how can you really change how we think about things and how we do things over so many years".
But once the barriers in the mind are broken, he said issues are manageable though not easy. The minister stressed that much hard work needs to be done to the actualisation of real peace between the two nations.
F-35 deal: Country seeking to modernise its military
Dr Gargash said the Abraham Accord should deal with "any grain of doubt" on why the UAE should get the F-35. The minister said the F-16s that are at the "cornerstone of the UAE's air force are now almost two-decades old". "And it is time to renew these."
He said the UAE seeks, like any other country that takes its military seriously, to modernise its armed forces. "Our request for F-35 and other systems predates this agreement. This has been on the table for much longer."
He said his country will have to make a compelling argument to get F-35s. "And I believe that we will win that argument."
The art of the peace deal, Trump’s masterful détente: Goodwin
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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands with U.S. President Donald Trump after signing the Abraham Accords.REUTERS
Before Tuesday’s remarkable events began at the White House, Palestinians in the West Bank dutifully protested the decisions by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Later, during the ceremony, Palestinians in Gaza fired two rockets into southern Israel, inflicting minor injuries on two civilians.
The rage of the Arab Street ain’t what it used to be.
Even the limited expressions of anger were mostly for television cameras. The Palestinians could have had their own state several times over the last two decades, but could never take yes for an answer, so now the train of history has left them standing at the station.
They accuse their fellow Arabs of betrayal and stabbing them in the back. But in fact, it is two generations of Palestinian leadership that have betrayed their own people and forfeited their veto over peace.
They lost that veto because Donald Trump took it from them. The president, breaking the mold set by his predecessors. Still, he offered the Palestinians a deal, the “deal of the century,” he called it, but they responded with insults and intransigence.
It was a huge mistake, one that reduced them to disheartened spectators as the world watched in astonishment as two more Arab countries took the historic step of normalizing relations with the Jewish State. The likelihood that others will soon follow, possibly including Saudi Arabia, means that Israel will no longer be a pariah in its own neighborhood.
It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of these agreements. The Mideast has long been the world’s hottest hot spot and now, seemingly all of a sudden, peace is breaking out.
If nothing else, the agreements will push the anti-Semites at the United Nations to find a new scapegoat for the world’s problems. Even Rep. Ilhan Omar will be hard-pressed to come up with a vile objection this time.
Iran, of course, is the other major loser of the day. The Arab monarchies it has threatened repeatedly are lining up to join America and Israel in an alliance against the mad mullahs. As Trump put it in his remarks, “We’re here to change the course of history.”
Big decisions have big consequences and Trump’s Mideast policy is remarkable not only for its success, but also for its unprecedented approach. The contrast with Barack Obama is especially dramatic.
Until Obama, recent presidents of both parties followed a similar script of supporting Israel while being a buffer between it and its hostile Arab neighbors. The goal was to be an “honest broker” while guaranteeing Israel’s security as long as it respected American interests in the Arab world. Those interests included oil and, increasingly, funding for the perpetually bankrupt Palestinians, who returned the favor with massive corruption and by making “martyr” payments to the families of terrorists who killed Israelis.
Incredibly, he even urged the Palestinians not to negotiate with Israel until Israel stopped constructing and expanding settlements in the West Bank. Obama openly disliked and insulted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, once forcing him to leave the White House through a back door, and secretly used American funds to try to defeat Netanyahu in an election.These transgressions were apparently minor obstacles to Obama, who believed he knew best. He thought he could lure the Muslim world to his view by apologizing for past American behavior and promising to restrain Israel and forcing it to make concessions to the Palestinians.
His record was perfect — a perfect failure. There were, for example, zero serious negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians for the eight years of the Obama-Biden administration.
Yet that wasn’t Obama’s only mistake in the region. He showed a repugnant soft spot for Israel’s greatest enemy, Iran, despite the warning of Netanyahu and others that the nuclear deal paved the way for weapons that would be an existential threat to Israel.
Again, Obama knew best and coddled the mullahs, no matter that they used the money he gave them to spread terror far and wide. Their role in both Syria and Iraq, for example, has posed direct threats to our allies and interests.
Trump, like a pendulum swinging in the opposite direction, deliberately reversed all those policies. He moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, correctly predicting that threats of Arab violence were false. He approved Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, another American first.
As he recounted Tuesday, the president thought funding the Palestinians also was wrong. Beyond the “martyr” payments, he noted that Palestinian leaders refused even to negotiate with his administration. Why, he asked, should we reward their bad behavior?
He held Iran to the same standard. Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal, imposed harsh economic sanctions and eliminated Qasem Soleimani, the Quds Force general who played a role in the deaths and injuries of hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq.
American strength is what most appealed to the Arab states. They fear Iran more than Israel and, whatever their history with Israel, now openly recognize it as a full partner against Iran.
The agreements signed at the gathering on the South Lawn of the White House are fittingly called the Abraham Accords. They mark a new era of trade, tourism and opportunity for millions of Jews, Muslims and Christians in the region.
Trump clearly savored the moment but, ever restless, says he’s not finished yet. He told reporters he believes the Palestinians eventually will want to negotiate and predicted that, if he wins a second term, he will make a deal with the Iranians, too.
The changes, he said, are just the start of a “new Middle East.” Only a fool would quibble on a day as big as this one.
