RELATIONS REALLY IMPROVING BETWEEN ISRAEL AND UAE OR WILL ALL THE EFFORTS JUST PROVE TO BE STINTS ?

For decades the relations between the Jewish state of Israel and rest of the Arab nations have remained strained. Decades of endeavouring from both sides have bore no fruit until recently. Treaties being signed and still failed to follow the trails they were meant to go on with, went on to do the masses of both the communities out of their share for peace, but the current developments seem to promise good to them.

UAE or simply Emirates is a federation of 7 autonomous Emirates or what we may call states. These Emirates or states forming United Arab Emirates are – Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman, Umm Ak Quwain and Fujairah. Sharing land borders with Oman and Saudi Arabia, UAE shares it’ maritime boundaries with Iran and Qatar. The country is governed by an absolute Islamic (Sunni) monarchy where the head of the state is the president officially elected every 5 years by the Federal Supreme Court. However, the office is defacto hereditary as the presidency is customarily held by the ruler of Abu Dhabi, the capital city.

Israel, 1^st Jewish state in 2 millennia represents the restoration of the homeland for Jewish people after their centuries long diaspora and atrocities they faced such as the holocaust. Modern day Israel, established on 14^th May 1948 as proclaimed by David Ben-Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency was immediately recognised by the United States, the Soviet Union, and many other governments.

17^th September 1950, India recognised Israel as a state soon after which the Jewish Agency established it’s immigration the city of Bombay which was then converted into a Trade Office then soon into a Consulate. Embassies were established as late as 199 with full fledged diplomatic relations being established. On the stand of Palestine, in 1974, India became the first Non-Arab State to recognize Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. In 1988, India became one of the first countries to recognize the Palestinian State.

Normalisation of Relations

UAE finally decides to normalise relations with Israel which have had a history of futile effort making to establish peace between Israel, Palestine and their Arab allies and to overcome decades of distrust and violence.

Most Arab nations, including UAE have constrained themselves from giving recognition to or from having diplomatic and economic relations with Israel. They regard Israel as the force thwarting Palestinians aspirations for a state of their own. Recent development could be seen in the form of a meeting between UAE, US and Israel that was held on 20 August 2020 in Abu Dhabi. Since 1967 many peace initiatives have been undertaken by West Asian nations to regress Israel’s developments like its capture over the West Bank, Jerusalem, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and Golan Height.

Treaties signed :-

1. 1967, United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 :- when the 6 day war got over, Israel was called on by UN to withdraw its forces from the territories it occupied in the conflict and to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty and independence of one another. The resolution, albeit laid the foundation for many peace initiatives of the coming decades but also complicated the situation by being imprecise.
2. 1975 – PLO was granted an observer status by the United Nations that also recognised Palestinians right to self determination.
3. 1978, Camp David Accords :- the treaty brokered by US President Jimmy Carter that was signed between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was the first of its kind between Israel and any of its Arab nations. Officially titled the “Framework for Peace in the Middleast” came to be known as Camp David Accords for it was signed at Camp David, Maryland and called for an Israeli withdrawal from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
4. 1994, Israel Jordan Agreement :- also referred to as the Wadi Araba Treaty, it established mutual diplomatic relations between the two countries making Jordan the second Arab nation after Egypt to realise peaceful relationship with Israel, that settled water disputes, provided for broad cooperation in tourism and trade.
5. 1993-1995 :- Oslo Accords

Israel and PLO held talks in Norway that called in interim peace establishing a Palestinian interim self-government and elected a council in the West Bank and Gaza strip for a transitional period of 5 years, also mandating withdrawal of Israeli troops and negotiating for a permanent settlement of the Palestinians.

• 2000 :- Camp David Summit

U.S President Bill Clinton convoked Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Camp David to concord for establishing peace but the covenant failed to serve its purpose as the parties couldn’t resolve the differences ensuing another Palestinian uprising.

• 2002-2003 :-Bush Declaration /Arab peace initiative

In early 2000s, when George Bush started with his first term as the President of the US in 2001, his attempts toward the middle east included the historical step seeking the creation of an independent Palestinian state existing side by side with Israel in “peace and security”, making him the very 1^st US president to call for such a development.

• 2009 :- Netanyahu’s Bar-Ilan address

While addressing the Bar-Ilan University prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned that he was prepared to intertwine a peace deal involving the establishment of demilitarised Palestinian state setting a condition that the Palestinians will recognize Israel as the state of Jewish people.

• Back in October 2018 Miri Regev, Israeli Culture and Sports Minister became the 1^st Israeli to visit Abu Dhabi in an unprecedented official state visit.
• 13 August 2020 :- US President Donald J Trump announces a surprise deal to align the disturbed relations between Israel and UAE, expecting the other Gulf nations to follow the suit. According to UAE officials the deal wasmeant to put an end to the annexation of the West Bank but Netanyahu said otherwise, such that Israel had only agreed to temporarily wait.

Regev’s visit to the United Arab Emirates made a distinct sign about UAE’s work to push its covert relations with Israel out in the world openly. This was not the only visit, as in the preceding year, former Israeli Foreign minister Yisrael Katz had paid a visit to the Gulf city of Abu Dhabi to participate in the UN Climate Change Summit also holding several meetings including senior officials’ meets in the Emirates. UAE and Israel had been maintaining clandestine relations for decades that includes intelligence sharing and direct or indirect flights.

Finally after decades long series of mixed emotions and uncertainty holding clandestine ties, differences in opinions and interests and regional conflict, on 15^th September 2020 the Abraham Accords was signed between UAE’s Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani and Israeli Prime Mnister Netanyahu. This was followed by the arrival of the first UAE ambassador to Israel on March 21, 2021.

On 31^st May 2022 UAE and Israel twined a multi-billion dollar FTA the target of which is to increase the bilateral trade to more than $10 billion in the coming 5 years time span becoming the largest of this kind of agreement between Israel and any Arab country. Israel’s Minister of Economy and Industry OrnaBarbivai and her counterpart, UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, signed the deal that has had months of negotiations, in Dubai. The deal was signed in a time that had been heated by a ravaging conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The disruptions were seen with Israelis chanting anti muslim slurs and nationalists surrounding Al Aqsa compound and some also physically attacking Palestinians. The devastative developments drew condemnation from UAE’s foreign ministry, Bennet also lambasted the extremist behaviour exuded by the Israeli nationalists.

Because of the historical disparities between Palestinians and Jewish, conflicts can be seen arising and brutal suppressions and protests appear frequently as negative episodes, on the other side, to bring in some positive light there are pooling in of efforts to maintain peace and security assurances in the region. In this light, normalisation of relations between Israel and UAE and rest of the Arab world seems to promise a new order in the world system. Now it is to see how these developments in the middle East will bring changes in the policies of the direct participants and their allies and the rest of the world, the lead of which will be taken by changing time and interests and goals.