The deal between the UAE and Israel was not preceded by any notable precursors indicating the presence of an imminent agreement. The understanding was rather announced via Twitter by US President Donald Trump who tweeted, “Huge breakthrough today! Historic Peace Agreement between our two GREAT friends, Israel and the United Arab Emirates!”. Meanwhile, an Israeli media outlet quoted reports in the US indicating that Israel had agreed to push back the issue of extending sovereignty in exchange for opening a representative office in the Emirates.
It is pertinent to note that the Arab regimes who Trump states are “lining up” to normalize relations with Israel are not reflective of the sentiment on the Arab and Muslim street, and as with the case of both Egypt and Jordan, has been initiated without public consultation with public silence maintained through brutality and force. So the acceptance of full normalization on the surface seems to reflect the strength of leadership form Netenyahu’s perspective, leading him to even talk from a position of strength about peace for peace without making any concessions. He stated; “Peace from a position of strength and might; this is the new peace we are committed to” (Times of Israel 16/08/2020). He also invested in this agreement to win over Israeli voters by claiming it was a victory he achieved “singlehandedly”.
In fact, the circumstances surrounding the agreement and its timing denote that it came following the decision of presidential rival, Joe Biden, to appoint Kamala Harris, who has close ties with the Jewish Zionist lobby “AIPAC”, as his running mate. Appointing an African American woman who has immigrant roots, is married to a Jew, an anti-racism activist close to the evangelical rightwing sympathetic towards the Israel, and whose support for Biden dispels the notion of him being leftwing and helps him finalize the components of polarization and mobilization necessary for entering the electoral battle. All this makes her nomination to the post of vice-president a heavy blow to Donald Trump with respect to the forthcoming presidential elections.
This is why Donald Trump hastened to flirt with the evangelical rightwing and the Zionist lobby by paving the way for Israel to officially dominate the Arab Gulf via the UAE which has always shown willingness to follow Trump and Netanyahu.
Therefore, although the move had been pre-arranged, its timing however came within the context of mustering support of the evangelical rightwing and the Zionist Lobby for Donald Trump lest Kamala Harris should affect Trump’s electoral base.
It is clear that both Trump and Biden have kept some cards to influence voters as election day approaches. For instance, the deep state in the US, especially the CIA, has recently been exploiting the issue of exiled Saudi Major General Saad al-Jabri to expose Donald Trump’s relationship with bin Salman, and the issue that has surfaced recently regarding Trump’s support for the siege of Qatar and his attempts to exploit it in the bid to consolidate Israeli ties in with Saudi and the UAE in order to undermine Trump’s performance. Hence, Trump’s contribution to the agreement between the Emirates and Israel is viewed as a commendation for his performance rather than a reproach.
Consequently, the Emirates’ move is supportive of Trump’s election campaign even though it has come within the context of the Deal of the Century which is designed to achieve a regional solution. Furthermore, this step has its repercussions in terms of paving the way for the alliance between the Arab regimes and Israel, not to mention shoring up Netanyahu in his bid to overcome his domestic problems. He has always boasted about achieving significant breakthroughs in terms of normalisation and alliance with Arab chieftains. He once told former British prime minister, Theresa May that; “Moderate Arab regimes understand that Israel is not their enemy, but indispensable ally, and this attitude is percolating into society.” He added: “The good news is that the other guys are getting together with Israel as never before. It is something that I would have never expected in my lifetime” (i24news 03/11/2017).
In fact, what is occurring between Israel and a host of Arab regimes is not just normalization but rather an alliance, and what has been announced is far less than the reality of the relationship between Israel and the rulers of the Emirates. Normalization has been ongoing overtly and covertly for some time. Israel opened a representative office in Abu Dhabi in 2015 within the context of the International Renewable Energy Agency. Normalization between “Israel” and Qatar and the UAE took place in recent years in the shape of several sporting events, and commercial normalization between Israel and the UAE was exposed by the Middle East Eye website. It reported in 2016 that Emirates Future, in which Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan owns at least a 40 percent stake, together with Jordanian company Hijazi and Ghosheh, imported Australian and American livestock and then delivered it to Israel via the seaport of Eilat, making the Emirati company one of the largest importers of meat to the Israeli market.
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