Israel, UAE agree to reestablish ties
Israel to halt annexation plans in West Bank
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the United Arab Emirates and Israel had agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations, a potentially historic agreement and a rare foreign policy win for the president during an election year.
As part of the deal, Israel agreed to halt its controversial plan to annex parts of the West Bank, land that Palestinians see as vital to their hopes of a future state.
A joint statement released by the White House Thursday said Israel and the United Arab Emirates “agreed to the full normalization of relations” and negotiators from the two countries would meet in the coming weeks to sign a series of bilateral agreements on everything from investment to tourism to security. The deal was finalized in a call Thursday between Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi.
“This is an icebreaker between these two countries,” Jared Kushner, a top Trump adviser and the president’s son-in-law, said in a rare appearance in the White House briefing room. Kushner said the agreement would allow flights from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv, which he said would “allow Muslims a real entree to come and visit Israel peacefully and to come and pray at the mosque with whatever frequency they deem appropriate.”
In a pair of tweets, Netanyahu called it a “historic day,” while Bin Zayed highlighted Israel’s agreement to “stop further Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories.”
With the annexation plan paused, Israel will instead “focus its efforts now on expanding ties with other countries in the Arab and Muslim world,” the joint statement says.
The agreement makes the UAE only the third Arab nation to have active diplomatic ties with Israel. The other two are Egypt and Jordan.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he welcomed the agreement. “The UAE’s offer to publicly recognize the state of Israel is a welcome, brave, and badly-needed act of statesmanship,” he said in a statement.
There’s “only one reason” Netanyahu would give up his annexation proposal right now, said Tamara Cofman Wittes, a senior fellow with the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration. “Because he expects he will not have an annexation-friendly president in DC soon, and he wants to maximize his gains,” Wittes said in a tweet.
Asked how long Israel had agreed to suspend its annexation plan on the West Bank, Kushner refused to give a direct answer. He said he believed Israel would “not take action to move forward unless we have an understanding between America and Israel that it’s the right action at the right time.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo argued the development could boost Trump’s Middle East peace plan, which had been widely seen as dead on arrival.
“I hope the Palestinians will see this for what it is ... a historic opportunity for the Middle East to be stable and peaceful,” Pompeo told reporters traveling with him in Europe.
Trump’s Middle East peace plan endorsed a “two-state” solution – an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. That has been a hallmark of IsraeliPalestinian peace initiatives for years, but Trump’s commitment to it has been an open question.
Some said the new agreement represented an “abandonment” of the Palestinians.
“While normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab states is in itself to be desired, this abandonment of the Palestinians will not serve the interests of peace, nor the real interests of Israel,” said Jerome Segal, president of the Jewish Peace Lobby.