Israel- UAE agreement will be full peace treaty

Declaration of intent to be signed with Bahrain • Netanyahu to meet Trump before today’s ceremony

The historic deal Israel and the United Arab Emirates will sign on Tuesday at the White House will be a peace treaty, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, upgrading the event from a formal recognition of ties with two Gulf states, including Bahrain.

It had previously been unclear if the agreement to be signed will be normalization or peace, since Israel and the UAE had not previously been at war.

“We worked on it for many years,” Netanyahu said. “This is a tremendous turning point in the history of Israel and the Middle East. It will have a great and positive influence on all citizens of Israel.”

Netanyahu promised that more countries are on the way, as well.

At the same time, the prime minister said that he “does not forget for a minute that these are difficult days for all of us,” in light of Friday’s planned lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus. Netanyahu noted that he spoke with Health

Minister Yuli Edelstein and Finance Minister Israel Katz from Washington.

Israel will be signing two separate documents – one, the peace treaty with the UAE, and the other, a declaration of intent to make peace with Bahrain – because there was not enough time to draw up a full agreement since Friday when ties were announced.

The four sides involved

agreed not to make any parts of the agreements public before the signings, but a source from the prime minister’s delegation said they will discuss cooperation between the countries.

The signing ceremony is expected to take place on the White House South Lawn, and 1,000 people were invited. Among the invitees are casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a supporter of both Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, and Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs director Dore Gold, who as director- general of the Foreign Ministry opened an Israeli mission to the International Renewable Energy Agency in Abu Dhabi. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto will be the only EU diplomatic leader to attend the signing ceremony.

Israel has sought to have its delegation stand at a distance from the rest so that its members will not have to be quarantined due to coronavirus restrictions upon their return to Israel.

Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump in the Oval Office before the signing, and their wives will have a separate meeting.

Much of the specific areas of cooperation between Israel and the UAE that Israeli officials discussed with their Emirati counterparts in Abu Dhabi, led by National Security Adviser Meir Ben- Shabbat two weeks ago, are still under negotiation and will not be in the agreement on Tuesday.

The peace treaty with the UAE will have to be brought to a vote in the cabinet and then the Knesset after Netanyahu signs it, which is the same process as past peace agreements. The treaty will say it only goes into effect after the cabinet’s authorization.

The UAE and Bahrain will be the third and fourth Arab countries to make peace with Israel, after Egypt and Jordan.

As for the Palestinians, the source in the prime minister’s delegation said, “The diplomatic fruits will come later.”

He would not specify if suspending Israeli extension of sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria or freezing Israeli construction in those areas would be part of the agreement.

Meretz Party leader Nitzan Horowitz said he heard from “authorized sources” that Israel had agreed to freeze construction in the settlements as part of the peace agreements.

In response, a source in the delegation said: “Horowitz’s sources as a politician are worse than when he was a journalist.”

UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem Al Hashimy told CNN the “historic” deal with Israel “is an indication that we are keen on a new narrative of hope and prosperity where you have dialogue and debate.”

As it moves forward with the deal, the UAE is keeping “the Palestinian cause front and center,” including “their right to statehood and their right for a dignified life,” she said.

Israel’s agreement for “the suspension of annexation is an important component here,” Hashimy said.

The UAE believes that with its focus on religious tolerance and coexistence between Muslims, Christians and Jews, it has an important role to play in shaping the dialogue in the Middle East, she said.

“We have a different kind of vision for the Arab world and a different kind of vision for the Middle East, which is a region of primarily young people who do not want to carry the baggage of the past and want to forge a new future,” Hashimy said.

This future would focus on science, innovation, prosperity, trade and investments, she said. The UAE wants to advance cooperation with Israel particularly in research areas regarding COVID- 19 and artificial intelligence, she added.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz spoke with his Bahraini counterpart, Lt.- Gen. Abdulla bin Hassan Al- Nuaimi, and discussed the importance to regional stability of the accords and normalization with Israel and opportunities for a close defense partnership.

Gantz offered to host Nuaimi on an official visit to Israel.

Regional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis spoke with Bahrain Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Zayed Bin Rashid Al- Zayani about joint cooperation and agreed to a face- to- face meeting in the future.

The Israeli and Bahraini ministers said they would seek to advance the principle of “peace to prosperity” between the two countries, echoing a Trump administration slogan about the Middle East. They spoke about their hope that continued normalization efforts in the region would benefit all citizens.

Bahrain chose to normalize ties with Israel now because “they very much like President Trump [ and] don’t know what will happen [ in the presidential election] on November 3,” Ministerwithout- Portfolio Tzachi Hanegbi told Army Radio. “They worry a Democratic regime will again arise that will abandon them to [ Iran].”

The source in the prime minister’s delegation waved off Hanegbi’s comments, saying ties between Israel and Gulf states have been warming for years.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid tweeted: “Minister Hanegbi doesn’t represent the opinion of the State of Israel about Joe Biden or the Democratic Party. I’m sure Prime Minister Netanyahu will clarify and condemn this careless and damaging statement.”

Netanyahu does not have any meetings planned with Democratic presidential candidate Biden, who is based in Delaware, during this visit. The prime minister is staying at Blair House, the White House guest house, and does not plan to leave except to go to the White House due to coronavirus- related restrictions.

When asked whether Netanyahu should have postponed his trip due to the coronavirus crisis and Israel going into a second lockdown on Friday, Hanegbi said: “No way. War and peace are hard to postpone. There are moments that you embrace lest you be left with regrets.” •

The idea is to test people with symptoms. If they test positive, move into the contact- tracing phase, reaching out to those people who they have been in contact with in the past two weeks and putting them in isolation. Then, test those people, too.

Since Edelstein took office, the number of daily tests has

increased to around 50,000 per day, and this number is expected to reach as many as 100,000 by winter. However, as Cyrille Cohen, head of the immunotherapy laboratory at Bar- Ilan University told The Jerusalem Post, “Testing is not everything.”

“It doesn’t matter how many tests will be employed. If you don’t know who to test, you cannot be successful,” said Prof. Ran Nir- Paz, an expert in microbiology and infectious diseases at Hadassah- University Medical Center. “You cannot get around this point.”

Test, trace, isolate proved effective in nearly every country that has “beat” the coronavirus, he said.

Coronavirus commissioner Prof. Ronni Gamzu was charged with presenting an action plan for severing the chain of infection. One of the first moves he made in his role was to enlist the IDF to play a central role in this matter.

However, this was “obvious back in March,” and Gamzu was only appointed in July, said Nir- Paz. Last week, Gamzu told the public the system was still not running at 100%, and it will take until at least November 1 to be effective.

The closure is expected to loosen by October 11.

Communicate

The government must put together an effective plan of hasbara, public diplomacy, to help better educate Israel’s diverse public about the pandemic.

“There are a lot of people that do not understand the way the virus spreads or why they should do this or that,” Cohen told the Post.

Education is not just listing rules in several languages. It is explaining these rules to the public in ways that help them understand.

“People are confused, and confused people are not always willing to recognize or follow regulations,” Cohen said.

Comply

Once they understand the directives, the public must comply with them.

“The major obstacle facing Israel is the lack of compliance of the people,” Nir- Paz said. “The moment there is compliance with masks and social distancing, the condition of Israel will be better, regardless of what efforts are being made by the government.”

He called on citizens to think long term and big picture, “rather than exploit any loopholes in the recommendations for their own benefit.”

Enforce

But when they do not comply, the Israel Police must enforce the restrictions through substantial fines and even potentially by arresting those who severely break protocol and endanger lives.

Large gatherings, especially weddings of hundreds to thousands of people, have fueled rising coronavirus cases in recent months.

Last week, Gamzu pleaded with the public: “We need to stop gatherings, especially in red cities.”

“We need to be very harsh with these people,” Cohen said. “There should be no compromises on this point.”

Plan, standardize

The government must use these next three weeks to project three months ahead and present a plan that will carry the

country through to flu season and ultimately to the spring. The plan should be reevaluated every two weeks, but it should be organized in advance so that last- minute decisions are not required, and people can more easily comply with its requests.

In just the last month, the government’s last- minute decisionmaking has left citizens in a state of confusion.

For example, earlier this month, the government changed its policy on the number of people allowed to gather indoors to pray within mere days. First, the coronavirus cabinet made a decision that 10 people could pray in closed spaces and 20 outside. After haredi ( ultra- Orthodox) politicians pressured Netanyahu, the numbers changed to 20 inside and 30 outside.

The list of red zones was only published the day before the curfews went into effect. And parents learned that schools were opening – but not in red zones – only the night before, as well.

“Things have to make sense,” Cohen said. “If you allow prayers in synagogues, it needs to be in the same way you allow people to eat in restaurants and vice versa. If you allow demonstrations to take place, then there needs to be an outline similar to any other kind of outdoor gathering.”

Be professional ( not political)

The public is rightfully frustrated by its leaders, who have allowed the pandemic to spread like wildfire across the country in the name of populism.

In July, Edelstein and Netanyahu hired Gamzu to help Israel live alongside the novel virus. Then, they failed to give him the tools or support he needed to do it. Israel is heading to lockdown because the government took too long – three weeks – to pass the “traffic light” plan, Cohen said.

Even when it was passed, fights over which cities would be locked down became political instead of based on Gamzu’s professional recommendations that eight to 10 “deep red” cities became 40 red zones with ineffective night curfews.

Now, by Gamzu’s most recent assessment, there are more than 60 red cities across Israel – and around two- thirds of infections are outside the original red zones, so the traffic- light system would not even work.

“I think if you ask the people what they want to hear and see, it is transparency,” Cohen said. “We are at the point where we have come to understand that whoever is shouting loudest will be exempt from regulations.” He said it is making Israel unhealthy.

Serve as role models

On Passover, when Israelis were under a strict curfew that prevented people from hosting family gatherings, both Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin shared their Seder with their children, prompting outrage by millions of ordinary Israelis who sacrificed and did not.

“Our leaders need to set an example,” Cohen said. “The virus spreads between people no matter who you are, and we need to have respect for that. Each person needs to see himor herself as someone who can transmit or catch the virus.

“We saw what our leaders did on Passover,” Cohen said. “Let’s see how they behave on Rosh Hashanah.” •