A tale of two summits

The kings of Jordan and Bahrain flew to Abu Dhabi for an important meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani was in Israel meeting his Israeli and American counterparts on Wednesday. These important and unprecedented meetings illustrate the tectonic changes in the Middle East.

The tone was different in Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi. A Gulf Air flight arrived at 10: 20 in the morning in Tel Aviv with Zayani and US envoy Avi Berkowitz. It was the first flight of its kind and is likely to mean that Bahrain’s Gulf Air will soon join flydubai and Etihad in the UAE, which have announced service to Israel.

Zayani, wearing a mask, met Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi on the tarmac and they exchanged greetings. Subsequent meetings were all about peace and the brave new world that Israel and the Gulf states are moving toward. This is a world that has

plans to annex West Bank settlements in exchange for normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The issue of Jerusalem had not been raised because Israel formally annexed east Jerusalem in 1980.

In his briefing to the council, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said that the Givat Hamatos project “would further consolidate a ring of settlements between Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. It would also significantly damage prospects for a future contiguous Palestinian state.”

Mladenov also spoke of the Israeli demolition of illegal Palestinian structures in Area C, a move that concerns the international community because building permits are rarely issued to Palestinians.

“On 3 November, Israeli authorities carried out the most extensive demolition in the occupied West Bank in the past decade, destroying over 70 structures,