Lapid dedicates Israel’s embassy in Abu Dhabi on historic visit to UAE
Foreign minister: There are other countries we talk to under the radar
ABU DHABI – Foreign Minister Yair Lapid officially dedicated the Israeli Embassy in the United Arab Emirates and met with the Gulf state’s Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed on Tuesday, during the historic first visit by an Israeli minister to the UAE since it established diplomatic relations with Israel last year.
The Biden administration is “positive and excited” about ties between Israel and the UAE and the prospect of Israel establishing diplomatic relations with more Arab countries, Lapid said in a briefing with reporters accompanying him to Abu Dhabi.
However, two days after meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Rome, Lapid said Washington “says that [normalizations] require us to make an effort with the Palestinians,” contrary to the Trump administration, which “gave a sense that [the Abraham Accords] were instead of progress on the Palestinian front, or a way to prove it’s unnecessary.”
Lapid was skeptical about the chances of an agreement with the Palestinians.
“The Palestinians have to want progress themselves for someone to be able to help them, and that’s not the situation now in the Palestinian Authority or Hamas,” he said.
“Don’t shoot 4,000 rockets at Israelis if you want to get help,” Lapid said regarding reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
The topic of the Palestinians came up in his meetings with Blinken and with bin Zayed, he said.
The Emiratis want to have a positive impact on the Palestinian issue, Lapid said, adding that he is sure they will be helpful if there is any possibility of progress.
Lapid said his meeting with bin Zayed revolved mostly around regional issues and US involvement in the Middle East, as well as expanding the Abraham Accords to other countries.
He expressed hope that more Arab countries will follow the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in establishing relations with Israel, but naming them would hurt chances of it happening.
Mideast diplomatic blitzes highlight Abbas’s isolation,
“There are other countries we talk to under the radar,” Lapid said. “The goal is to have relations with as many as possible.”
Israel needs to work to develop relations with Sudan, he said. Those ties have stalled since they were announced last year.
Lapid declined to answer questions about Iran while in the UAE, which views the Islamic Republic as an adversary but is less vocal than Israel about it.
He also hailed “the unusually large pile of economic agreements [between Israel and the UAE] happening quickly that will influence the lives of all Israelis” and will help Israel’s economy in a difficult time.
Lapid and bin Zayed signed an economic cooperation agreement at the end of their meeting.
Earlier Tuesday, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Israeli Embassy to the UAE, Lapid said: “Israel wants peace with all of its neighbors. We aren’t going anywhere. The
the PCR test results to be released from quarantine; the serological test was enough.”
Currently, all people who are vaccinated abroad need to take a serological test to prove the presence of antibodies in their blood to skip the mandatory isolation period. Most, including the Bensons, rush to take it right after leaving the airport.
“We received the results in about 12 hours, and I contacted the Health Ministry,” Benson said. “I was told to fill in a form and include the serological test results. We soon received a message releasing us.”
The PCR test was not mentioned.
The Bensons are not an isolated case. Thousands of incoming passengers have not received the results of their PCR tests since the company FEMI Premium started to operate the testing station at Ben-Gurion Airport on June 15, has learned.
“I didn’t get my results from the PCR,” said Rosanne Koenigson, who arrived in Israel on Thursday to visit her daughter. “I went straight to United Hatzalah in Jerusalem for the serological test. By 4:30 it was done. I called the Health Ministry on Friday morning and got released from quarantine by email in less than an hour after my call.”
The process of getting tested at the airport was very quick and efficient, Koenigson said, adding that she did not expect to receive the results of the PCR test.
“I didn’t ask for them,” she said. “My impression was that everything was uploaded to the Health Ministry with my passport number. The PCR was only one step in the process. Serology was the second step.”
Other travelers were more surprised.
Facebook groups and pages devoted to help people navigate the bureaucracy of visiting or leaving Israel during the coronavirus crisis are flooded with messages from passengers puzzled that the results never arrived.
D.G., an Israeli citizen, is getting married on Sunday. Several of her family members traveled to Israel for the wedding. They also underwent both the PCR and the serological test, got released from isolation after getting the results of the latter and never got the results of the former.
“People pay a lot of money to a private company, and then they do not get their results,” D.G. said, adding that she also knows of many Israelis in the same situation.
“But the main problem is that someone could be vaccinated and have the antibodies and still be infected, and if they do not receive the results of their PCR test, they do not know that they are positive and can go around and infect other people,” she said.
Currently, Israel does not require vaccinated or recovered individuals to isolate, unless they come back from countries placed under travel ban due to their high morbidity: Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa.
“I am an Israeli citizen,” said M. “I returned to Israel from France on June 20, and I took the PCR test. I never heard from them again.”
Sometimes, the issue appears to be technical.
“I have not gotten the results of my granddaughter’s PCR, which was taken together with her mother and two brothers,” said Zelda. “We only got three out of four results.”
In theory, Israeli citizens or residents are supposed to receive the results through their health funds, while visitors who are not members of a health fund should receive a link to check their results at a specific website where they are uploaded by the health minister. But both often do not happen.
“If Israel wants to reopen to tourism, they will need to solve all these problems and improve the communication,” D.G. said.