A year ago, a bombshell has exploded in the Middle East. Unlike many other explosions recking havoc in the region, this one marked a breakthrough towards Arab-Israeli reconciliation. On Aug. 13, 2020, in a live statement from the White House, it was announced that the United Arab Emirates and Israel have reached a peace agreement.
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It is hard to believe that until that moment, the possibility of Israel asserting sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, perhaps with the blessing of the United States, and thus rolling back years of sluggish rapprochement with the Arab Gulf states, was the more likely bombshell to hit the screens. But former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a different vision for Israel and its role in the Middle East in mind, one that was carefully crafted together with the White House peace team led by Jared Kushner, into what would come to be known as the Abraham Accords.
From the Emirati side, it was Abu Dhabi's influential Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan who pushed for the Accords with resolve. Shortly after, he was joined by Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa who concluded to normalize relations with Israel as well. The signs of the rapprochement were already clear in the years leading up to the Abraham Accords, in positive statements of the Emirati and Bahraini leaderships regarding Israel, and in a symbolic delegation sent by the latter.
And still, MBZ and King Hamad faced a great deal of criticism and sneering upon their announcement of the normalization: Although their countries have never actually been at war with Israel, they had the courage to be the first to brake ranks and the years' long Arab taboo on normalizing relations with Israel (even the Arabic word for normalization, "Tatbia," become a sort of a curse word), which since the Arab league's peace initiative of 2002, has been completely subjugated to a de facto veto power handed over by the Saudis to the PLO.
Needless to say, that this move wasn't possible without the Saudi realization of the implications of that strategic mistake. MBZ's influence seems to have extended beyond the UAE's borders to affect his mentee, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and while falling short of convincing the kingdom to join the Accords right away, it was certainly enough for it to give them its blessing, notably, by allowing the Israeli national carriers to pass over Saudi airspace on their way to the Gulf, a spectacle that was inconceivable only a few years ago.
Albeit Saudi's sitting on the fence cautious approach, the Emirati and Bahraini leaders move pioneered a process led two other major Arab countries, Sudan and Morocco, to chose to cross the rubicon in their relations with Israel as well.
The announcement of the Israeli-UAE normalization was met with broad skepticism in the region and beyond, echoed by the propaganda apparatuses of Qatar and Turkey. Many disparaged the agreement, claiming it was nothing more than a narrow meeting of interest between governments, linked to an arms deal or merely a military alliance against Iran, with no support on the people-to-people level.
However, the past year has largely proven them wrong: Not only that the agreement smoothly weathered governmental transition in both the United States and Israel, coupled by a security escalation between Israel and the Palestinians, but it also exceeded the expectations in terms of the willingness of citizens from the three countries to reach out to each other.
As someone who has long believed that this era of cooperation will come, it is noteworthy to point out that it is nothing similar to the relations Israel has with Egypt and Jordan, which have remained cold and confined mainly to governmental and security ties.
A year on, as many as 200,000 Israelis already visited the UAE that was first opened for them; the trade between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain has already reached a billion dollars, amounted to Israel's trading volume with countries like Russia or Brazil (all this notwithstanding the continued difficulties posed by the pandemic); young Emiratis will begin the coming academic year as students in Israeli universities; lastly, a string of MoUs between civil bodies, such as the AI research cooperation between the Weizmann Institute and Mohamed bin Zayed University, the knowledge-exchange agreement between Israel's Clalit Health Services and the UAE's biggest health insurance firm, and Mekorot's deal with Bahrain's Water and Electricity Authoritysignify that the Israeli-Gulf normalization embodies much more than a security deal.
On the eve of the second year of the Abraham Accords, I expect to see civilian enterprises materializing from MoU's to on the ground realities, and the development of an Israeli-Gulf regional tech-ecosystem. In fact, several initiatives were founded for the purpose of encouraging such people-to-people exchange between Israel and the four Arab countries that signed the accords, and hopefully, to extended them to include other countries in the region. Among them, the Peace Institute that was launched last May by Kushner alongside the former Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and other US officials who took part in brokering the accords, as well as the newly-established Knesset lobby for the promotion of the Abraham Accords, headed by Knesset members Ruth Wasserman-Lande and Ofir Akunis.
There is still a long way to go for realizing the full potential of the neighborliness and the reciprocal contribution of Israel and the Arab Gulf countries, and while some obstacles remain, the initial doubts and concerns have been lifted. Given this one year's accomplishments, we're heading forward in a very promising direction and pace.
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