Huge news. President Trump & PM Netanyahu just announced a peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates, the first Gulf country to make peace with Israel, and the first peace deal between Israel and an Arab state since 1994, when a deal was made between Israel and Jordan. Today’s deal was made thanks to the involvement of President Trump and his administration.
Prime Minister Netanyahu announced earlier that “President Trump asked that Israel wait temporarily with applying sovereignty in Judea & Samaria in order to make a peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates & I believe other countries. I did not and will not remove sovereignty from the agenda. Like I brought peace with an Arab state I will bring sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. I won’t give up on our right to our land.”
What should we think about the deal? Is it good for Israel? Is it worth the price of postponing sovereignty in Judea & Samaria indefinitely?
I believe it is bittersweet news.
On the one hand, the peace deal with the UAE is a huge accomplishment and probably paves the way for a peace deal with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab countries, which should be a big boost for Israel diplomatically, especially in standing up against Iran, and maybe even at the UN, but I’m not holding my breath for that one.
It also is another nail in the coffin of the diplomatic left, proving that the left’s philosophy, and policy, that peace with the Arab world is only possible after Israel expels Jews and destroys Jewish communities in Judea & Samaria, is wrong and dead.
Just recently, DC think tanks and leftist Generals and politicians in Israel, were screaming to high heavens against Trump’s decisions to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, recognize Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights, and declare that Israeli settlements in Judea & Samaria are not illegal. they have also been screaming for years that Netanyahu has irreparably damaged diplomatic relations for Israel.
Why have they been so upset? Because they never liked Netanyahu standing up for Israel’s rights and they believed that Trump’s pro-Israel diplomatic moves would make peace with the Arab world impossible!
Look who was proven wrong.
The left’s approach of appeasement, and giving up our own identity, homeland and interests, in order to make “peace” is interpreted as weakness in the Muslim world and that just brings more terror, violence and deaths upon as well. True peace is made through strength, but standing up for our rights and not appeasing our intolerant, violent enemies.
Appeasement doesn’t bring peace closer, it pushes peace further away!
This deal with the United Arab Emirates also shows the diminishing Arab “solidarity” with the cause called “palestine, weakening the palestinian authority moving forward in trying to portray their cause as representing the whole Muslim Arab world.
So, strategically, this deal helps Israel diplomatically in many ways, especially in standing up against Iran.
However, sovereignty in Judea & Samaria is also extremely important strategically for Israel, short and long term. By not implementing sovereignty, it allows the EU to continue illegally funding the palestinian authority with billions of Euros to take over Israeli land in Judea & Samaria, endangering the existing Jewish communities in our heartland and weakening our hold on the land. It also allows the two-state solution to still exist. Which is still extremely dangerous diplomatically for Israel. We have been waiting for two millennia to finally act as the sovereign in our ancestral lands of Judea & Samaria. It looks like we will have to wait some more.
As I said, bittersweet.
Land of Israel activist and publicist Boaz Ha’etzni makes another very important point against this deal with the United Arab Emirates, relating to the peace deal with Jordan. Ha’etzni points out that Israel always had relations with Jordan, since 1948, yet secret relations. And because they were secret, Israel never had to pay a price, until an official peace deal was made in 1994. Thanks to the deal, Israel then had to give away Israeli land and hand over a huge amount of water each year to Jordan, that hurts Israel during drought years. In addition, since the deal was signed, Jordan has to prove to the Arab world and to it’s own citizens that peaceful relations with Israel is just a show. Hence, Jordan is one of the worst states in the UN always co-sponsoring and supporting anti-Israel resolutions.
Who knows, the secret relations Israel had with the UAE might end up being better than the public peace arrangement, that is also demanding Israel to give up on our own interests and who knows what other prices. Because now in order to “keep the peace” we will have to give in to their demands, something we would not have to do if relations remained secret.
By the way, can you imagine the collective media celebration that would be happening if it was President Obama who had gotten the Israelis and an Arab state to normalize ties? Instead, today they are silent in their praise of President Trump, because it’s President Trump.
The irony is that President Obama received a nobel peace prize for nothing, while President Trump probably will not receive a nobel peace prize even though he did bring about peace between Israel and an Arab country.