Much has been made in the international media about the announcement by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel that they would be establishing diplomatic and economic ties. The announcement has not been met with the same enthusiasm in the Middle East, let alone in Palestinian areas.
It is important to realize what this agreement is not about. Unlike what the United States, Israel, and the UAE are painting it to be, this is not an agreement to move the peace process forward. It is simply an agreement to serve Emirati-Israeli bilateral interests and make public those relations that had been taking place under the table for years. The announced achievement by the UAE—that the agreement froze Israel’s annexation of large parts of the West Bank in exchange for normalization with the UAE—was no achievement at all. It was a reminder of former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin’s pledge in 1978 to freeze settlement activity for three months as part of the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement. We all know how that went.
The UAE has started a public relations campaign to contextualize its decision within a peace framework. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are doing the same. And some voices in the United States are portraying Emirati-Israeli normalization as a major breakthrough on the way to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is no such thing, and the people of the region are not fooled. Here is why.
It took Netanyahu no more than a few hours to announce on Israeli television that Israel’s West Bank annexation plans would be implemented regardless of the agreement. The Trump peace plan, which was the first scheme to call for annexation and encouraged Netanyahu to go in that direction, has not been shelved because of the Emirati-Israeli deal. In other words nothing has changed.
The bottom line remains the same. Any peace agreement that does not have as an aim the termination of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through the achievement of a two-state solution should not be hailed as a breakthrough. When Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties with Israel, they did so for the return of the Sinai Peninsula and the hope that a Palestinian state would be established on Palestinian soil. No such hope exists today. The UAE and Israel are free to pursue their bilateral interests, but these interests are not a replacement for achieving peace among the two peoples directly concerned—the Palestinians and Israelis. It should be clear that no such peace can be achieved without the involvement of Palestinians themselves, who are, after all, the ones living under occupation.
Other Gulf countries might follow the UAE. Israel will repeat the mantra that it does not need peace with the Palestinians since it can jump over them and conclude peace with other Arab countries. This is short-term thinking that is also delusional. By applauding the agreement as a breakthrough for peace, many are contributing, intentionally or not, to the delusion that one can achieve peace even when no peace exists between the occupier and occupied.
The biggest loser from this agreement is not the Palestinians, as many believe, but the two-state solution. Sadly, we are at a point where Israel does not believe it needs to end its occupation, does not believe in a credible two-state solution, and does not seem to believe it needs peace with the Palestinians. It would be prudent to think of the consequences. The misapprehension that one can further peace without the direct involvement of the Palestinians is helping to kill the very aim of the international community—a two-state solution.
This mistake has already shifted the focus, particularly among a new generation of Palestinians, from a solution based on two states to a reality based on one state. The question from now on will increasingly cease to be whether and when a two-state solution will be achieved, but what kind of a one-state solution will emerge from the current reality: a democratic system or an apartheid state?
We need to realize that the conflict has reached a point where the emphasis is shifting from the shape of a solution to the pursuit of rights—equal rights, that is. By concentrating on form at the expense of substance, the international community has buried the very outcome it had hoped to achieve. Now it will have to deal with a long and bloody struggle for equal rights that the Palestinians will find themselves forced to adopt. So before naively hailing the UAE-Israel agreement as a breakthrough for the kind of peace they envisage, let those who have praised the plan hold their applause and think more carefully about what the outcome is likely to be.
Comments(9)
Very wise article.
Wise words. This agreement will contribute nothing to a sustainable peace. And if Trump is dumped in November, its main object, that is his appeasement by the two parties, will be null and void. As such it is anything but strategic. One can only hope that it is consigned to the already bulging middle eastern dustbin of history.
This illusion was not created to help the Israelis or the Emiratis. Not even the Palestinians, who are most concerned! It is a contraption devised to help Trump to claim that he has made an achievement on the international theater, which by the way, does not help the U. S. at all, and to help Netanyahu hope to fool his voters to forgive his sinful misconduct and forget their decades-long hopes for peace with the indigenous Palestinians. One the US elections are over do not be surprised if this scheme falls flat on its face.
Subject to fast (or slow) checking : the Arabs from Palestine seemingly are not (and wouldn't have wished ? ) to be referred to as Palestinians until a proposal came along dividing Palestine into two legitimate states. One of it became the legal state of Israel, a democracy, which was declared war by the " Arab World", among which, on the forefront, those who then became The Palestinians. Until then there does not seem to exist historic reference of "indigenous Palestinians " but rather the Arab and Hebrew populations of Palestine. At the time of the two states proposal , "statistics" (?) report the presence of around 700.000 Arab populations; about 600.000 Hebrews. While 700.000 Palestinians reportedly had to flee, over 800.000 Hebrews were forced to do the same from their Arab home countries. Trump, the right man in the right place, for Netanyahu, who, one can read is a very good friend of Jared Kushner's father. A pretty easy puppet maneuvering process ? Trump not being thoroughly interested in the fate of any country except his narrow minded view of white America, might have been seduced and become strongly motivated hearing his name promised towering here and there in the much disputed area under continuous threat of Obama's beneficiary of USD 150.000 billion (money is the only thing which " makes him go round"..) and here he might have gotten a point considering the spreading of a diabolic military network put in place by a locally much regretted commander, reading here and there Lebanon probably might be sitting on a big part of it ? Gossip or reality ? Who has legitimate expertise to in- or confirm such in-digest information. Most interested in reading your science.
We have deluded ourselves for decades that Peace is possible with the Zionist entity. This is a settler- colonial project that has achieved so far most of its goals including reducing the Palestine/ Israel question to rights of the indigenous population. We should concern ourselves with the Emirati deal (and I call it deal as peace is between two warring parties- there was never any war between the two entities) and the rest of the deals that will follow with other arab countries as the Palestine Cause is an ARAB cause. The current destruction of the Arab region (Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, adding Lebanon now) is directly linked to the creation and maintenance of the Zionist entity. Any political discourse should start with the idea of the need to dismantle the Zionist entity - while maintaining the Jewish population and safeguarding their lives and livelihoods along side the return of the Palestinians to their homeland. The two can live in Peace without the colonial frame of the current Zionist entity. That is when a real Democratic Peaceful one state solution can exist.
As long as arabs call anything an "arab cause", they are doomed to fail. Allah SWT and His Prophet PBUH have always spoken/referred about Ummah, which modern arabism denies. So do what you desire, but arabs shall answer Allah SWT on the day of judgement for fragmenting His Ummah into arabs vs non-arabs.
This deal is great for the UAE and Israel. Both sides enjoy progress borne from a forward looking approach. The Palestinians should understand their leaders and their way of doing things for the last 50 years has failed to gain any of these benefits. Will we see them finally change tack?
The curse of the Palestinian cause has been the Palestinian leadership. Time and time again, there were offerings for a peace and a two-state solution. Alas, the Palestinian leaders would only have everything, and nothing less. And less the Palestinians got, less and less by the year. Now even the regional interest for the Palestinian cause is waning, while their leaders continue to threaten and offering no solutions. It is truly tragic.
Well said! The author mentions "a new generation of Palestinians" - it's these people who must realize that if they don't refesh their thinking and strategy ... they will be simply left behind for good.
Comment Policy
Comments that include profanity, personal attacks, or other inappropriate material will be removed. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, steps will be taken to block users who violate any of the posting standards, terms of use, privacy policies, or any other policies governing this site. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.