The Middle East Accords: an Israeli Perspective.

• Author: Falk, Ophir
• Position: Abraham Accords - Viewpoint essay

Title: The Middle East Accords: an Israeli Perspective

Author:Ophir Falk

Text:

Peace is a universal value, the highest virtue in Jewish tradition, and cherished by anyone longing for a brighter future for his children. Pragmatic Muslim leaders are no exception and with the recently reached "Abraham Accords', the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel have proven that Peace for Peace is possible. (i)

On August 13, 2020 the world witnessed a fundamental shift in the Middle East peace process paradigm. The UAE, one of the most advanced and prosperous nations in the world, and Israel, one of the most innovative and resilient nations, decided to officially normalize their relations for the best common interest of their people.

The accord suggests that peace between Israel and leading Arab countries can be achieved without Israeli withdrawals from biblical land or uprooting Jews from their homes. Practical Muslims want peace as much as Jews do. They want true peace and are no longer willing to hold back their future due to the doggedness of Palestinian leaders.

Peaceful Muslim tourists and worshipers will be welcomed in Israel. They will visit Jerusalem, the city of peace, and Israelis will be welcomed to see the UAE's many marvels. The first direct commercial flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi took off on August 31st. (ii) People will meet people and business to business interactions should in turn encourage leaders to further cement peace.

By being willing to suspend the extension of Israel's sovereignty, as sanctioned by the U.S. peace plan, Netanyahu made it "... peace for peace, not land for peace." as explained by former ambassador ItamarRabinovich immediately after the historic announcement. (iii)

Even one of President Trump's stoutest critics, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, called the deal "a geopolitical earthquake" (iv) and David Ignatius of the Washington Post said "Trump is right. The Israel -UAE agreement is a huge achievement." (v)

All this did not come out of the blue. For years, in the face of media mockery and self-regarded pundit nay-sayers, the Trump administration, moderate Muslim state leaders, and Israeli statesmen were determined to fix wrongs and form a better future.

It started with Trump's "Riyadh address" calling on Arab leaders to do their share to fight Islamist extremism. (vi) It was followed by the U.S. withdrawal from the perilous Iran nuclear deal, which would have paved the path to an Iranian nuclear bomb and in fact helped finance its state terrorism and infiltration into Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza and elsewhere. (vii) That was subsequently complemented by the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital (viii), of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights (ix), and the legitimacy of settlements (x).

Once other nations saw that these daring deeds didn't bring down the sky, the time was ripe to form a pragmatic pact with a 60-nation strong conference held in Warsaw last February, intended to "Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East". (xi) Senior representatives from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Morocco, and Bahrain set the stage for normalization and peace. The big question was who would jump into the water first. The UAE's Mohammed bin Zayed was first, then came Bahrain, followed by Sudan.

Ivy League and Mount Scopus academics who ridiculed and denounced the "Peace for Peace" doctrine are the same type of old-school professors who taught in the late 80's that the cold war would last for a century to come and ridiculed Reagan-led initiatives. (xii)

Palestinian representatives have refused all peace attempts to put an end to the conflict. They said no to Churchill and subsequent British white papers dating back to 1922, no to the UN partition plan in 1947 (xiii) and no to the Rogers plan in 1970. After more than a generation of PLO terrorism, a "Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements" (aka the Oslo Accords (xiv)) was signed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman Yasser Arafat on September 13, 1993. The Accords laid grounds for further negotiations but an agreement that would put an end to the conflict was unobtainable. Agreements proposed by Prime Ministers Peres, Barak (xv), Olmert (xvi/xvii), or the most recent White House peace plan proposal (xviii), were rejected, regardless of how forthcoming these attempts were (xix). After all these years, Palestinian leadership still...