(OPINION) Michael Snyder – The historic agreement that Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain just signed is being hailed as a major leap toward a lasting peace in the Middle East.
But the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are not exactly the major players in the region, and what Israel had to give up in order to get these two Arab nations to “normalize relations” has a lot of people scratching their heads. First of all, the annexation of any territory in Judea and Samaria has now been put on hold indefinitely.
But much more importantly, the treaty that was just signed commits Israel to “a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, and obviously a “negotiated solution” would involve the creation of a Palestinian state. Unfortunately, very few are talking about the deeper implications of this agreement. Instead, just about everyone seems extremely excited that “peace” has been achieved…
President Donald Trump heralded a pair of historic agreements formalizing diplomatic relations between Israel and two Gulf Arab nations in a ceremony Tuesday on the White House South Lawn. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the accords – written in English, Hebrew, and Arabic – marking a major geopolitical shift in the Middle East and giving Trump a platform as a peacemaker as he heads into the fall reelection campaign.
If you read mainstream media accounts, this treaty sounds absolutely wonderful. We are being told that as a result of this agreement Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain “will establish embassies, exchange ambassadors, and cooperate on a broad range of issues, from trade to health care to security”. All of that sounds great, and none of those developments should upset anyone. And if that was all that the agreement covered, there wouldn’t be a problem.
In the end, we should all want peace, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the word “peace” repeatedly during his remarks at the signing ceremony in Washington… “To all of Israel’s friends in the Middle East – those who are with us today and those who will join us tomorrow – I say, salaam aleichem, peace unto thee, Shalom,” he continued. “The blessings of peace that we make today will be enormous,” he continued, “first because this peace will eventually expand to include other Arab states, and ultimately, it can end the Arab-Israel conflict once and for all.” READ MORE
