The Foreign Minister Director of Policy Planning in the United Arab Emirates, Jamal al-Musharakh, has again explained what the UAE claims it has been assured by Israel and the U.S. His statement is here.
Israel and the United States have promised the United Arab Emirates that Jerusalem will not annex parts of the West Bank as a guarantee for normalizing relations between the countries, UAE Foreign Ministry Director of Policy Planning Jamal al-Musharakh said on Tuesday.
Asked if annexation would threaten the ties between the countries, Musharakh said “it does not” and that “bilateral relations are well underway in various fields.”
Here Al-Musharakkh restates a claim made by other UAE officials, that Israel will not “annex” – that is, extend its sovereignty over – parts of the West Bank. But both the U.S. and Israel have said that Israel has agreed only to “suspend” those plans, with no indication of when they might be revived.
And there is a puzzling ambiguity in Musharakh’s answer, when he was asked “if annexation would threaten the ties between the countries” and he answered “it does not.” What does that answer mean? Was Musharakh simply noting that, “it [annexation] does not threaten the ties between the two countries” – for now — because Israel has not gone forward with its annexation plans?
Or does his remark mean that “even if the Israelis at some point annex part of the West Bank, it won’t necessarily threaten our relations with them”? It certainly seems to be saying that. If that is true, that would be a great relief. It may be that the UAE leaders are themselves not sure how they would react to an Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank down the road. By that time, many months from now, there would presumably have been a great many mutually beneficial bilateral agreements, in technology, trade, tourism, solar energy, medicine, agriculture, that would make the UAE leaders increasingly reluctant to walk away from the agreement, sacrificing the national interest of the UAE to satisfy the demands of the querulous, ungrateful, insulting Palestinians, who have defaced and stomped on the Emirati flag, filled social media with curses directed at the Emirates, its leaders, and its people, and tried to whip up other Arabs against the Emirates for its supposed “betrayal” of the Palestinian cause.
However, he added, that “one of the prerequisites of the commencing of bilateral relations was the halting of annexation.”
Al-Musharakh said he has “assurances from key leaders in the US and Israel” that such a move [annexation] will not happen. He used a word in Arabic that means “to stop or delay” to describe the agreement on the matter of sovereignty. American statements on the matter used the word “to suspend.”
The Arabic word Al-Musharakh used could mean “stop or delay,” rather than, unambiguously, “end.” Both the Israelis and the Americans have continued to use the word “suspend” in discussing the extension of sovereignty to the major settlement blocs and the Jordan Valley. Netanyahu himself has assured Israelis that he has not forgotten his pledge to extend Israeli sovereignty, but that he awaited the go-ahead from the Americans – whose views on extension of sovereignty he has promised to respect. And right now the Americans are not ready to go forward. They have taken annexation “off the table” – for now. Such an agreement by the Americans may not happen for months. By that time there may well be a Biden administration, much less favorable to Israel, that will insist that there will never be a time when Israel will be allowed to assert its claim to the West Bank. That claim is based both on the Mandate for Palestine, which included the entire West Bank in the territory that would become the Jewish State, and on U.N. Resolution 242, which guaranteed Israel’s right to retain territories won in the Six-Day War that it needed in order to have “secure [i.e., defensible] and recognized boundaries.” Israel must assume that if Biden becomes president, those who advise him on foreign policy, and the raucous anti-Israel “Squad” (Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), will not merely block Israel’s extension of sovereignty, but actively work to have Israel’s settlements declared to be “illegal,” just as Biden’s boss, Obama, allowed to happen when he ordered the U.S. to abstain on UNSC Resolution 2334, which declared Israel’s settlement activity to constitute a “flagrant violation” of international law that had “no legal validity.” By abstaining, instead of exercising its veto, the U.S. for the first time allowed such a resolution to pass.
The UAE “remains with the Arab consensus and resolutions pertaining to” the Palestinians, he said. “We have not backed out even an inch from our position.”
This is not what the Palestinians think. They think the UAE has betrayed them, by going out on its own and normalizing relations with Israel in defiance of what the Palestinians, and other Arab states, want them to do. The UAE did not require Israel to withdraw from a single dunam of territory. Nor did it say that it expects Israel to withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines. It did get Israel to agree to “suspend” its extension of sovereignty in the West Bank, but not a commitment to end that attempt forever. This agreement was – as Prime Minister Netanyahu keeps repeating – not “land for peace” but, rather, “peace for peace.”
But normalizing relations with Israel without requiring it to give up any territory, as the UAE has just done, is not the Arab consensus, which – except for Egypt and Jordan – still predicates peace treaties with Israel on the withdrawal of Israel to the 1949 armistice lines, and the establishment of a Palestinian state that would include Gaza and all of the West Bank.
Whatever one thinks of the UAE’s new policy, it does not reflect, as Al-Musharakh wants us to believe, the “consensus” of Arab states but, rather, challenges that consensus.
The director spoke with journalists at the United Arab Emirates’ Presidential Airport as the first official Israeli delegation visit to the country, led by National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, came to a close. A day earlier, the first-ever direct flight from an Israeli airline, El Al, landed in that airport.
Al-Musharakh argued that normalization with Israel benefits the entire region, including the Palestinians.
Al-Musharakh is right.. Closer ties between Israel and the UAE will help both countries economically – in technology, trade, tourism, investment, as well as in medicine, including joint efforts to subdue the coronavirus pandemic – but others in the region will also be affected. As other Arab states see the many benefits the UAE will have derived from its ties to Israel, their opposition to dealing with the Jewish state should soften. The first states to follow the UAE’s example, many have suggested, will be Oman, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco, and – possibly – Saudi Arabia. These new Arab economic partners of Israel — the result of the UAE’s bold decision to normalize relations – will bring similar benefits to those Arab states, which in turn will lead still other Arab states to follow suit. As for the Palestinians, the recognition that the Arab states are now making their separate agreements with Israel, and that Israel goes diplomatically from strength to strength, may soften their own hard-line positions, and lead them, as the Saudi Crown Prince exasperatedly told Mahmoud Abbas, to make whatever deal they can.
mortimer says
In a sense, Israel need not officially ‘annex’ territory that was already dedicated to form the Jewish homeland.
The province of Judea is the original homeland of the Jews and that is why it was included in the land the Foreign Office set aside for Jewish settlement.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Yeah that was my question. How can you annex land you already own?
St. Croix says
I actually saw a video where Palestinian residents being interviewed on the street said they hoped they would “get annexed” so then they would live better, under Israeli gov’t–versus the corrupt P.A., which we all know is more interested in lining their own pockets than distributing services to the communities..
I just tried to find that clip, but can’t. All I can find on Google is clips and articles talking about how Israel plans to “erase” the Palestinians, and “churches against annexation” blah, blah, blah. No doubt it’s buried deep. Too bad I didn’t save it, no one would believe it if all they listen to is mainstream media.
Ismail Ali says
Empty promises from satanic societies.
juleonly says
No worry…..Islam well knows the meaning of TEMPORARILY.
(all Judea should be Israel at the very least)
b.a. freeman says
regardless of benefits or to whom they accrue, expect the rabid nazi socialists of the EU, UK, US, and other crumbling western nations to thoroughly condemn the agreement. here in the US, the nazis will steal the election and install Comma LaHarris as prez (possibly in perpetuity, since they always accuse non-nazis of doing either what they are already doing, or intend to do soon), spend taxpayer money to undermine israel, and give state-of-the-art weapons to the most rabid pious muslims they can find (with which to murder large numbers of us). i *STRONGLY* encourage my fellow free people to arm yourselves – LEGALLY – and set aside multiple stashes of weapons and ammunition, because the coming civil wars will not be pleasant.
Rarely says
It would probably be wise for Israel to abstain from officially “annexing” territory for quite some time — at least until normalized relationships have taken firm hold. Since Israel retains physical control anyway there seems to be no point in doing so now or in the near future and risk losing recent gains. Playing with semantics is fine for college debates.
gravenimage says
Sadly, I’m not sure that bowing to Muslim demands that Israel not protect herself are really “gains”.
Ismail Ali says
Israel knows that ,it is a war that they can never win,no matter how long it takes ,
juleonly says
I rather think it is Israel who will do what it takes no matter how long it takes….Israel has been proving that for about 3000 and the Hebrew Jews for 5000 years – long before Islam was even created as a foolish competition and long before ‘Arabia’ or Iran under islam were even installed. Hijaz and around was just a bunch of tribes without form. And Judaism does not even force conversions on others but keeps its honor. Warlords are still barbaric though AUE show a glimmer of moving forward though people are still skeptical of sincerity.
gravenimage says
Actually, Muslims keep trying to wipe out Israel–and keep failing miserably.
juleonly says
It is a delicate situation but Israel has said Temporary suspension and Israel keeps its word.
gravenimage says
UAE Official on Annexation Assurances
…………..
Yes–Israel has to pay for the UAE’s dubious “friendship” by not protecting Judea and Samaria. Not sure this is worth it.