Non-Starter

Despite claims made by President Trump, the so-called ‘Abraham Accord” will be a non-starter because of three main reasons. First, unlike Egypt and Jordan who were in a state of war with Israel and signed peace deals with the Jewish state in 1979 and 1994, respectively, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have no direct conflict with Israel. Unlike Egypt and Jordan, the U.A.E. and Bahrain have no territorial issues with Israel and are not neighbours of the Jewish state. On this account, the credibility and sustainability of ‘Abraham Accord’ is suspected. For long, the U.A.E., along with Oman and Bahrain, has suggested the pursuance of a ‘soft’ policy on Israel because, for them, along with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the main threat for the Arab Gulf states emanates not from Israel but from Iran. However, Saudi Arabia, which has very close relations with the U.A.E. and Bahrain has refused to recognize Israel without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Can Israel, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, be trusted to freeze Jewish settlements and not annex the occupied West Bank?

Can Israel, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, be trusted to freeze Jewish settlements and not annex the occupied West Bank? A day after the release of trilateral agreement by US President Donald Trump, Netanyahu made it clear that Israel, as of now, would not proceed with absorbing the West Bank but that his country would not abandon its claim over what Jews call the territories of Judea and Samara (West Bank) and will surely annex such areas, if not today, then later. Second, there is a strong backlash against the ‘Abraham Accord” in Palestine, Iran and Turkey. Neither the moderate PLO nor the radical Islamist Hamas have given their approval to the deal and call it a stab in the back as well as a let down of the people of Palestine. Turkey has hinted at recalling its ambassador from Abu Dhabi while Iran has condemned the ‘Abraham Accord’ and has termed it a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

The Camp David accord between Egypt and Israel of August 1978 and the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979 only served the interests of Egypt as it was able to get back the Sinai desert occupied by Israel during June 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It also made possible the re-opening of the Suez canal, a major source of revenue for Egypt. The Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty of 1994 served Jordanian interests. Israel reneged on the terms and conditions of the PLO-Israeli accord mediated by the then U.S president Bill Clinton on September13, 1993 as it refused to agree on a viable Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Given the track record of Israel betraying its agreements with the PLO, how can the U.A.E. and Bahrain ensure that the Jewish state will not annex the West Bank? Third, the ‘Abraham Accord’ will be a non-starter because it has bypassed the real stakeholders of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict i.e. PLO and Hamas. Both have rejected that accord and termed it as a sell out and betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

Those who are supporting the deal between the U.S, Israel, U.A.E. and Bahrain have forgotten the fact that without taking the Palestinians on board, there cannot be a successful and durable settlement. Unfortunately, the Palestinians have suffered more at the hands of their Arab neighbours and other Arab countries than Israel because they are the ones who have ditched them and reduced their status to refugees in ghettos. Were thousands of Palestinians not killed during their uprising in Jordan called ‘Black September’ in 1970? Was the PLO not forced to vacate Beirut after the Israel occupation of the Lebanese capital in the summer of 1982 and no Arab state came to the support of the PLO when the Palestinians were massacred in refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila by the Christian militia with the connivance of Israeli forces led by Ariel Sharon in September 1982? PLO, because of the ditching of Lebanon and other frontline Arab states under its Chairman Yasser Arafat, had to shift its headquarters to Tunisia.

Israel has annexed the Golan Heights which was part of Syria during the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war and occupied the West Bank, including the holy city of East Jerusalem which was under the control of Jordan. No Arab state has prevented Israeli expansionism and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the settlement of hundreds of thousands of Jews in the occupied West Bank. The policy of ‘appeasement’ pursued by the Arab states vis-à-vis Israel is a fundamental reason for Palestinian displacement from their lands and occupation by Israel. Turkey and Iran are non-Arab countries but possess the moral courage to condemn the so-called ‘Abraham Accord’, terming it as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause. The Accord is rewarding Israel for its expansionist and brutal policies against the Arab population of West Bank and Gaza.

An Israeli academic based in Tel Aviv, Daniel B. Shapiro, while writing in the daily Haaretz, in its August 15, 2020 issue, argues that, “the United States, instead, should build on the Israel-UAE announcement to restore U.S. leadership towards a credible two-state outcome that ensures Israel’s security and its Jewish and democratic future, and fulfills Palestinians’ rights to dignity and self-determination in a viable state of their own”. But, for reasons examined earlier, the U.A.E. is not a neighbour of Israel and has no clout over PLO or Hamas. It is highly illogical to expect from Gulf states to play a role for peace between Israel and Palestine when they have little or no influence over the latter.

The asymmetrical nature of a two-state solution proposed by different American presidents will be unjust and unfair to the Palestinians because they will get a makeshift state littered with hundreds of Jewish settlements and heavily dependent on Israel. More so, in that makeshift state there will not be a direct linkage between Gaza and West Bank as the land in-between will be under Israeli occupation. The unjust and unfair handling of the Palestinian cause by Arab states tends to further promote Israeli influence in the Middle East which will further erode the credibility of the Arab-Muslim world.