Had Barack Obama successfully brokered the recent deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, there would have been calls for another Nobel Peace Prize. After all, it was only weeks after Obama was sworn in as president that the Nobel folks came knocking the first time. And up to that point, Obama had done nothing – other than get elected president.
But this time the president is Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. And the chance of the Stockholm folks presenting a Nobel Peace Prize to Donald Trump, is about as likely as me being inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame (and I don’t play a musical instrument.)
Why does the US and world intelligentsia hate this president so much? It’s a lot of things. They don’t like his style. They don’t like his calling for “America First.” They don’t like his cracking down on illegal immigration. They don’t like him insisting that other nations pay their full share of UN dues, and they don’t like his insistence that our NATO allies live up to their commitment to spend 2% of their GDP on defense.
Now I’ve been a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for over two decades now. I’ve been Chairman of the Middle East Subcommittee, as well as the Asia and Pacific Subcommittee, and I was the House representative to the United Nations for the year following the September 11 attacks. I’ve studied, worked on, and been to the Middle East numerous times over the years. And with that background, it is my humble opinion, that the agreement between Israel and the UAE establishing normalized relations, is the most underreported story in a long long time.
Yes, Israel’s first agreement with an Arab nation, Egypt, signed back in 1979, was bigger. After all, it was the first, and Egypt is a much larger and more powerful nation than UAE – 102 million people versus 10 million people. And the second agreement, with Jordan, was quite significant as well, and has contributed to stability in the region.
But this agreement is also extremely significant, and deserves major news coverage. However, the coverage has been muted.
The agreement is known as the Abraham Accord (yes, that Abraham.) It calls for the two nations to normalize relations, which includes diplomatic as well as business relations, scientific cooperation, and tourism. Israel has agreed to suspend its plans to annex additional areas in the West Bank. The Palestinians, of course, who never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, are outspokenly opposed to the agreement.
Perhaps the most important thing about the agreement is that it may just pave the way for other Arab countries to follow suit, and agree to normalize relations with Israel. The most likely to do so would be Oman, Bahrain, Sudan, and eventually the big prize, Saudi Arabia. These nations’ rivalry with, and fear of, Iran, is one of the driving forces behind this encouraging trend.
The person who deserves considerable credit for the Abraham Accord (besides President Trump) is the president’s son-in-law, Gerald Kushner. He has been doggedly pursuing peace in the Middle East over the past four years. Earlier this week, Kushner was on the first commercial flight, along with other senior US and Israeli officials, to land in the UAE from Israel. Establishing commercial flights between the two nations was an important part of the Abraham accord.
At a time when it seems like there’s not a lot to be hopeful about in this crazy 2020 world, this is at least one bright spot to feel at least a modicum of optimism about.