News from August 10-August 16
Israel and the UAE normalize relations, Kamala Harris, and NYC's Democratic Socialists of America
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Israel and the United Arab Emirates agree to normalize relations:
What happened? Last week, the United States, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that Israel and the UAE would be signing a deal that would see the countries “normalize relations” in exchange for Israel suspending plans to annex parts of the West Bank. According to a joint statement from the three countries, Israel and the UAE will begin signing bilateral deals on “investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare, the environment, the establishment of mutual embassies, and other areas of mutual benefit.” As the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab states has been a consistent bipartisan objective, leaders on both sides of the aisle praised the agreement, which is being called the Abraham Accords.
Is this a big deal? Yes! Notably, the UAE is only the third Arab nation (after Egypt and Jordan) and the first non-neighboring Arab nation to normalize relations with Israel. Many analysts believe that other Arab countries (specifically Bahrain, Oman, and Morocco) are likely to follow suit. Although Israel has long been known to work secretly with the Gulf nations on common issues, the fact that the UAE is now willing to recognize and work openly with Israel suggests that Middle Eastern countries are beginning to view cooperation with the Jewish state as critical to their long-term security and prosperity.
Perhaps more importantly, the deal upended the conventional wisdom that normalization with Israel would only be possible if Israel signed a long-term peace deal with the Palestinians. Now, an increasingly adversarial Shiite axis led by Iran, paired with the perception that Palestinian rejectionism is one of the (if not the) primary reasons for the lack of a long-term arrangement, has led the UAE to view relations with Israel as more important than waiting for Palestinians to agree to a deal. Put simply, the UAE likely believes that the benefits of working with Israel outweigh the costs of damaging ties with the Palestinians and other Muslim countries.
What does Israel have to offer the UAE and what can the UAE offer Israel? The most significant benefit for both countries is a partnership to counter Iran’s influence in the Middle East. In recent years, Iran has attempted to expand its foothold in Syria and Iraq while maintaining some various proxies in Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen. Its adventurism has directly affected both nations; Israel through the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah (among other ways) and the UAE by arming the Houthi rebels in Yemen (on the other side of the Arabian peninsula) and disrupting commerce in the Strait of Hormuz. An extensive partnership between the countries could see Israel send advanced military technology to the UAE in return for a de facto forward operating base very close to Iran’s borders. At the same time, both countries will benefit from new financial dealings and civil technology partnerships in areas like healthcare and agriculture.
Anything else? The deal’s implications are vast, so I will attempt to summarize some key points and my thoughts (in no particular order and many are my opinion):
Ironically, Netanyahu traded de jure recognition of de facto control over parts of the West Bank for de jure recognition of Israel’s de facto relationship with the UAE.
Though the de facto rule of the UAE Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) said that annexation was “off the table,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the plans are still very much on the table, just suspended for now. President Trump initially said that annexation wouldn’t happen but then backtracked to say it could happen in the future. Annexation is still very unlikely to happen–The word “suspend” was likely chosen to appease the Israeli right.
If Israel had to commit to pausing annexation to get the UAE to normalize relations, what will it have to do to normalize relations with other Gulf countries? One possibility is that Netanyahu and President Trump are insisting annexation will still happen so that they could later trade the abandonment of annexation plans in exchange for normalization with a group of countries (Bahrain, Morocco, Oman?) or with a more significant country (Saudi Arabia?). I’m skeptical of that approach, but the question is certainly a valid one.
This is a foreign policy achievement for President Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and MBZ. It’s good to see countries commit to peace, especially in a region historically filled with turmoil.
After the deal was announced, public polling indicated almost 80% (!) of Israelis preferred a peace agreement to the annexation of parts of the West Bank.
Israel essentially got rewarded for threatening to do something that was not popular around the world, strategically unimportant, and disliked by most of its people.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) is struggling diplomatically–between having the Trump administration craft a peace vision that favors Israel and Arab nations forging ties with the Jewish state, the PA has not been particularly impactful in influencing the international community over the last few years. Perhaps the PA would be more successful if it focused on engaging rather than delegitimizing Israel.
The UAE is signaling that it can and will accept the status quo as a long-term arrangement in the West Bank and Gaza. At the moment, the status quo is relatively peaceful. What happens if Israel needs to enter Gaza again or respond with force to riots on its Gazan border? Will the Emiratis maintain their support if Israel is in the spotlight for violence against Palestinians?
What happens now? The first thing to change after the normalization was announced was that Israeli and Emirati phone lines were connected so people in the two nations can now speak over the phone. Plans are also in the works for direct flights to begin shortly. Although the governments have not signed any documents yet, they intend to sign deals later this year.
Further reading: I’ll include a few different perspectives today.
Born of internal Arab despair, UAE deal gives Israel genuine chance of peace by Yossi Klein Halevi
Around-the-halls: Experts analyze the normalization of Israel-UAE ties by Natan Sachs, Bruce Riedel, Jeffrey Feltman, Tamara Cofman Wittes, Suzanne Maloney, Shadi Hamid, and Salam Fayyad
For Palestinians, Israel-U.A.E. Deal Swaps One Nightmare for Another by Isabel Kershner and Adam Rasgon
Joe Biden picks Kamala Harris as his running mate on the Democratic ticket:
Is Kamala Harris Jewish? No, Kamala Harris is not Jewish, but she does have many connections to Judaism and has been a strong supporter of Israel since she became a Senator in 2017. Notably, her husband, Douglas Emhoff, is Jewish (he smashed a glass at their wedding), and Harris’ stepchildren call her “Momala,” which may be a play on the Yiddish word “Mamale,” that means little mother (she has not explained that it is related to the Yiddish word). Harris also attracted attention from the Jewish community in 2019 when she debuted her imitation of her Jewish mother-in-law (you have to watch this, it’s great!). Joe Biden also has familial Jewish ties as two of his children are married to Jews.
What about her policy beliefs? Harris has been a strong supporter of Israel in the Senate. The first bill she co-sponsored was a bill that condemned UN Resolution 2334, which criticized Israel for building settlements in the West Bank. Like many Democrats, she opposes bans on BDS activism but does not support BDS. Harris has also spoken to AIPAC, visited Israel multiple times, and supports re-entering the Iran deal. She has also worked on policies that directly relate to Jews; as both a prosecutor and Senator, she focused on hate crimes, including when she helped pass a resolution that named religious institutions as potential targets.
More reading: https://jewishinsider.com/2020/08/biden-picks-kamala-harris-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ (Jewish Insider)
New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter asks candidates to commit to not visit Israel while in office:
What happened? Last week, reporter Zach Fink posted a picture of the New York City chapter of Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) endorsement application, which asks candidates to pledge not to visit Israel. DSA’s endorsement application did not mention or ask candidates about any other countries, prompting accusations that question was an antisemitic litmus test.
The screenshot obtained by Fink.
How have people reacted? New York State Senator Liz Krueger tweeted, “Respect much of what DSA stands for. I'm also a Jew and Zionist opposed to annexation and disagree w/Israeli gov't's treatment of Palestinians. But singling out Israel for special condemnation, among all questionable regimes we deal with, is anti-Semitism, and must be called out.”
2021 Manhattan district attorney candidate Tali Farhadian Weinstein said, “So let me get this straight. Per this questionnaire it would be ok for me to travel to Iran, the country of my birth, which hangs men for being gay and may stone women for adultery, but not to Israel.”
Ritchie Torres, a New York City Councilmember who recently won NY-15’s Democratic primary, said the following in an interview with Jewish Insider: “In January of 2019, I publicly announced that I, as a Congressional candidate, would never seek the endorsement of or otherwise associate with any organization that embraces BDS, which to me, has a subtext of antisemitism. I stand by that pledge–always have and always will. When JCRC brought me to Israel for the first time back in 2015, I spoke to both Israelis and Palestinians, and among Israelis, spoke to both Arabs and Jews. I heard various perspectives, asked hard questions, and came to more fully understand a conflict that is infinitely more complicated than media narratives make it out to be. Denying yourself an opportunity to listen intently to voices on the ground and see the situation with your own eyes will make you no wiser as a person or public servant.”
New York City’s DSA chapter issued a statement: “Members of the City Council are regularly taken on an expenses-paid trip to Israel that functions primarily as a political junket to foster ties between local officials and the Israeli state. It is the only country that Council Members are regularly taken on delegations to visit for this purpose.” You can read their whole statement here.
Further reading: https://jewishinsider.com/2020/08/nyc-dsa-asks-local-candidates-to-pledge-not-to-visit-israel/ (Jewish Insider)
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