UAE-Israel deal could herald a new dawn

Establishment of relations may also be a starting point for the restoration of Palestinian dignity

PLO chairman Yasser Arafat holds the second phase of the Oslo peace accords after the initialling of the document, September 24, 1995, as Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres looks on. Israel and the PLO will officially sign the agreement in Washington later this week. REUTERS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (R) during their meeting at Erez Crossing point, northen Gaza Strip, December 24, 1996. Arafat and Netanyahu met here in search of an agreement to end Israeli occupation of Hebron and revive the peace process. In the background at left is U.S. mediator Dennis Ross. REUTERS

Egyptian President Anouar el-Sadate (L) meets Israeli Prime minister Menahem Begin in Tel Aviv on November 23, 1977. AFP

Photo taken on 20 November 1977 of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (R) during a joint press conference he gave with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin during his historic visit to Israel. Anwar al-Sadat's visit to Israel led fifteen months later to the signing of the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab country. AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (2nd R) and Jordan's King Hussein (2nd L) are directed where to sign by unidentified aides as US President Bill Clinton (C) looks on during ceremonies at the White House in Washington, on July 25, 1994. AFP

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (R) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both gesture for the other to leave a meeting December 24 1996, in the Israeli Civil Administration headquarters located along the Israeli - Gaza Strip border area. The two leaders met for for over three hours in a bid to clinch the agreement on the long-delayed Israeli troop redeployment in Hebron. Although no agreement was reached U.S. envoy Dennis-Ross said that "real progress" was made towards the long-elusive accord. REUTERS

US President Bill Clinton (c) applauds as Jordan's King Hussein Ibn Talal (r) and Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin shake hands during the Israeli-Jordanian Peace Treaty signing ceremony at the Araba Israeli-Jordanian border 26 October 1994. AFP

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani (R) greets Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres in Doha, 30 January 2007. AFP

US President Bill Clinton (C), Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (2nd-L), PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat (2nd-R), King Hussein I of Jordan (L)and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (R) arrive for the signing ceremony of a Palestinian autonomy accord in the West Bank, at the white House in Washington, DC, 28 September 1995. AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (from L to R) prepare to start their meeting at an Israeli military base at the Erez crossing point, the main point of passage from the Gaza Strip into Israel. The three met for the third time in two weeks in an intensive US push to seal a new interim Mideast peace accord. AFP

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (R) shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after United States' special envoy Dennis Ross (C) spoke, early January 15 after the two leaders met and agreed on the term for the long overdue Israeli troop redeployment in Hebron. The talks lasted less than two hours and concluded months of negotiations which will lead to the end of the Israeli military occupation in about 80 percent of Hebron. REUTERS

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (R) jokingly pushes Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (C) into the Laurel cabin on the grounds of Camp David as U.S. President Bill Clinton watches during peace talks, July 11 2000. Arafat and Barak were insisting that the other proceed through the door first. Camp David is the venue where Egypt and Israel made peace in September 1978, and the Laurel cabin was the site of many of the meetings. REUTERS

Mahmoud Abbas (L), the Palestinian negotiator better known as Abu Mazen, and Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon turn to the cameras and smile as they shake hands at the start of their meeting in Sharon's office November 18. The two met to review the work of all the Israeli-Palestinian peace committees and to set a date for the resumption of final status talks. REUTERS

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (R) greets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting in Jerusalem September 16, 2008. REUTERS

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat (R) shake hands with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (L), as U.S. President Bill Clinton stands between them, after the signing of the Israeli-PLO peace accord, at the White House in Washington September 13, 1993. REUTERS

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (C) sits next to at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (R) during a working meeting in the Houghton House at the Wye River Plantation Conference Center in Maryland 16 October, 1998. AFP

U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin join hands in celebration of the signing of the Treaty of Peace Between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Israel at the White House in Washington, D.C., March 26, 1979. REUTERS

U.S. President George W. Bush discusses the Middle East peace process with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel (L) and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (R) in Aqaba, Jordan, June 4, 2003. REUTERS

U.S. President Barack Obama watches Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) shake hands during a trilateral meeting in New York September 22, 2009. REUTERS

United States' special envoy Dennis Ross looks on as Saeb Erekat (L), the chief Palestinian negotiator, and Dan Shomron, the chief Israeli negotiator, initial the documents that bring to a conclusion the long-delayed and overdue Israeli troop redeployment in the West Bank city of Hebron. Palestinian President Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu shook hands on the deal, and now both sides will take the agreement to their respective cabinets for approval. The troop redeployment will take place within ten days. REUTERS

Two months ago, Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE's ambassador to Washington, laid out for Israelis a vision for a more peaceful Middle East. "Greater security. Direct links. Expanded markets. Growing acceptance," he wrote in an opinion piece for a daily newspaper in Tel Aviv. "This is what normal could be."

It is a very different path from the one Israel had been heading down since its March election, in which the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to mount an illegal annexation of occupied Palestinian territory.

Annexation, as Mr Al Otaiba pointed out, would be the opposite of normal; it would be a provocation for large sections of the Arab world that yearn for a more stable and prosperous future. Israel’s response to these aspirations “would be an unmistakable signal of whether it sees it the same way”.

This evening, Israel made its decision. In a landmark agreement between the UAE, Israel and the US, the Netanyahu government agreed to halt its annexation plans in exchange for the establishment of bilateral ties with the Emirates.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, confirmed that “the UAE and Israel also agreed to co-operation and setting a roadmap towards establishing a bilateral relationship”.

Provided the Israeli government upholds the agreement, the end result will be the establishment of a multitude of ties, including diplomatic outposts, trade and co-operation in technology sectors. The two nations will also work together in addressing food security and climate change – areas that will have far-reaching consequences for quality of life throughout the region.

The deal is an historic moment in decades of diplomatic efforts to preserve the contours of a future Palestinian state through a negotiated, two-state solution. It is also a moment of which the Emirates, which has long sought to ensure the dignity of Palestinians, can be exceptionally proud. The spectre of annexation, which remains illegal under international law, was not only an affront to that dignity in the present moment; it was a negation of all that a Palestinian state could be. The suffering Palestinians have endured over the past seven decades is immeasurable, but equally limitless is the potential that Palestinians have to build for themselves a country that could be the envy of the Middle East. A deal that seeks to protect their resources and territorial integrity is a crucial starting point from which that future can begin.

“Fundamentally, our initiative is not to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Gargash said of the announcement. "This is left to the Palestinian and Israelis – rather it is to contribute to defusing a time bomb that was threatening the two-state solution”.

With good faith from the Israeli side, it could also be a starting point for a new chapter in history. The Middle East is a region with too many fractures in too many places. With this agreement, one of its deepest may soon begin to heal.