Advancing and re-framing Israeli-Arab normalization -opinion

• Author: Gil Murciano
• Published date: 25 September 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

On the one hand the agreement is a relative success in building ties between institutions, such as ministries and the business communities in Israel, the UAE and Bahrain. It had an undeniable effect on the volume of commerce between the countries. In a matter of one year, the UAE has become one of Israel's top 20 trade partners. In addition, it encouraged a wave of Israeli tourism to the UAE.

Nevertheless, tourism and photo-ops aside, the accords have yet to fulfill the great expectations envisioned by their architects a year ago: They did not create a domino effect of spreading normalization with Israel around the Arab world or a united regional front vis-à-vis Iran's military efforts. Specifically, they failed to change the basic public perception in the Arab world toward Israel and Israelis.

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There are two main reasons for this unfulfilled potential – first, the relatively low prioritization of the accords by the Biden administration. Despite its stated support for the normalization process, the current administration does not show much enthusiasm in promoting one of the main hallmarks of the Trump administration, as seen in its decision not to appoint a special envoy for the normalization process. Facing a gradual process of decrease in US involvement in the Middle East, several countries that perceived normalization with Israel as means to improve relations with the US are now focusing their efforts elsewhere.

But the major obstacle to turning the accords into a game-changer is the illusion upon which they were built – the concept that Israel's relations with the Arab world can be completely detached from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. One of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main motivations in signing the accords was to isolate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by preventing it from becoming a condition for building relations with the Arab world. In the months following its signing, the marginalization of the Palestinian issue led many Israelis to feel as if the events shaping Israel's future in the Middle East are taking place in Abu Dhabi and Manama instead of in Gaza and Sheikh Jarrah.

This illusion was violently broken a few months ago during the last Gaza war. The recent escalation demonstrated that while relations with the Gulf were improving, the impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on everyday...