From left-to-right, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanhau, UAE President Khalifa Al Nahyan, and US President Donald Trump.
The State of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States announced an agreement on the formalization of diplomatic relations between the two Mideast nations today. The UAE has been one of the most vocal nations in the Arab world in recent years regarding its diplomatic overtures and economic cooperation with Israel, and such a deal was heavily anticipated. Nevertheless, the agreement is the first new diplomatic relationship between the Jewish State and a neighboring Arab country in 25 years, and only the third since Israel achieved statehood in 1948. Although small in territory, the UAE has the second-largest economy and the third-highest standard-of-living in the region, with an annual GDP of one-half trillion USD.
US President Trump tweeted the text of the announcement, which included the commencement of diplomatic missions that would forge agreements regarding trade, security, travel, healthcare, energy, and more. The establishment of embassies and the exchange of ambassadors will also be on the agenda. The two nations also pledged to a cooperative project to develop a coronavirus vaccine. The announcement also included a clause for the suspension of Israeli annexation of territory in Judea and Samaria, previously seen as one of the primary barriers between Israeli-Arab diplomacy. Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu had previously vowed to unilaterally annex West Bank territory in July, including portions of the Jordan Valley near the border between Israel and Jordan, as a long-term way of addressing border security concerns. The annexation was outlined as part of the Trump Administration’s so-called “Deal of the Century” peace framework which was released earlier this year. However, in the interest of securing normalization with the UAE and in order to open the door for further rapprochement with other Arab nations, the Israeli government agreed to suspend its annexation efforts for now. There is no language in the statement that precludes Israel from continuing its path towards annexation in the future.
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The press release mentioned the formation of an joint US-Israeli-UAE initiative called the “Strategic Agenda for the Middle East,” which will have a mandate to “expand diplomatic, trade and security cooperation.” Ostensibly, this initiative would create a framework by which Israel could initiate diplomatic and economic cooperation with other Arab nations which it has publicly courted in recent years, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Sudan, and Morocco. The announcement also included a reference to “many common challenges” that Israel and the UAE face, which is partially a reference to the hegemony of Islamist states such as Iran and Turkey. The regimes in Ankara and Tehran have been infringing on Arab territory and injecting their military infrastructure into conflict zones such as Syria, Iraq and Libya for almost a decade, uniting the southern Arab States and the Jewish State against common foes.
So far, the world has reacted to the announcement of bilateral Israel-UAE relations in a predictable way. Statements from the Egyptian, Jordanian and Bahraini governments expressed reactions that ranged from cautious optimism to enthusiasm. EU nations and Britain also expressed their relief that annexation efforts had been suspended in favor of regional diplomacy. Iran, the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip all roundly condemned the deal, referring to it as “a betrayal of Jerusalem and the Palestinian people” and a capitulation to the “Zionist narrative.” The Palestinian Authority recalled its diplomatic team from the UAE in the wake of the announcement.
We ask the FAI global family to be in prayer for the leaders of Israel and the UAE as they hammer out the details of diplomatic ties and cooperation between the two nations. We pray for success that leads to a strengthened peace in the region and a united front against aggressive regimes whose radical and violent agendas have killed hundreds of thousands and upended more than half of the Middle East’s population in chaos and oppression. We affirm that the current Israeli-Arab peace framework does NOT characterize the “covenant with death” described in Isaiah 28 or Daniel 9, which is clearly a future agreement with the “King of the North” (Daniel 11) whom the Bible locates in the region of the modern-day nations of Turkey, Syria and Iraq. If anything, this agreement, and any future agreements with Arab nations in the Gulf region or North Africa would actually counteract that future “covenant of death,” if it will in fact be formalized in a multilateral peace agreement. Nonetheless, the future is uncertain, and the only guarantee we have is that “salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed,” and that “the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
Maranatha.
