“Abraham accord” between Israel and UAE reached a historic and remarkable peace deal in establishing diplomatic relations between two countries of seemingly different ideologies
Raushan Kumar
The formal relations between Israel and UAE are also called Abraham accord because Abraham was the father of all the three religions - Christianity, Judaism and Islam. An “Abraham accord” between Israel and UAE reached a historic and remarkable peace deal in establishing good diplomatic relations between two countries of seemingly different ideologies. The peace agreement may also build a good understanding among Jews, Christians and Muslims across the world. UAE is the third Arab country after Egypt and Jordan to go public with formal diplomatic relations with Israel. PM Netanyahu of Israel said it to be historic and dawn of a new era with Arab world. The landmark diplomatic event was summarily rejected by many Middle East countries. Hamas, the self-proclaimed ‘Islamic leader of Gaza’ and a globally recognised terrorist organisation has told that UAE has betrayed the people of Palestine. The Iranian news agency has went ahead to term UAE-Israel deal as shameful. The silver lining for peace came from Abdel Fattah al-Sisi President of Egypt who welcomed the decision and praised the peace deal saying it would bring peace in the region of Middle East.
A brief Background
In 1947, the United Nation General Assembly passed ‘Resolution 181’ according to which, Palestine was divided into two parts; one each going with Arab and Jews. The city of Jerusalem was given a special status which was to be governed according to International order. After that division, a wave of anger swept among the Middle East countries leading to regular clashes between Palestine and newly formed Israel. The clash between the two dates back to 1948. Peace between the two was greatly disturbed by patches of violent wars the most recent being ‘Second Lebanon war of 2006’ between Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers. This lead to continuous unrest in the Middle East over jurisdiction and religious dominance.
Israel and UAE have now agreed bilateral relationships on tourism, technology, security, investment and aerospace. Israel has continuously tried to quell the hostilities between them and other Arab nations. Supreme leader of UAE said that this is a bold step towards negotiations between long-running conflicts of Israel-Palestine. Opening the ties between two different ideologies on the same table will enhance good economic growth, political clout, technological up-gradation and people to people relations. UAE stressed that this agreement was supposed to reach out to Israel for stopping any further annexation of Palestinian territory. PM Netanyahu though, said “West Bank annexation” plan had only been delayed and not abolished completely.
India is among the very few countries that have maintained good diplomatic relationship with both Palestine and Israel. Under the NDA government, India had a strong diplomatic relationship with both Arab and Israel. This diplomatic ties became much deeper in early 2019 when UAE invited India to address “Organisation of Islamic Cooperation”. India should start a joint defence exercise and deal with both nations. Israel is already a defence partner of ours. India hopes to strengthen its hold on the Middle East with both two countries being diplomatic friends of India and is expected to start regional stability.
After deal?
In the time of the pandemic, peace has been established between two different rival ideologies. The USA has earned a good diplomatic relation before elections and should lead to impressive support for Donald Trump among the American Jews. After this, other Arab countries are likely to want better ties with Israel. UAE is already a member of “Organisation of Islamic cooperation” and is likely to put forward an Olive branch to other Arab countries on behalf of Israel to further peace deals. Israel is most technological advanced countries in the middle east and it will also benefit to UAE in cutting-edge inventions in every field. Palestine fears that such developments will be detrimental to the Palestinian state and they will be ignored in future. The win-win move of UAE and Israel is expected to face severe criticism by regional Arab opponents. The Palestinian leadership has condemned this move as a betrayal of Palestinians.
This new Non Arab alliance has put Pakistan on a sticky wicket which is already in a scramble to repay the loan of USD 3 billion to Saudis. Pakistan’s dream of forging a new regional alliance with Turkey and Iran will garner support from China. It will also worry the administration in Delhi because Russia's growing closeness to Islamabad cannot be ignored. Let’s hope that new peace treaty would be in best interests of India and the entire world. Two rival ideologies have now come to a table and the credit should be given to President Trump who has silently played a masterstroke.
(Raushan Kumar is an intern with Academics4Nation and a Phd Research Scholar at Mahatma Gandhi Central University)
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