Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday signed historic agreements denounced by the Palestinians with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, under the aegis of Donald Trump who hopes to appear as a “peacemaker” before the US presidential election.
“After decades of division and conflict, we are witnessing the dawn of a new Middle East,” said the President of the United States at a ceremony with great fanfare in the gardens of the White House .
After asserting that “five or six more Arab countries” would “very soon” follow the example of the two Gulf States, he then referred to an even more ambitious goal of “seven or eight”, “including the big ones”, Saudi Arabia “when the time comes”.
Benjamin Netanyahu considered that the deal sealed in Washington was a “turning point in history” likely to “end the Arab-Israeli conflict once and for all”.
Faced with assistance provided despite the pandemic, he was not stingy in compliments to his “friend” Donald Trump, before launching, in Arabic, to his new interlocutors: “Assalamu Alaikum”, “that peace be with you ”.
On the other hand, he remained silent on the fate of the Palestinians, who were largely absent from Tuesday, even if the ministers of the Emirates and Bahrain recalled their cause.
Welcoming “a change in the heart of the Middle East”, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan personally thanked Benjamin Netanyahu “for choosing peace and for stopping the annexation of Palestinian territories” – – even if the latter ensures that it is only a postponement.
Bahrain’s foreign minister Abdel Latif al-Zayani has clearly called for a “two-state solution” to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Israeli Prime Minister signed bilateral agreements with the two ministers, before a joint declaration initialed by the three men and the American president. But, in the era of Covid-19, no handshake has immortalized this moment.
These two Arab countries are the first to recognize Israel from Egypt and Jordan, in 1979 and 1994.
The Emirates and Bahrain, Sunni monarchies, share with the Jewish state an animosity towards Shia Iran, Washington’s number one enemy in the region.
Many Arab oil states have quietly cultivated ties with the Israeli authorities for years, but this normalization offers rich opportunities, especially economic ones, to those countries trying to undo the ravages of the pandemic.
“It is a first-class achievement”, assures David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, while stressing that it “does not imply the same risk-taking” for the Israelis as that accepted by Menachem Begin, ” when he left Sinai ”to Egypt, or Yitzhak Rabin, when he negotiated with the Palestinian Yasser Arafat.
The “vision for peace” presented in January by Donald Trump, which aimed to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is far from successful: the Palestinian Authority has rejected it outright and denies the US President it. very role of mediator since he chained the decisions favorable to Israel.
“There will be no peace, security or stability for anyone in the region without the end of the occupation and respect for the full rights of the Palestinian people,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned on Tuesday.
The Palestinians denounce a “stab in the back” from these countries accused of making a pact with the Hebrew state without waiting for the birth of their state. A few dozen Palestinian activists demonstrated outside the White House during the ceremony.
The Trump administration has always said it wants to shake up the region by bringing Israel closer to its Arab neighbors in a kind of sacred union against Iran. These agreements outline this change of era and seem to relegate the Palestinian question to the background, as the White House hoped.
The Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, assured that a “strategic breakthrough” was needed, because the “Arab approach of not having contact with Israel” had “not served the aspirations of the Palestinian people ”.
According to David Makovsky, “this is no longer daddy’s Middle East, it’s a new region” where, extraordinary fact, the Arab League refused to condemn the decision of the two Gulf monarchies.
“The Palestinians will wait to see what happens in the American election, but when the dust settles, they will have to rethink their position,” said this ex-American diplomat.
For Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term in seven weeks and so far had little diplomatic progress to present to voters, it is a recognized success even among his Democratic opponents.
Since the announcement on August 13 of the Israeli-Emirati agreement, followed last week by that concerning Bahrain, the camp of the Republican billionaire does not skimp on superlatives to praise his action, worthy of the Nobel Prize winner to believe. the peace.
However, differences have already emerged on the conditions surrounding the agreement with the Emirates.
The American president thus assured Tuesday that he would have “no problem” to sell American fighter planes F-35 in the United Arab Emirates, which wants to acquire some for a long time.
However, Benjamin Netanyahu firmly opposes this sale, to preserve the military superiority of his country in the region.