It may be completely coincidental that one of the main ads for Expo 2020, which opened Sept. 30 in Dubai, featured an Israeli flag right over the head of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed, the strongest person in the United Arab Emirates. Coincidental or not, it certainly was symbolic. A flag that in the not-too-distant past could not be flown in the Emirates at all is now right at the center of things – and certainly in the center of economic affairs.

And the same is true of Bahrain as well. In quick succession, these two countries broke a decades-long policy among Gulf states by signing normalization agreements with Israel — because it was in their own interests.

The most important of these interests are undoubtedly economic and commercial. The Abraham Accords are the clearest example of integrating economics and diplomatic policy. Israel simply needed an opportunity to see this through, and got it thanks to an especially friendly US administration and a growing Iranian threat, which only intensified (in Israeli and other regional eyes) by the 2015 nuclear agreement.

The numbers tell the story best. Data from the Israeli Chamber of Commerce shows that from January to July 2021, trade between Israel and the UAE came to $270 million (and over $610 million, when diamonds are added to the figure). This is almost three times more than the $94 million in all of 2020 ($190 million with diamonds). Trade with the UAE in June 2021 was over 20 times more than in June 2020, amounting to $150 million (including diamonds) in a single month.