It’s no secret that the relationship between Israel and the Gulf states has advanced, if often quietly, in recent years. On the other hand, with Israel now flouting its intention to annex the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the relationship is starting to look more like a tango: two steps forward, one step back — or is it the other way around?
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the Gulf states that has cautiously tested the waters of non-official engagement. While there are no official diplomatic relations, commercial relations between them are proceeding. Some of these steps appear to be low key. For example, Israel has an official representative to the United Nations International Renewable Energy Agency, which is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, and this year, Israel was invited to participate in Expo 2020 in Dubai.
Three weeks ago, on June 12, UAE Ambassador to Washington Yousef al-Otaiba, published an editorial about the potential annexation of West Bank lands, in the popular Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. This was an unprecedented step for someone from the UAE in such a lofty position. In his piece, he warned that annexation would harm the emerging relationship not only between Israel and his country, but between Israel and other Arab states as well. “Annexation is a misguided provocation of another order,” Otaiba wrote. He went on to say that it would turn talks of normalization between Israel and the UAE, as well as with other Arab states, upside down.
So, annexation is not happening as fast as originally planned. Nevertheless, it is as if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to prove that Otaiba’s warnings are not really founded, and that Israel’s relationship with the Gulf states is actually getting closer. At the June 26 graduation ceremony for Israeli air force pilots, Netanyahu said that the health ministers of Israel and the UAE would be announcing their countries' cooperation in research and development and the development of requisite technologies to combat the coronavirus. As he explained, this is intended to improve “health security” in the region. According to Netanyahu, cooperation came about after long and intense discussions over the last few months, intended to benefit many in our region. The stronger and more powerful we are, the more we are able to restrain our enemies and get closer to our friends.
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