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FEATURE
A New Era in the Middle East? The UAE and Israel Normalize Relations
BY TZVI LEV
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Last Thursday, the world was astounded by the shocking news that Israel and the United Arab Emirates would sign an official peace agreement. As part of what The New York Times calls “a geopolitical earthquake,” Israel and the Gulf state will establish full diplomatic relations, including exchanging ambassadors and constructing embassies.
The diplomatic breakthrough is significant because of how it changes existing paradigms. If, in the past, progress vis-a-vis the Arab world depended on agreeing to a Palestinian state, the UAE merely demanded that Israel “suspend” its plans to annex Judea and Samaria. In what Prime Minister Netanyahu has labeled “Peace for Peace” rather than the longtime “Land for Peace” doctrine, other nations such as Sudan, Bahrain, Oman, and Morocco are said to be readying to announce their own relations with the Jewish State.
This has the opportunity to completely revamp Israel’s strategic position in the Middle East. Since its founding in 1948, the Arab world has refused to recognize its existence. Israel is widely reviled across the Islamic world, with 26 Muslim nations refusing to recognize the country’s right to exist. In the Middle East, only Egypt and Jordan have formal peace treaties with the Jewish State, although the ties between Jerusalem and its aforementioned former adversaries are commonly seen as a “cold peace” at best.”
Yet now, Israelis have awakened to a new world where they are direct
flights from Ben Gurion Airport to Abu Dhabi and other Arab capitals. With the Palestinians’ veto now a thing of the past, business ties with the oil-rich Gulf states will flourish; Israelis may soon find themselves getting on the short three-hour flight in order to vacation among the towering skyscrapers of Dubai.
“This historic change will also advance peace with the Arab world and, in the end, peace, true peace, monitored, secure, with the Palestinians as well,” Netanyahu exulted. “It is different from those that preceded it in that it is based on two principles: ‘peace for peace,’ and ‘peace through strength,’” Netanyahu added.
“Under this doctrine, Israel is not required to withdraw from any territory and together the two countries openly reap the fruits of a full peace: investments, trade, tourism, health, agriculture, environmental protection, and in many other fields, including defense, of course,” he said.
In a foreshadowing of things to come, on June 12, 2020, UAE Minister of State Yousef Al-Otaiba issued an unprecedented op-ed in the Hebrew Yedioth Ahronoth daily paper. In it, the UAE’s ambassador to the U.S. acknowledged that Israel and much of the Arab world have grown closer in recent years. He warned, though, that Israeli plans for annexation are a hinderance to talks of normalizing ties with other nations.
Al-Otaiba was one of the three Arab ambassadors to attend the White House ceremony in January during which U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his peace plan for the Middle East.
The UAE has long “promoted engagement and conflict reduction, helped to create incentives-carrots rather than sticks – and focused attention on the collective benefits for all parties,” he wrote. For instance, Abu Dhabi has listed Hezbollah a terrorist organization and has condemned Hamas.
“We have conducted quiet diplomacy and sent very public signals to help shift the dynamics and promote the possible,” he went on.
“With the region’s two most capable militaries, common concerns about terrorism and aggression, and a deep and long relationship with the United States, the UAE and Israel could form closer and more effective security cooperation,” he wrote two months ago. “As the two most advanced and diversified economies in the region, expanded business and financial ties could accelerate growth and stability across the Middle East.”
He noted the existence and religious freedom of a Jewish community in Dubai and the fact that Israel was invited to participate in the 2020 World Expo, planned to take place in the city this summer, but was postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“These are the carrots – the incentives, the upsides – for Israel. Greater security. Direct links. Expanded markets. Growing acceptance. This is what normal could be,” he wrote.
In conclusion, al-Otaiba noted that much of the Arab world “would like to believe Israel is an opportunity, not an enemy. We face too many common dangers and see the great potential of warmer ties.”
President Trump after announcing the agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel
Last week’s historic breakthrough gives the UAE Jewish community a chance to finally emerge from the shadows. For over two decades, more than 1,500 Jews from around the world have lived comfortably in the Arab country. While the sheikdom refrained from recognizing the Jewish state until last week, it enabled the flourishing community to practice its religion undisturbed.
As opposed to countries in the Middle East such as Yemen and Egypt, the UAE’s Jewish community congregation does not have an illustrious history dating back thousands of years. Members of the community are mostly foreign businessmen, with the majority of them hailing from Israel or the United States.
Currently, there are three different Jewish houses of worship in the United Arab Emirates: a Chabad synagogue, a Modern Orthodox-oriented congregation, and an “egalitarian” one. Thousands of Jews pass through the country every year for business. The first kosher catering service in the Persian Gulf recently opened for business. A Jewish school was also recently founded and already has 40 students.
The Jewish community puts extreme importance on discretion. Public opinion in the country is mostly pro-Palestinian, and there are many locals who view the warming relations with Israel as a betrayal. As such, Jewish congregants make sure to keep a low profile, usually refraining from announcing their presence and do not openly sport Jewish articles of clothing in public.
“The Jewish community of the Emirates, as it’s known, meets in an unmarked home in a residential location in Dubai so as to attract little attention in this predominantly Muslim country,” wrote Religion News Service in 2018 in an article about one of the three synagogues. “It draws about 200 Jews, many of them business people from all over the world who have flocked to the UAE to take part in its growing economic power as it shifts from a reliance on oil and trade to technology and artificial intelligence.”
The oldest Jewish community in the Emirates is led by Ross Kriel, a business development executive residing in the Emirates. Founded 12 years ago, the congregation holds prayers in a nondescript home near the famous Burj Al-Arab hotel in Dubai. Kriel has repeatedly reiterated that, althoughy needing to keep a low profile, his flock has never experienced any cases of anti-Semitism.
“There are no guards at the entrance to the house. We have community members from Antwerp, Paris, and Geneva who feel safer here than in Europe,” Kriel said. “The only anti-Semitism I’ve experienced was from Europeans. There is a social contract of mutual respect here between all parts of the real society.”
Kriel added that he never thought that he would witness the Jewish State and his adopted country establishing full diplomatic ties.
“Only a week ago, the things happening today were still a dream, like seeing the Israelis and Emirati flags flying side by side on the front pages of local newspapers,” Kriel said. In November, his oldest son will turn 13, granting
him a chance to host the first bar mitzvah in UAE history.
Meanwhile, the Chabad house is overseen by Rabbi Levi Duchman. Originally from the U.S., Duchman moved to Dubai a few years ago and set up a hub of Judaism that offers courses in religious observance, kosher food, and prayer services. Recently, Duchman’s Jewish Community of the UAE Facebook page sparked interest throughout the Gulf by releasing a video showing his prayer quorum reciting a blessing for the welfare of UAE King Zayed Bin Khalifa.
The clip featured a professional cantor and musical accompaniment. In the video, the exquisite synagogue is showcased and a slew of UAE royals are seen in the sanctuary along with a large portrait of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, zt”l. The video racked up more than half a million hits in under a month after UAE Ambassador to London Mansoor Abulhoul posted it on his personal Twitter page.
“The blessing, sung in Hebrew, is set to footage of the UAE’s major landmarks, artwork of UAE leaders, and men in the traditional black and white Jewish prayer shawl known as the tallit,” reported Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya television station.
After the news of the breakthrough agreement between Israel and the UAE became public, Rabbi Duchman told the Israeli media that the Jews have nothing to fear from the Arab State.
“We built a Jewish community – we have Torah study, kashrut, a community and strong support from the government. I’m not surprised that our leaders are so special. I believed this would happen,” said the rabbi.
“The United Arab Emirates is a leader in all that is good for humanity. I believe that, as a result of the peace agreement, more Jews will join our community. We are prepared; the infrastructure is ready.”
If UAE officials at first tolerated the community’s existence, they have recently made an effort to demonstrate their appreciation towards their local
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Tel Aviv City Hall lit up in honor of the deal
Jews. In January 2019, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed declared that the calendar year would be named the “Year of Tolerance.” In May, New York University chaplain Rabbi Yehuda Sarna was named the community’s first chief rabbi. “What we see is the first emergence of the first new Jewish community emerging in the Arab world for centuries,” Rabbi Sarna said upon taking the position.
This past September, the UAE announced that it would build the country’s first-ever official synagogue. The house of worship will be constructed as part of a multifaith center known as the Abrahamic Family House that is slated to be finished in 2022.
The UAE’s embrace of the Jewish community picked up pace recently as the surreptitious talks to establish diplomatic relations between Dubai and Jerusalem heated up. Earlier this month, the UAE arranged for a family of Yemenite Jews to be reunited after not seeing each other for 15 years. Pictures of the reunion in Abu Dhabi showed a large charedi family surrounded by a collection of children and an elderly woman in a wheelchair.
A few days later, Rabbi Yehuda Sarna led a virtual Kabalat Shabbat over Zoom with Jewish communities from around the world. The event was attended by a slew of Jewish dignitaries from all over the world, including American Jewish Committee head David Harris and Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of President of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER).
“I believe that what we are observing is the unfolding of His Highness’ vision of tolerance, synergy, and the fusion of past and future,” said Rabbi Sarna. “What excites me most about the agreement is the potential to collaborate on education and culture.”
Solly Wolf, a prominent member of Dubai’s Jewish community, told Ynet that the change in attitude from the ruling family has been especially apparent of late.
“A few months ago, some might have had an issue if you were seen walking inside a mall with a yarmulke on your head,” Wolf said. “Today, there is no issue with that whatsoever. You see ultra-Orthodox Jews walking around the street with a tzizit, and no one says a thing.
“We were surprised by the timing, but we knew it was coming,” added Wolf. “We have been feeling more free for a while now, but even more so now. We kept a low profile in the past, but over the past year, the authorities have given us permission to open synagogues.”
Anormalization of ties with the United Arab Emirates is hopefully just the beginning of a change of Israel’s official status in the Arab world. On Tuesday of this week, it was announced that Sudan will be working on a formal agreement with the other state. Other Muslim countries have expressed interest in teaming up with Israel.
Perhaps, someday soon, Israel will see a warming of relations with all of its antagonistic neighbors and enjoy true peace in the Middle East.
