by Richard Kemp, GATESTONE INSTITUTE •
This week, we witnessed a symbol of perhaps the greatest step forward in world peace for decades. The first-ever direct passenger flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates flew down the length of Saudi Arabia’s airspace. Pictured: The flags of the United Arab Emirates, Israel and the United States fly at Abu Dhabi airport on August 31, 2020. (Photo by Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Images)
- Some months ago, in talks with leaders in Saudi Arabia as part of a delegation from former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Friends of Israel Initiative, together with their Executive Director and former Spanish National Security Adviser Rafael Bardaji, I heard first-hand how open the Saudis were to the prospect of embracing Israel in the future.
- Of far greater significance, however, is the looming threat to the region from Iran and, to a lesser extent, Turkey. Most Arab countries see common interests with Israel in the face of the mullahs in Tehran with their imperial aggression in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and beyond, coupled with insatiable nuclear ambition.
- Notwithstanding the economic, technological and security imperatives that lie behind the evolving Middle East relationships, great credit must go to the men behind the Abraham Accord…. Mohammed bin Zayed… [and] Benjamin Netanyahu… know only too well that such actions carry with them serious risks to themselves personally and to their nations.
This week, we witnessed a symbol of perhaps the greatest step forward in world peace for decades. The first-ever direct passenger flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates flew down the length of Saudi Arabia’s airspace. After Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, the UAE has become the third Arab state to normalise relations with the State of Israel under the new Abraham Accord.
Next month, the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize winner will be announced in Oslo. Will it go to the architects of the Abraham Accord, a momentous achievement in itself, and also a major development in a regional geopolitical realignment that is not only good for peace and prosperity in the Middle East but in the world? We knew what the answer would be to that question even before it arose. (Those who point out the deadline for 2020 nominations has passed need not expect to see it in 2021 either.)
@ Davidowitz: Davidowitz, if you read the article through to the end, it is clear that Colonel Kemp is just being sarcastic when he talks about Nobel prizes for Netanyahu and his UAE counterpart. In fact, he says that there is absolutely no chance that they will receive Nobel prizes, because the Western liberal establishment supports Hamas and Fatah, and does not want peace between Israel and its neightbors.H points out that some of the individuals who were awarded Nobel Peace Prizes had done nothing to deserve them. The example he cites is Barak Obama. At least one Nobel Prize winner was evil, in Kemp’s view-Yasser Arafat. But all were acceptable to the Western liberal establshment. But Netanyahu and his UAE counterpart are persona non grata to this establishment.
Colonel Kemp is right that both Netanyahu and the chief of state of the uAE (can’t remember his name) showed courage in reaching a normalization agreement. It is quite true that Sadat was murdered because he normalized relations with Israel, and that could happen to this sheikh, too. I hope he is well guarded.
While he praises the courage of others, Colonel Kemp has shown a lot of courage himself by openly taking on the anti-Israel and antisemitic British press. It used to be that Colonel Kemp was often invited as an expert guest to speak on national security and military-related matter by British television stations. But he became persona non grata on TV once he began to speak up for Israel.
So it seems Israel is giving up sovereignty for a Nobel peace prize.