It was an exciting week for Israel in the United Arab Emirates, realizing a vision with the dedication of its embassy in Abu Dhabi and a consulate in Dubai.
Israel’s Head of Mission in Abu Dhabi, Ambassador Eitan Na’eh told CBN News that the peace agreements, known as the Abraham Accords, signed last year between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, and other countries had opened the way for a different future.
“I think the Abraham Accords are first of all a dream, then a vision, and now we are down to realizing it, materializing it and really rolling up our sleeves and starting the hard work of making it happen,” Na’eh said, “creating a new model of peace and normalization in the Middle East where cooperation is the keyword.”
Na’eh said it doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges but there’s a strategic decision to build normal relations.
“We will sign quite a few more agreements, really cement the cooperation of the relationships to show peoples and governments in the region what the true close relationships look like,” he said.
Na’eh said Israel and the Emiratis are building a model together and they want other countries in the region to say to the Emiratis and their own governments, “why not us, too?”
Israel’s new Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, on Tuesday, made the highest-level official visit to the United Arab Emirates since the two countries signed a peace agreement last year. He inaugurated Israel’s embassy in the capital, Abu Dhabi.
“This is an historic moment, and a reminder that history is written by human beings. It is written by people who know history, but who are willing to change it. It is written by people who prefer the future to the past,” Lapid said at the ceremony.
Lapid said the agreements they would sign would not be end of the peace process but the beginning.
“Israel wants peace with its neighbors -- with all of its neighbors. We are not going anywhere. The Middle East is our home. We are here to stay, and we call on all countries of the region to recognize this, and to come and talk to us,” Lapid said.
“Peace is not a compromise. It is the most determined decision we can make. Peace is not a weakness, but rather, embodies within it the power of the human spirit. War is a capitulation to all that is evil within us, while peace is the victory of all that is good within us,” he said.
Former President Trump mediated the deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain that became known as the Abraham Accords. It was the first peace agreement between Israel and Arab nations in more than 25 years.
Trump and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered it one of their greatest achievements. Netanyahu had hoped to make a quick trip to the UAE while still in office but wasn’t able to do it. But Lapid honored both Netanyahu and Trump.
“I want to thank, on behalf of us all, Israel's former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was the architect of the Abraham Accords and who worked tirelessly to bring them about,” Lapid said.
“I want to thank former US President Donald Trump and current US President Joe Biden for their uncompromising support,” he added.
Many analysts said the catalyst for the Israel-UAE agreement was the threat posed by their common enemy Iran. But since the agreement was signed, Israel has established several hundred million dollars with of trade agreements with the UAE and more than 200,000 Israeli tourists have visited there.
Na’eh told CBN News on a recent trip to Abu Dhabi that it’s important to recognize that countries in the Middle East are in “a different place.”
“This is a new place for all of us and we ought to open our eyes and our ears and to brace ourselves and to bless ourselves that we have such relations and to nurture them,” Na’eh said.
Na’eh said at the time that business with the UAE “creates a model” whereby other countries can be a place where Israeli companies “bring magical technology.”
On Monday, Biden told visiting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin that the US “fully supports normalization of relations between Israel and Middle Eastern countries.” And that the US looks forward to building “a wider plot of peace and stability.”
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