From the DW:
“Israel and UAE in historic
direct flight following peace deal”
(The El Al plane was decorated with the word for "peace" in Arabic, English and Hebrew)
The first commercial flight from
Israel to the UAE has landed, marking a major step in normalising relations
after the announcement of a peace deal. The El Al airliner made the three-hour
trip, carrying a delegation of Israeli and US officials. The flight was allowed
to cross Saudi Arabian airspace, normally blocked to Israeli air traffic. The
UAE has become only the third Arab country in the Middle East to recognise
Israel since its founding in 1948. On Saturday the UAE (United Arab Emirates)
repealed a law boycotting Israel which had been in place since 1972, and
earlier this month the two countries opened direct telephone services for the
first time. The agreement to normalise relations - brokered by the US - was
made public in a surprise announcement on 13 August. Flight LY971 - numbered to
represent the UAE's international dialling code - carried delegates including
Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Israel's
National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat. Mr Kushner led secret talks which
resulted in the Israel-UAE agreement. Speaking to the media after landing in
Abu Dhabi, Mr Kushner described the deal between the countries as a
"historic breakthrough" and said it was a "tremendous
honour" to have joined the flight. "What happened here was three
great leaders came together and they started writing a new script for the
Middle East. They said the future doesn't have to be predetermined by the
past," he said The joint teams will meet Emirati representatives to
develop areas of co-operation between Israel and the UAE. The return flight
will be numbered LY972, after Israel's international dialling code.
Presentational grey line Monday's three-hour flight has taken more
than 70 years to make, and it marks a new turning point in relations between
Israel and the Arab world. There are big prizes for all three players: Israel's
historic need to boost regional recognition of the Jewish state (could Saudi
Arabia one day do so too?); the Emiratis' glittering finance hubs can benefit
from open links with the region's security and cyber superpower; while a US president
under pressure at home gets to tout his role as peacemaker in the Middle East. These
are truly significant achievements and further shift the dynamics in a deeply
polarised region. But the deal is striking for another reason - it leaves the
Palestinians feeling as sidelined as ever. They believe it breaks years of Arab
solidarity - and leverage - against Israel's occupation of land they want for a
future state; while ordinary Palestinians feel more and more hemmed in as
Israeli settler numbers grow. They see not only betrayal, but a blind eye being
turned by the Emiratis to their reality on the ground. In a tweet in
Hebrew, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the advent of the
flight as an example of "peace for peace" - alluding to his long-held
disbelief in the notion that only trading occupied land will bring peace
between Israel and Arab countries. While it was welcomed by much of the
international community, the UAE's recognition of Israel without the precondition
of the creation of a Palestinian state was denounced by the Palestinians as a
betrayal of their cause. In return for official relations with the UAE,
Mr Netanyahu agreed to suspend controversial plans to annex parts of the
occupied West Bank - land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state of
their own. Mr Kushner on Monday said his message to Palestinians was
"one of hope". "We've put an offer to their leadership on
the table that will enable them to have a state and self-determination and an
economic plan that could revitalise their economy, but we can't want peace more
than they want peace and so when they are ready the whole region is very
excited to help lift them up and move them forward but they can't be stuck in
the past," he said. "Peace will be ready for them and
opportunity will be ready for them as soon as they're ready to embrace
it." A US peace proposal unveiled in January holds out the prospect
of a Palestinian state, as well as a $50bn (£37.5bn) investment plan for the
Palestinians, though the Palestinians have rejected the proposal as heavily
biased towards Israel. Before the UAE, Egypt and Jordan were the only
other Arab countries in the Middle East to officially recognise Israel, after
signing peace treaties in 1978 and 1994 respectively. Mauritania, a
member of the Arab League in north-west Africa, established diplomatic
relations with Israel in 1999 but severed ties in 2010.
^ I knew this historic flight was
going to happen, but to see that it actually did is really something great. I
hope more Arab countries decide to join the 21st Century and seek
peace with Israel. ^
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.