Early Zionists were divided over whether their Arab neighbors should be peace partners with the Jewish state. Ze’ev Jabotinsky famously wrote that an “iron wall” separating the two countries was the only way forward in the region. Israel’s Declaration of Independence called for peace with Israel’s Arab people, including both those living within Israel’s borders and those living outside its borders. A dream shared by all, but considered unrealistic by some, was for the Jewish state to live in peace with all its neighbors.
The Abraham Accords were a surprise to most people around the world. Israel already opened an international diplomatic office in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2015, and for many years the biggest secret in the Middle East has been Israel’s security cooperation with Arab Gulf states, There is a difference between overt cooperation. signed agreement. On September 15, 2020, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump, and the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the normalization agreement on the White House lawn.
Most of the world was excited about this agreement. Israel was accepted by Arab countries, marking the beginning of the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It has not escaped everyone’s attention that the UAE will not enter into a deal with Israel without Saudi Arabia’s approval. This brings Israel one step closer to signing a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia, another country with which it has been dealing secretly over security issues.
In addition to the obvious security and economic benefits, the Abraham Accords were beneficial to Israel. This is because the Abraham Accords removed the burden of Palestinian intransigence and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which had hindered normalization with Arab countries. I have often heard that Israel cannot normalize with Arab countries until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved.
The problem Israel faced in resolving this conflict was that the Palestinians refused to make the compromises necessary to reach a peace agreement with Israel. They have refused to recognize Israel for decades, and even after doing so, they have refused to take the obvious step of ending terrorism. Palestinians also refuse to compromise on the details of their borders, which are Israel’s legitimate security concerns, and have called for the absurd return of all Palestinian descendants living around the world and the establishment of a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem. advocated the demands of the Palestinians. As long as the Palestinians violently attacked Israel through terrorism and rocket launches and refused to compromise on peace, Israel could not proceed to conclude an agreement with the Arab world.
The Abraham Accords were the first time that Arab countries were prepared to normalize with Israel without worrying about the development of the Palestinian issue. With the signing of the agreement, the Palestinians are no longer Israel’s gateway to normalizing relations with Arab countries. Palestinians will now have to realize that terrorism must stop and compromises must be made. Arabs could no longer be counted on to boycott everything Israeli.
Palestinian anger over the Abraham Accords
Not everyone was excited about the Abraham Accords. Palestinians and their advocates challenged Israel and his supporters, asking what was achieved by the agreement. They pointed out that Israel has never been at war with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco or Sudan. They argued that these agreements were largely a sham and of no use to Israel or the region.
Palestinians also opposed the Abraham Accords, arguing that it not only achieved little but also undermined Israel’s prospects for peace and made the region a more dangerous place. Their argument assumed that the Abraham Accords were built on the premise that Israel could deal with the Palestinians while bypassing them and normalizing with Arab Gulf states.
Their reasoning further claimed that Palestinians resent the Abraham Accords. They were furious at being bypassed in favor of other Arab countries and began plotting revenge. They were bent on preventing further agreements between Israel and Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia. Palestinians represented by Hamas attacked on October 7, as rumors began to circulate that Israel would sign a deal with Saudi Arabia. Their argument is that not only did the Abraham Accords not make Israel safer, by bypassing the Palestinians, it made Israel significantly less secure.
It is important to answer these claims by remembering that the purpose of the Abraham Accords was not to make Israel safe from the threat of Palestinian terrorists, but from Iranian nuclear aggression. The Abraham Accords were supposed to resolve all of Israel’s security issues, and the reasoning that it was a failure when it did not set an unattainable bar for the agreement. The Abraham Accords were signed to strengthen the global coalition against Iran and open new avenues of trade and cooperation in non-traditional areas.
The Abraham Accords did not encourage Palestinian terrorism or the October 7th Simchat Torah massacre. Palestinians have used terrorism to express their hatred of Jews, dating back to the 1834 riots but long before 1948. Terrorism and violence were the traditional Palestinian response. to the Jews, and in their subsequent development to Zionism and the State of Israel.
The Hamas-Palestinian attack on October 7 was driven by the Palestinian culture of hatred and violence.
Zionists will remain true to their philosophy of striving for peace with all their neighbors. The Palestinian and his supporters should ask why some Arab countries are able to make peace with Israel when the Palestinian response has been terror and hatred for over 100 years. The international community is seeking a restart after the end of the Gaza war. A healthy first step would be to change the Palestinian approach from rejection and terrorism to acceptance and peace with Israel.
The author is a Zionist educator in educational institutions around the world and has recently published a new book. Zionism today.
