The UAE and Bahrain recently signed the Abraham Accords, breakthrough peace agreements with Israel, in the White House, following U.S. president Donald Trump’s mediation. The Trump administration has been working to facilitate cooperation between the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdoms and the Jewish state of Israel. The first Arab-Israeli peace deals in 26 years, they are considered a historic step towards normalising ties with Israel in a strategic realignment of West Asian countries. The coming together of Israel, the UAE and Bahrain reflects their shared concern about Iran’s rising influence in the region and development of ballistic missiles. Iran, the non-Arab Muslim power, criticised the deals.
The deals are expected to reverse decades of hostility arising from Israel’s dispute with the Palestinians and restore peace across the entire West Asian region. Before Bahrain and the UAE, the only Arab nations to establish relations with Israel were Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
As per the Abraham Accords, the UAE and Bahrain would establish embassies, exchange ambassadors and work together with Israel across a range of sectors, including tourism, trade, healthcare and security.
However, experts feel Israel cannot bring peace to the region without solving the Palestine issue. A number of Palestinian militant groups operate in Gaza. However, Israel holds the group Hamas, which controls Gaza, responsible for all attacks against it and typically responds to rocket fire with airstrikes on militant targets. Egypt and Qatar have facilitated an informal truce in recent years, in which Hamas has restrained rocket attacks in exchange for economic aid, but the arrangement has broken down on a number of occasions.
What is the Palestine issue?
Palestinians have been seeking an independent state in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. The Israel-Palestine issue dates back to the 1910s when Jews and Arabs in Palestine laid claim to the British-controlled Palestine. Facing persecution, the Jews wanted to establish their state in their ancient homeland. They bought lands and started settling down there. However, with the rising influx of Jews from Europe and Russia, the native Palestine Arabs felt threatened which led to violent skirmishes between the two. When this issue was referred to the U.N. in 1947, it voted to split Palestine into two – a Jewish State and an Arab State. Following this, Israel declared independence in May 1948. The same year saw some Arab countries declare war on Israel. Israel emerged victorious and started expanding its territory. A large number of Palestine people fled Israel to settle down in refugee camps bordering the region. Again in 1967, Israel launched a preemptive strike on Syria, Jordan and Egypt which led to its seizure of key territories such as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – these came to be referred to as occupied territories. Despite several accords signed to restore peace in the region, the Palestine issue remains unresolved.
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