Who else deserves credit for UAE deal? Obama and the failed JCPOA

It was his failed policy in the Middle East and his embrace of the regime in Iran – culminating in the 2015 nuclear deal – that helped push Israel and the moderate Gulf states together.

By YAAKOV KATZ
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a telephone conversation in his office with US President Donald Trump and UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, August 13, 2020 (photo credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a telephone conversation in his office with US President Donald Trump and UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, August 13, 2020
(photo credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO)
There are many people who deserve credit for the peace deal that was announced Thursday in Washington between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
First and foremost are the leaders themselves – President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed. Then, there are the staffers and advisers who did the heavy lifting – Jared Kushner, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Special Envoy Avi Berkowitz, special adviser to Friedman Aryeh Lightstone, Israeli Ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer, head of the Mossad Yossi Cohen and UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba.
But there is one person who also deserves credit but was not mentioned in any of the speeches in Washington, Jerusalem or Abu Dhabi. His name – Barack Obama.
It was Obama who helped bring Israel and the Gulf states together and it was Obama who helped set into motion the deal that was announced on Thursday.
More specifically, it was his failed policy in the Middle East and his embrace of the regime in Iran – culminating in the 2015 nuclear deal – that helped push Israel and the moderate Gulf states together.
The reason is because when the Gulf states understood where the US was headed – toward Iran, and not away – they looked around to see who could be their ally (for intelligence, military and technological purposes) and saw only one country – Israel.
It was Israel which for the last 10 years has been waging a daily battle against Iran. It is Israel that fights Iran in Syria, in Gaza and in Lebanon and it is Israel that works covertly to stop Iran’s nuclear program.
It is not the US, the UK or Russia. It is Israel.
When the UAE, Bahrain and the Saudis saw how Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against his people without paying a price and how Iran and Hezbollah were allowed to sweep into Syria without being stopped, they understood where things were headed. When Obama signed the JCPOA, basically paving the way for Iran to eventually get its hands on a nuclear weapon, they no longer had any doubts.
This situation though was only enough to get Israel and the UAE to the table. It would take diplomacy and hard work by the Trump administration, Israel and the UAE to close the deal.

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Interestingly, this peace deal between Israel and an Arab country is the first to be brokered by a Republican president. In 1979, it was Jimmy Carter who mediated peace between Israel and Egypt; and in 1994 it was Bill Clinton who brokered the deal between Israel and Jordan.
This time, it is Trump, a Republican who the former officials from the Clinton and Obama administrations ridiculed and believed stood no chance of seeing success in his peace efforts. They were wrong.
They were wrong because when you look at the last 25 years of peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians, what do we have?
A paradigm that has led the Palestinians to consistently reject every offer (Ehud Barak in 2000, Ehud Olmert in 2008) and instead believe that time is on their side. But this has failed. It hasn’t worked.
The Palestinians learned on Thursday that the Arab world is not waiting for them. That countries like the UAE are not willing to let the Palestinians hold them hostage in their quest for regional stability and security.
How much of this success was due to Trump’s own personal negotiating skills, I don’t know. But, the tone set by the president was one of needing to first and foremost get results. Not to talk and just hold summits, but to produce results.
First, bring the product then hold the ceremony. To longtime observers of Middle East peace efforts, that is a very different model than what has been tried and failed all these years with the way previous administrations approached Israel’s conflicts with the Palestinians and the Syrians. They held countless summits and ceremonies without any real results.
When it comes to Netanyahu, this is not just a national success but also a great personal accomplishment.
First, Netanyahu showed that the idea promoted all these years by members of the “peace industry” – that normalization with the Gulf is not possible without first making peace with the Palestinians – is wrong. Israel, he proved on Thursday, can establish formal and public relations with Arab countries without solving the conflict with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu also showed that as flawed a character as he is, he still is a great statesman. By the way, it is okay to say so.
Some of Netanyahu’s critics (Moshe Ya’alon is one example) slammed the UAE deal just like they slam everything he does. But they are wrong. It is true that Netanyahu’s current policies are problematic and having him remain prime minister while on trial is bad for Israel.
But, at the same time, it isn’t a contradiction to recognize that what he helped make possible has great potential for Israel, the UAE and the entire Middle East.
The deal with the UAE is the third peace deal between Israel and an Arab country. It is another example of what Israelis have yearned for since establishing a state here 72 years ago – to be accepted by their neighbors and to live peacefully in a region where they are a tiny minority.
This is another step on that historic path. We can only hope and pray that it will continue.


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