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Abstract
The normalization of relations between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel under the Abraham Accords is part of a long-standing security cooperation between the two regimes to monopolize regional power. Indeed, with the rapidly changing political and security landscape in the Arab world, the Abraham Accords have become central to understanding alliance formation in the region. The Accords have significantly enhanced the already existing security and military relations between Israel and the UAE, with heavy Emirati investment in advanced Israeli weapons systems and security technologies, military and intelligence sharing, as well as economic partnerships in strategic sectors. While the alliance is often portrayed as a defensive security arrangement aimed at countering the “Iranian threat,” a closer examination reveals that it is much more than that. Sponsored by the United States, the alliance entrenches Israeli settler colonialism and Arab authoritarianism as mutually inclusive pillars for the region, with the ultimate objective of reproducing US hegemony in the face of changing global dynamics.
Notes
1 “The Abraham Accords Declaration,” US State Department, accessed June 22, 2023, https://www.state.gov/the-abraham-accords/.
2 See, for example, Elham Fakhro, and Tareq Baconi, “A Shared Vision: Security Convergence between the Gulf and Israel,” JPS 51, no. 3 (2022): 50–55, https://doi.org/10.1080/0377919X.2022.2090209 and Michael Singh, “Axis of Abraham: Arab-Israeli Normalization Could Remake the Middle East,” Foreign Affairs, February 22, 2022, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2022-02-22/axis-abraham.
3 Jeffrey Goldberg, “Iran and the Palestinians Lose Out in the Abraham Accords,” The Atlantic, September 16, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/winners-losers/616364/.
4 Yara Hawari, “The Revival of People-to-People Projects: Relinquishing Israeli Accountability,” Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, April 6, 2021, https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/the-revival-of-people-to-people-projects-relinquishing-israeli-accountability/.
5 Michal Michelle Divon, “UAE, Israel to Focus on Increasing Mutual Investments, Says Lapid,” Khaleej Times, December 23, 2021, https://www.khaleejtimes.com/business/uae-israel-to-focus-on-increasing-mutual-investments-says-lapid.
6 Alexander Cornwell, “Israel, UAE Boost Ties with Free Trade Pact,” Reuters, May 31, 2022: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-uae-sign-free-trade-deal-ambassador-2022-05-31/.
7 Yousef Saba, “UAE Seeks $1 Trillion in Economic Activity with Israel by 2031,” Reuters, September 14, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/uae-aims-1-trillion-activity-with-israel-by-2031-2021-09-14/.
8 Azmi Bishara, Palestine: Matters of Truth and Justice (London: Hurst Publishers, 2022), 153.
9 Steve Hendrix, “Inside the Secret-Not-Secret Courtship between Israel and the United Arab Emirates,” Washington Post, August 14, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/inside-the-secret-not-secret-courtship-between-israel-and-the-united-arab-emirates/2020/08/14/3881d408-de26-11ea-b4f1-25b762cdbbf4_story.html.
10 Adam Entous, “Donald Trump’s New World Order,” New Yorker, June 11, 2018, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/06/18/donald-trumps-new-world-order.
11 Rafeef Ziadah, “Surveillance, Race, and Social Sorting in the United Arab Emirates,” Politics (2021): 1–16, https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957211009719.
12 Sigurd Neubauer, “Israel: A Strategic Partner for the UAE,” International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies, November 2017, https://www.ifimes.org/en/researches/israel-a-strategic-partner-for-the-uae/4257.
13 Elizabeth Dwoskin, “Israel Escalates Surveillance of Palestinians with Facial Recognition Program in West Bank,” Washington Post, November 8, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-palestinians-surveillance-facial-recognition/2021/11/05/3787bf42-26b2-11ec-8739-5cb6aba30a30_story.html.
14 “Aeronautics,” Viola Group, accessed June 22, 2023, https://www.viola-group.com/portfolio/aeronautics.
15 Matt Smith, “Israel-UAE Tech Stars Align after Landmark Peace Deal,” Wired, September 20, 2020, wired.me/business/startups/israel-uae-peace-deal-technology/.
16 Dion Nissenbaum, “Israel’s Defense Industry Is Big Winner Two Years after Abraham Accords,” Wall Street Journal, October 9, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/israels-defense-industry-is-big-winner-two-years-after-abraham-accords-11665317252.
17 Sarah Leah Whitson, “America’s Middle East ‘Withdrawal’ Breathes Its Last Breath,” American Prospect, June 24, 2022, https://prospect.org/world/americas-middle-east-withdrawal-breathes-its-last-breath/.
18 John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, “The Case for Offshore Balancing: A Superior U.S. Grand Strategy,” Foreign Affairs 95, no. 4 (July-August 2016): 70–83, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43946934.
19 US Department of State, “UAE-Israel Treaty of Peace, Diplomatic Relations, and Cooperation,” September 15, 2020, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/UAE_Israel-treaty-signed-FINAL-15-Sept-2020-508.pdf.
20 US Department of State, Abraham Accords Peace Agreement: Treaty of Peace, Diplomatic Relations and Full Normalization between the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel, September 15, 2022, https://www.state.gov/the-abraham-accords/.
21 Rina Bassist and Jared Szuba, “Israeli, Arab Summit Seeks ‘New Regional Architecture’ against Iran,” Al-Monitor, March 28, 2022, https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/03/israeli-arab-summit-seeks-new-regional-architecture-against-iran.
22 Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr, “Keynote Address: General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr.,” February 8, 2021, Middle East Institute, video, 41:25, https://www.mei.edu/multimedia/video/keynote-address-gen-kenneth-f-mckenzie-jr.
23 Nadya Tannous, “Restricting US Military Aid to Israel in the Age of Normalization,” Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, September 14, 2021, https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/restricting-us-military-aid-to-israel-in-the-age-of-normalization/.
24 Grant Rumley, “Unpacking the UAE F-35 Negotiations,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, February 15, 2022, https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/unpacking-uae-f-35-negotiations.
25 “Abu Dhabi Media Ties up with Israeli Broadcaster,” National News, December 9, 2020, https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/abu-dhabi-media-ties-up-with-israeli-broadcaster-1.1124466.
26 Mohammed El-Nawawy and Mohamad Hamas Elmasry, “Normalizing Normalization: Emirati and Israeli Newspaper Framing of the Israel-Palestine Conflict before and after the Abraham Accords,” International Journal of Communication 16 (2022): 1869–92, https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/18813/3741.
27 Varun Godinho, “Abu Dhabi and Israel to Cooperate on Film and TV Content Production,” Gulf Business, September 22, 2020, https://gulfbusiness.com/abu-dhabi-and-israel-to-cooperate-on-film-and-tv-content-production/.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Tariq Dana
Tariq Dana is an associate professor of conflict and humanitarian studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He is also a policy analyst at Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network.