Not too long ago the second Israeli-European summit titled “Media Tel Aviv” was held in which Israeli and international journalists, politicians, entrepreneurs, bloggers and experts discussed important socio-political issues together.
The second day of talks was dedicated to the normalization agreements between Israel, Morocco and the Gulf states, where the opportunities and challenges were discussed.
Manager of the Emirate policy Dr. Ebtesam Al Ketbi said that those who are optimistic will see many opportunities from the Abraham Accords in the energy and tourism markets. She described the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel as two small countries that are surrounded by enemies (the United Arab Emirates has a maritime border with Iran, the Shia enemy common to both countries) and both have been pushed into a corner. They have to work together.
When Karolina Toren asked Jonathan Spyer, other moderators of the panel, about the challenges of normalization in terms of Islamic radicalization, Spyer replied that political Islam is spreading not only to Arabic speakers in the Middle East but also in Iran and Turkey. UAE leader Muhammad bin Zayed recognized the challenge posed by political Sunni Islam even before it arrived in his country during the Arab Spring, and made sure to keep the phenomenon away from his country.
Spyer admitted that he was optimistic about the state of political Islam today because it could have been much worse. After all, if the second political coup in Egypt had not happened or succeeded, the Muslim Brotherhood would still rule there. The same goes for Syria and Iraq. If ISIS had not fallen, the vast territory of both countries would still be in the hands of the caliphate. In the pessimistic reality that Spyer described, the challenges that normalization could have had would have been much more difficult to deal with.
Dr. Al Ketbi responded to Spyer’s remarks by stating that radicalization is not related to a certain religion but to that person’s environment. She claimed that when people have no support, they turn to radicalization. She added that radicalization in Islam and political Islam is not only related to Sunni Islam, but equally to Shiite Islam, and gave Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis as examples. Spyer replied that the Shiites are obviously as radical and dangerous as the Sunni Islamists. Sometimes in the West the Sunni radicalization is presented more and the Shiite less. He noted on this topic that the Sunni radicalization in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood and their teachings had a great impact on the Islamic revolution that took place in Iran.
Ellie Hochenberg described Israel’s various relationships with the countries of the Arab world. Israel’s most complex and violent relationship is with the Palestinians, but on the other hand, there are also countries with which Israel has a peace agreement such as Egypt and Jordan. According to her, these peace agreements are cold, there are still disputes and sometimes tense periods.
The most optimistic relationship is the normalization between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which caused the citizens of these countries to show keen interest in each other, something that did not happen in the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. Dr. Al Ketbi claimed in response that the media usually covers the conflicts and the more negative cases. But nevertheless, the Israeli camp wanted to get a taste of real normalization from the start.
Today, two years after the Abraham Accords were signed, the Israelis’ view of the Emirates and the Emiratis’ view of the Israelis is different and much more positive, which she stressed the media should cover. Corroborating the words of Dr. Al Ketbi, Hochenberg claimed that the media should show the warm relationship created by normalization every day. According to Karolina, the media will not make this transformation in one day, the news broadcasts usually broadcast the bad news all over the world.
After that, Spyer claimed that the peace with Egypt and Jordan is not as cold as the other members of the panel described it. He remains optimistic about them. According to him, Israel has friends in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, countries that have stronger regimes, but nevertheless, the people love the Israelis who come to their country. In other countries in the Middle East, Israel has a history full of wars, unlike the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, so it is easier to make peace. Karolina responded by saying that despite periods of cold peace, there were still periods of strategic cooperation between Israel and the Egyptians. Both countries have common enemies and also in Egypt there are people who work for human rights and oppose the terrorist organizations.
After the signing of the Abraham Accords, the obvious question was how Israel’s new partners would react to an Israeli military operation in Gaza, Hochenberg said. In practice, Israel’s new partners did not pressure Israel into anything. The goal was to let the tango that develops between the countries continue to build, carefully and with as few interruptions as possible. After it was claimed by Spyer that the young Palestinian generation is more radical, armed and not open to negotiations, Toren asked Dr. Al Ketbi how she sees the Palestinian issue. She claimed that in her opinion it is not religion that makes young Palestinians radical, the point is that education needs to be strengthened and to teach the young people to stay away from radicalism.
In her opinion, the problem of the Palestinians is their leaders, who if they decided to enter into the Abraham Accords, many opportunities would open up for them. She stressed that there are also open-minded people among the Palestinians and those people want to live in peace. She concluded by saying that the Palestinians will continue to miss opportunities if they will continue to follow in the footsteps of Hamas.
See: Future Saudi King Says Palestinian Leadership Is Main Obstacle to Peace
In response to her words, Toren claimed that many people do not know the wonders of normalization and asked Dr. Al Ketbi if she thinks there is a way to show the Palestinians the reality not only through the eyes of Al Jazeera. Dr. Al Ketbi answered that it is necessary to work wisely to show the Palestinians who watch Al Jazeera other content. They need to show them the profit they will have from relations with Israel and make them understand that Hamas only hurts them and thinks only of its own personal benefit. In response to what Dr. Katbi said, she said to me that although there are disputes that cannot be resolved it is worthwhile to change the discourse to issues that can be addressed. One should talk about what is possible and not about what is not possible.
