The announcement that Israel and the United Arab Emirates had reached an agreement
to recognize each other was major news.
It marked only the fourth Arab state - and the first in over 20 years - to formally recognize Israel.
But what lay behind a decision and what does it mean in real terms?
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Hello and welcome.
If you're new to the channel, my name is James Ker-Lindsay
and here I look at International Relations, statehood, independence and the origins of countries.
In most cases, states emerge with relatively little controversy.
While the process leading up to their statehood may be interesting and unusual,
once the decision has been made to grant them statehood by the relevant authority
- whether that's a colonial power or a parent state -
their acceptance by the international community tends to be relatively straightforward.
However, this isn't always the case.
No other member of the United Nations has faced as much controversy as Israel.
Since its foundation in 1948, its very existence has been challenged by the vast majority of the Arab world
and by many other Muslim majority states.
On at least two occasions, it even faced a concerted effort to eradicate it.
Even today, there are still around 30 UN members, including 17 of the 22 members of the Arab League
that don't officially recognize it as a sovereign independent state on the world stage.
However, in the past decades there have been signs that things are slowly changing.
While publicly few Arab states recognise Israel,
it has slowly been established in contact with a number of them behind the scenes.
Nevertheless, persuading countries to publicly and officially accept the country
has proven to be remarkably difficult.
It's in this context that the announcement in mid-August that the United Arab Emirates had officially decided
to recognise Israel was so especially important.
So, how did it happen?
By way of background, the story really begins with the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
The original plan was to partition the British administered territory of Palestine into two new states:
a Jewish homeland and a Palestinian one.
Although this was accepted by the UN General Assembly, under the terms of Resolution 181,
the proposal was rejected by the Palestinians and by Israel's neighboring countries.
As a result, when Israel came into being on 14 May 1948, it was immediately attacked by its Arab neighbours.
Beating off this attack, Israel took control of a significant part of the territory
that had in fact been set aside for the Palestinian state.
Having failed to eradicate the new state, Israel was now shunned by the Arab and wider Muslim world.
Although it was admitted as the 59th member of the United Nations, on 11 May 1949,
12 countries voted against membership including all of the Arab states and all but one
of the Muslim majority states in the organisation at the time.
The one exception was Turkey, which abstained in the vote.
Interestingly, later that year Turkey went on to become the first majority Muslim country to recognize Israel.
In the years that followed, the Arab world remained steadfastly opposed
to the existence of the Jewish state.
And in 1967, Israel was attacked again.
Once more, it beat off the invasion and this time took control of the remaining territories
inhabited by Palestinians: the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
At the same time, Israel also captured several territories from neighbouring states.
These included the Golan Heights from Syria and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.
It was this latter conquest that would pave the way for the first dramatic diplomatic breakthrough
between Israel and the Arab world when Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement.
As a result, Egypt became the first Arab state to officially recognise the State of Israel
- a decision that led to its suspension from the Arab League until 1989.
While this was certainly a huge breakthrough, it remained an outlier for the next two decades.
And when the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the PLO, proclaimed independence on 15 November 1988,
claiming the entire territory of Palestine, including Israel,
it was immediately recognized by the members of the Arab League.
However, the situation began to change at the start of the 1990s.
Talks organised by Norway led to an historic agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Agreeing to work towards a settlement of the outstanding issues based on the Palestinian
right of self-determination, and in accordance with relevant UN resolutions,
the agreement saw the Palestinian leadership recognize Israel.
This paved the way for two other members of the Arab League to recognize Israel.
The first was the Kingdom of Jordan, in 1994.
This was followed by Mauritania, in 1999
- although it then subsequently broke off diplomatic relations with Israel in 2009
following the conflict in Gaza.
However, these were the last recognitions from the Arab world.
Since 2000, not a single one of the other members of the Arab League have recognized Israel.
More widely, around half of the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
still don't recognize the country as well.
It was against this backdrop of very limited recognition by Arab, and even wider muslim Majority states,
that the announcement broke that on 13 August, the United Arab Emirates, UAE,
had reached an historic peace agreement with Israel
- known as the Abraham Accord after the patriarch of the Jewish and Muslim faiths.
As a result, the UAE became only the fifth member of the 22-member Arab League to recognize Israel,
and the first to do so in over 20 years.
So how and why did it happen?
First of all, it's perhaps best to explain what the agreement actually means.
Although the exact text of the accord has not been made public,
what we do know is that it does amount to formal recognition.
The term "full normalization of relations", coupled with the fact that it was jointly issued by the
Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Prime Minister of Israel,
leaves little room for doubt that this is what it means.
Israel and the UAE recognise each other.
In addition, the statement noted that the two countries will also sign a series of agreements covering:
"investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare,
culture, the environment, the establishment of reciprocal embassies, and other areas of mutual benefits."
This therefore answers a second major question.
It would indeed seem that the Accord not only amounts to recognition,
but also sees the formal establishment of diplomatic relations
- or at least the imminent establishment of such relations.
As for why it happened, there are a number of good explanations.
For the United States, which seemingly acted as the go-between, the benefits are obvious.
As well as securing another recognition for Israel after many years,
it came as a foreign policy triumph for the Trump administration as it faces a tough re-election battle.
Likewise, for Israel the benefits are clear.
The chance to secure another recognition from an Arab state, especially after such a long hiatus,
was obviously a major victory.
But it also provided a very useful face-saving mechanism.
One of the key developments running alongside the Accord was a commitment by Israel
not to carry out a long expected annexation of the West Bank.
Despite suggestions that it was preparing to claim sovereignty over these territories,
which played well with nationalists at home, the Israeli Government would no doubt have been aware
of the potentially disastrous consequences that this would have had on its international standing.
There's little doubt that it would have all but killed off any residual hopes that a
two-state solution could have been realised and would have been in direct violation of various UN resolutions.
In short, it would have been a violation of international law.
This would have provoked a massive backlash internationally; not only from Muslim majority states,
but also from many other countries, including the European Union members.
So, while annexation may have played well at a domestic level,
it would have had the most serious possible international effects.
To this end, the Accord came as a useful exit from what would have been a huge international problem for Israel.
So, while the benefits for the United States and Israel are therefore fairly obvious,
what was in it for the UAE?
Here things are much more interesting.
For a start, it's worth noting that the announcement doesn't actually mark the start
of a relationship between Israel and the UAE.
It's long been known that the two countries have had extensive informal relations for many years.
And since the agreement has been announced,
the two countries have moved quickly to put in place a series of agreements
They've also instituted direct dialing between the countries and a direct flight.
To this extent, the annexation threat in fact provided a perfect face saving opportunity for the UAE to formalise
this relationship with Israel and bring it out into the open and still be able to claim that its action had staved off
a move that would have effectively ended any hopes of a Palestinian state.
The fact that it will also have earned significant gratitude from the United States
will also have helped sweeten the deal.
Nevertheless, the decision was not without cost for the UAE.
Indeed, it prompted a significant backlash.
Interestingly, perhaps the strongest response came from Turkey,
which has seen a significant deterioration in its relations with Israel over the past 20 years.
Indeed, Ankara even threatened to break off diplomatic relations with the Emirates over the decision.
In addition, criticism was voiced by other countries, such as Iran and Qatar.
On top of this, many Palestinians saw the decision as a betrayal.
Even though it appeared to stop an Israeli annexation of the West Bank,
many felt that it served to further legitimize Israel and a government that seems wholly opposed
to realizing the terms of a two-state solution.
For Palestinian leaders, it will also be read as a sign that many Arab states
are now looking beyond the Palestinian issue.
And in fact such fears are certainly not unfounded.
It was noticeable that elsewhere the response was far more muted.
This suggests that there may well be more Arab states that are eyeing up the opportunity
to break cover and recognise Israel as well.
Recent commentaries suggested that Bahrain and Oman may be next in line.
Bahrain has already recognized Israel's right to exist, and, like the UAE, appears to have good informal ties.
Meanwhile, and interestingly, Mauritania welcomed the UAE's decision;
perhaps suggesting that it may also be willing to resume diplomatic relations with Israel.
It's even been suggested that there may be those in the upper echelons of the Saudi Arabian hierarchy
who was sympathetic to closer ties to Israel
- although it would seem hard to see it recognizing Israel any time soon.
Since its creation in 1948, Israel has faced considerable opposition on the international stage.
Although it's now recognized by the large majority of UN members,
there are still around 30 countries that don't recognize it.
These include around half of the members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
and the large majority of the members of the Arab League.
It's in this context that the announcement that Israel and the United Arab Emirates had reached an agreement
to recognise one another came as a major breakthrough.
As well as being only the fourth such recognition by an Arab member state of the United Nations,
it was the first such recognition since 1999.
To this extent, the symbolism is obvious.
However, the big question is where things go from here?
Was this just an aberration, or is it the start of a more significant change that will see some of the other
17 members of the Arab League, or any other Muslim majority states, change their positions.
In fact, the breakthrough came a lot faster than anyone was expecting.
I'll cover this in the next video.
In the meantime, here are some more videos that you might enjoy.
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Thanks so much and see you in the next video.