TRUMP MIDEAST PEACE: Abraham Accords, One Year Later

Given the recent and catastrophic events in Afghanistan, we can reflect on the Middle East during the glorious Trump years. Watch President Trump announce the Abraham Accords just one year ago. One year and 4 days to be exact. Now look were the Middle East is today. Just seven months after the Biden Administration took office, the Middle East has predictably descended into utter chaos. What a heartbreaking tragedy.

After this announcement, we all burst into spontaneous applause for what seemed like a very long time. For those of us within the tiny group working this file in secrecy for months, the emotional release was palpable.https://t.co/XQfp9imJ1L via @YouTube

— David M Friedman (@DavidM_Friedman) August 13, 2021

Abraham Accords, one year later: The inside story

It’s been a year. Let’s look back on all that has happened since the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, shortly followed by Bahrain.

By Jerusalem Post, August 16, 2021

“I was in the Oval Office on August 13 when we announced it,” recalls former US ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman. “Today we are all pretty happy, and we are ahead of schedule in terms of how this has developed.”

A year has passed since the announcement that then-US president Donald J. Trump, then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces, had spoken and agreed to full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Within weeks the Kingdom of Bahrain had also agreed to normalize relations on September 12.

“The signing of the Abraham Accords will no doubt be one of the biggest Middle East milestones in our lifetime, and as we celebrate its first anniversary, it is an opportunity to reflect on this auspicious time for the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the region more broadly,” recalls Houda Nonoo, Bahrain’s former ambassador to the US and, at the time, the first and only Jewish ambassador from an Arab country to the US.

By October Sudan had agreed to normalize ties, and in December Morocco was talking rapprochement with Israel.

I recently drove by the liaison office of the Kingdom of Morocco in Tel Aviv. It has a pretty gate, in the style of North African designs. It is now part of the changing landscape of Israel and its relations with countries in the Middle East.

The Abraham Accords were signed on September 15 at the South Lawn of the White House. At the time some critics pilloried the agreements, cast doubt on their substance and later called them an “afterthought.”

A year after the agreements gives us some time to look back at how they came to be and gauge whether they will stand the test of time.

Friedman says, in a conversation with me, that “from my own perspective, I felt there would be a stress point, something that will stress the relationship in the short term.”

That test came with the conflict in Gaza in May. The Accords survived and are flourishing, according to those who helped craft them and according to experts, academics, cultural, religious and political figures from the US to Israel and the Gulf.

In the course of writing this article I reached out to a large number of people, most of whom agreed to speak on the record and provide exclusive details to the Magazine.

 

 

The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

• $25.00 here
• $50.00 here
• $75.00 here
• $100.00 here
• $250.00 here