HISTORIC: President Trump Announces Peace Deal Between Israel & UAE

By 

Logan Sekulow

|
August 13, 2020

4 min read

Israel

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This could really be a milestone moment in world history. President Trump just announced a landmark peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Here’s what President Trump said in his announcement of the deal:

Just a few moments ago, I hosted a very special call with two friends, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [of] Israel and Mohammed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, where they agreed to finalize a historical peace agreement. Everybody said this would be impossible.

This watershed accord – that has already been dubbed the “Abraham Accord” – could end decades of tensions between the two nations. The peace agreement, which the President helped broker, could finally stabilize relations between Israel and the UAE, which it’s fair to say have been tenuous at best for a long time.

As President Trump stated:

After 49 years, Israel and the United Arab Emirates will fully normalize their diplomatic relations. They will exchange embassies and ambassadors, and begin cooperation across the board, and on a broad range of areas including tourism, education, health care, trade, and security.

There’s no overselling how major this news is, or the impact it could have in the Middle East. And it came as a complete surprise. As we discussed on Jay Sekulow Live/The Logan Sekulow ReProgram, my co-host Will Haynes and I were prepping to discuss a few completely unrelated topics when the news broke about this historic deal.

The UAE, and its capital Abu Dhabi, is strategically located on the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula on the coast of the Persian Gulf, directly across from Iran. If you were in Israel, before this deal, you couldn’t travel to the UAE for tourism, religious reasons, or any other purpose, and vice versa.

As someone who has traveled to Israel multiple times, I can attest there was real tension there. This is truly a huge deal that was not easily won, and will have a tremendous impact not only in the Middle East but for the world. I don’t want to understate that fact.

You may ask how a deal between Israel and the UAE involves America. The answer is, massively. These countries are probably our two greatest allies in the Middle East, and yet until this deal was struck, they were not friendly with each other. This alliance could reshape the Middle East, especially if other nations follow the influential UAE’s lead.

Will addressed the importance of this agreement on today’s show:

This is the first Gulf Arab state to sign an agreement like this with Israel and only the third Arab nation to have active diplomatic ties with Israel. So, like you said, you can’t undersell how important, how historic, this moment is and they’re giving credit to the Trump Administration for bringing the two parties to the table.

The Israel-UAE peace agreement includes sections on: investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare, culture, the environment, the establishment of reciprocal embassies, and other areas of mutual benefit. And in more immediate significance, the deal also includes a fair amount of joint work on the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. The combined strengths of both countries working on a vaccine could ultimately benefit all of us.

The ACLJ has an office in Jerusalem, Israel, and we have done a lot of work to help protect Israel’s interests and to fight antisemitism on the international stage. This peace agreement is hugely important because it shows what is possible in the future between Israel and other countries.

The full radio broadcast includes much more in-depth discussion about the importance of the peace agreement between Israel and the UAE.

Watch the full broadcast below.