Jewish Journal
Aaron Bandler
8/13/2020
Jewish groups praised the agreement announced on Aug. 13 that normalizes relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to a joint statement from Israel, the UAE and the United States, which helped broker the deal, the agreement will establish economic and diplomatic relations as well as security cooperation between the two countries. The two countries also will collaborate on a COVID-19 vaccine.
As part of the agreement, Israel will suspend its plans to annex parts of the West Bank.
Jewish groups called the agreement historic.
“AJC celebrates today’s historic peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates,” the American Jewish Committee (AJC) tweeted. “Having engaged with states in the Arabian Gulf and throughout the Arab world for decades, we hope this opens the door to further agreements between Israel and her Arab neighbors.”
Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) Founder and Dean Rabbi Marvin Hier and Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper said in a statement, “Today is a historic day — two allies of the US now become open strategic partners in the region to thwart Iran and other Jihadists. It also signals further dramatic normalization between Arabs and Jews in the region, a goal the SWC has contributed to for over 15 years.
They added that they hoped Bahrain will soon follow and argued that the agreement is “is sending a message to the Palestinian people. The peace train has left the station. Peace with Israel is within reach but only if Palestinians have leaders who are prepared to forever foreswear violence and terrorism. Today, the Palestinian Authority no longer has veto power over regional relations between Arab and the Jewish nations.
“It’s time for the Palestinians to come to the peace table and directly negotiate with Jerusalem,” Hier and Cooper said.
StandWithUs CEO and co-founder Roz Rothstein said in a statement, “We celebrate this historic breakthrough, which follows a long period of increased cooperation between the UAE and Israel. While the two governments work out the details of this peace agreement, we encourage more Arab states to follow their lead. In our outreach to the Arab world on social media, we have seen trends that give us hope for a more peaceful and prosperous future in the region.”
The European Leadership Network (ELNET) similarly tweeted, “ELNET hails the historic agreement normalizing ties between the #UAE and #Israel. As the momentum for change gathers force in the region, ELNET will continue to highlight the importance of supporting regional dialogue and cooperation."
The Stop Antisemitism.org watchdog tweeted, “Antisemitism in the Arab world is one of the leading challenges for not only #Jews in Israel, but from those of us in the diaspora. By normalizing relations with now another Arab/Muslim country, we slowly move towards peace in the Middle East!”
Christians United for Israel (CUFI) founder and chairman Pastor John Hagee said in a statement, “We consistently pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and today those prayers were answered in a big way. In the context of the discussion about extending Israeli sovereignty to portions of Judea and Samaria, we made clear in late June that this is precisely what the Gulf states should do, and we hope other Arab nations will follow the UAE’s lead. CUFI backs the decisions of the democratically elected Government of Israel, including the decision to suspend sovereignty extension plans in this context.
“This proves yet again that when Israel’s Arab neighbors are prepared to make peace with the Jewish state, Israel will always be there to meet them.”
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