On UAE-Israel agreement to normalize relations

THE Trump administration’s penchant for hyperbole is again evident in the sobriquet it has given to the agreement it brokered between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel to normalize relations. Calling it the Abraham Accord implies that all followers of the three Abrahamic religions — Jewish, Christian and Islam — are behind it. The signing of a peace agreement between the UAE and Israel is due to take place in the White House in ceremonies to be beamed around the world but obviously aimed at impressing United States voters in the November elections of the accomplishments, patchy at best, of President Donald Trump at promoting world peace.

The ceremonies would put the occasion seemingly at par in importance with those agreements brokered by previous US presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians are not a party to the agreement and were kept in the dark about it happening until it came out in the media. The US under Trump has completely kept the Palestinians out of its efforts to bring peace in the Middle East and in fact has been outright hostile to them as evidenced by the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington, D.C. Trump’s policy toward the Palestinians has been strange, perplexing and unprecedented for a country that has traditionally appointed itself mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Critics have dismissed Trump’s Vision of Peace and Prosperity for Palestinians and Israel as fundamentally flawed; it is without the participation and support of the Palestinians and caters wholly to Israeli preferences.