“We need to make our stand clear that we are supporting Palestinian people's rights and are against any further consolidation of occupation… the message needed to be directed to those concerned directly,” an Emirati source stressed. This is the UAE's explanation of an unprecedented article by its ambassador to the US, Youssef Al-Otaiba, published in the widely-distributed Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth last Friday. Titled “Annexation or Normalisation”, the op-ed article was published in Hebrew with an explanatory video in English by Al-Otaiba, who is also a minister of state in the UAE government. It's the first such direct public communication from an Emirati official with the Israeli public. It stirred a lot of reactions inside Israel, in the US and across the Arab world. Yet, the article just emphasised the Emirati position on the central Middle East issue, containing the same messages that have been conveyed to the US administration and other parties since the Israeli government announced its plans on extending sovereignty over parts of the occupied West Bank and Jordan Valley. The same message is to be reiterated by UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash this week at the annual global forum of the major Israel lobby group the American Jewish Committee, where he is scheduled to speak. The core message of Al-Otaiba's article is a warning that planned annexation would be a major impediment to Israel's hope of establishing ties with the Arab world. “Annexation will certainly and immediately upend Israeli aspirations for improved security, economic and cultural ties with the Arab world and with the UAE,” he wrote. The article stressed that, “all the time, we (the UAE) remain an ardent advocate for the Palestinian people and a long-time champion of the Arab Peace Initiative” — the initiative proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and that stipulates the two-state solution in return for the normalisation of relations between Israel and the Arab world. Al-Otaiba said that as well as jeopardising Israeli efforts to build relationships with countries in the region, annexation would also strain Israel's ties with the Arab states with which it already has peace deals: Egypt and Jordan. He singled out Jordan as bearing the brunt of any such decision. “It will send shockwaves around the region, especially in Jordan whose stability — often taken for granted — benefits the entire region, particularly Israel,” adding: “There will be tremendous pressure on countries like Jordan, that has demographic and economic challenges. This will make it more difficult.” The article went on that, “Jordan is a partner of ours. This will put them in a very uncomfortable situation. There could be unrest. A decision like this could have as much impact on Jordan as Palestine and Ramallah.” Al-Otaiba's article comes just after an op-ed by World Jewish Congress head Ron Lauder was published in the Saudi English daily Arab News in May. But this article in Hebrew by an Emirati official got more notoriety. It is still the subject of reactions and analysis, especially in Israel. A majority of reader comments were not positive, but the Israeli elite had mixed reactions. Some saw it a bold step to appeal to the Israeli public — the “concerned party” — directly. Others saw it a face-saving lip-service from the Gulf so no one would blame them later if Israel went on with its plans. An analysis piece in The Jerusalem Post reflected the main theme of popular Israeli reaction: “Let us say that Israel heeds Otaiba's advice, and does not extend its sovereignty over the lands in question. Then what can it expect from the UAE in return?… Wouldn't it be significant, for example, if Otaiba would now address his own public, in Arabic — perhaps in the widely circulated UAE paper Al-Khaleej — and both tell them how the two states cooperate, and why it is important for the UAE? Wouldn't it be dramatic if he wrote there and in Arabic that ‘Israel is an opportunity, not an enemy'?” That suggestion is probably unlikely, and the Emiratis stress that the message was meant to clarify its position as stated in the article. In a tweet praising the piece, Gargash wrote: “The UAE, through its deliberate actions, refutes Netanyahu's statements regarding relations with the Arab world and warns of the repercussions and dangers of expanding the occupation.” Al-Otaiba himself explained the whole thing in an interview with Emirati English daily The National, saying that he was inspired by Egyptian President Sadat's trip to Jerusalem in 1977. “Anwar Sadat went to Jerusalem to make a point, and he was very emphatic about it because it was in the best interest of his country,” he said in the interview, adding: “While I am not going to Tel Aviv to give a speech, I think this has the same kind of value of speaking directly to an audience to make sure your message gets across.” But the most important point he mentioned in the video interview is that another risk of pressing ahead with annexation is that it would “give a platform for extremists and allow people to try to manipulate the Palestinian issue for their own benefit”, and would constitute a setback for a lot of “the progress that we have seen”. The UAE is an ardent opponent of political Islam and definitely don't want the Israeli decision to give groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizbullah, or countries like Iran and Turkey, fuel to inflame the region.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
