Israel Says Abraham Accords are ‘Opportunity’ for Palestinians

Turki al-Faisal bin Abdulziz al-Saud (R), chairman of King Faisal Center for Research and
MAZEN MAHDI/AFP via Getty
Deborah Brand

The U.S.-brokered normalization deals between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are an opportunity for Palestinians and do not come at their “expense” as they claim, Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said Sunday.

The Palestinian leadership has lambasted the deals as a “stab in the back.” PA President Mahmoud Abbas described the UAE as a “traitor to the homeland and our cause” and said its decision to normalize ties with Israel was “a poisoned dagger.”

“The Abraham accords do not come at the expense of the Palestinians. Quite the opposite, they are an opportunity that should not be missed,” Ashkenazi told a virtual security summit in Manama.

“I call on the Palestinians to change their minds and enter direct negotiation with us without preconditions. This is the only way to solve this conflict,” he said.

“We believe as Israel moves from annexation to normalization, there is a window to solve this conflict,” he said, referring to Israel’s agreement to shelve its plans to apply sovereignty over the West Bank.

Also in attendance at the panel discussion was Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, who blasted Israel for acting as a colonizing occupier, and saying normalization will never occur until the creation of a Palestinian state along 1967 lines.

He accused Israel of depicting itself as a “small, existentially threatened country, surrounded by bloodthirsty killers who want to eradicate her from existence”.

“And yet they profess that they want to be friends with Saudi Arabia,” he said.

“You cannot treat an open wound with palliatives and painkillers. The Abraham Accords are not divine writ.”

“Israeli governments have arrested thousands of the inhabitants of the lands they are colonizing and incarcerated them in concentration camps under the flimsiest of security accusations — young and old, women and men who are rotting there without recourse or justice,” he said.

Ashkenazi later tweeted: “The false accusations of the Saudi representative at the Manama Conference do not reflect the facts or the spirit and changes the region is undergoing. I rejected his remarks and emphasized that the ‘blame game’ era is over. We are at the dawn of a new era. An era of peace.”

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