Not one Arab country that signed peace and normalization agreements with Israel under the Abraham Accords has withdrawn them in the week since Hamas launched massive barrages of rockets against Israeli civilians and the Israeli military responded.
Last September, President Donald Trump hosted the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain for a signing ceremony on the White House lawn. Sudan and Morocco joined later, as did the Muslim nation of Kosovo, after a new agreement with Serbia.
Those agreements have held, despite efforts by Palestinians to inflame anti-Israel sentiment throughout the region and the world.
On Saturday, the UAE reportedly warned the Hamas terrorist regime in Gaza that it is endangering planned joint infrastructure projects by failing to maintain calm in the Gaza Strip, a sign that Israel’s new Arab alliances are holding firm.
The Times of Israel reported that an unnamed UAE official had spoken to the Israeli Globes business newspaper:
“We are still ready and willing to promote civil projects in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority and under UN management [in Gaza], but our necessary condition is calm,” the unnamed official says.
“If Hamas does not commit to complete calm, it is dooming the residents of the Strip to a life of suffering. Its leaders must understand that their policies are first and foremost hurting the people of Gaza.”
In a similar vein, the Palestinian Authority complained Saturday that while several Western leaders had reached out, including U.S. President Joe Biden, no Arab leaders had contacted it during the war, suggesting that it is the Palestinian leadership, not Israel, that has become more isolated during the hostilities. (The Palestinian Authority has only controlled the West Bank since Hamas ousted it in a coup in 2007.)
Two airlines based in the UAE have joined other international carriers in canceling flights to Israel while the war continues, and the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation criticized Israel, with statements from Iran and Turkey dominating. And on Sunday, a Lebanese official was cited as claiming that Hezbollah, controlled by Iran, does not want to expand the conflict.
Despite expressing concern, the countries that signed agreements with Israel have yet to reverse course, despite the violence. Many recognize that the same radical Islamic terrorist forces — with Iranian backing — are a common threat to other countries.
President Trump’s critics have claimed that the latest violence proves that his Middle East peace efforts failed, or made things worse.
However, the fact that Arab nations that have made peace with Israel have maintained their ties is a sign the Abraham Accords have held, despite Hamas’s efforts to disrupt them.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new e-book, The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it). His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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