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Jerusalem (CNN) – On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will join the Foreign Ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the White House to mark historic normalization agreements between Israel and the two Arab countries.
The last time such a ceremony was held in Washington was in 1994. At that time, President Bill Clinton watched Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordanian King Hussein sign a declaration that paved the way for an agreement. of peace months later.
For Trump, timing is crucial. Less than two months away from an election in which it lags behind in polls, the normalization agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are major foreign policy achievements. Even if the region gradually moved towards these relationships regardless of who occupied the White House.
MIRA: Israel signs peace with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain: there are already two Arab nations in a month that normalize relations with the Jewish State
How did we get here? The keys to the Israel agreement
For years, Israel has had covert relationships with many of the Sunni Gulf states, spurred in recent years by a de facto mutual alliance against Iran.
Still, the relations predate the Iran nuclear deal, by more than a decade in some cases, as the Gulf states sought to take advantage of Israel’s high-tech scene and Israel sought to secure their place in a turbulent Middle East.
Chief among these behind-the-scenes relationships were the United Arab Emirates. There are numerous public examples of the growing links between the two increasingly common states.
In late 2015, Israel opened a diplomatic-level mission to the International Renewable Energy Agency in Abu Dhabi. In 2018, then-Culture Minister Miri Regev paid a state visit to the Grand Mosque shortly after an Israeli gold medal in a judo tournament in the Emirates. Israel was also invited to the Dubai Expo 2020, a global exhibition that has since been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
LOOK: Netanyahu, “proud” to travel to the White House in the framework of the peace agreement between Israel and the UAE
Bahrain and Israel’s ties and what they mean for the deal
Like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain also had covert ties with Israel dating back years. Additionally, Bahrain has a small but sustained Jewish community. One of the members of that community served as the country’s ambassador to the United States from 2008 to 2013.
The small Gulf kingdom also hosted the presentation of the economic part of the White House plan for peace in the Middle East. This indicates a willingness to engage with the US, and subsequently with Israel, even at a time when it does not seem possible to make progress on the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Crucially, the UAE and Bahrain are also close allies of the US. In addition, each country hosts a significant US military presence. The US Air Force has deployed F-35 fighter jets in a air base in Abu Dhabi. On the other hand, the Fifth Fleet and the Central Command of the Navy are based in Bahrain.
That military presence has brought the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain closer to the United States.
What do Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain get?
A prominent American rabbi who acts as a personal adviser to the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, once told me that for the Persian Gulf states, the road to Washington passes through Jerusalem.
In other words, if these states wanted to get closer to President Trump and the White House, engaging with Israeli leaders was a sure way to achieve that goal.
The UAE made it clear that one of the benefits they see from the standardization agreement with Israel is that it should be easier to acquire F-35s from the United States. Trump’s senior adviser, Jared Kushner, also shares this view.
That would give the Emiratis the last fighter jet in America’s inventory. That means a significant advantage over any other army in the region, with the exception of Israel.
The United Arab Emirates also guaranteed the suspension of Israel’s planned annexation of parts of the West Bank. They made it clear that this was one of their conditions for normalizing relations.
Though it’s unclear how long the suspension lasts, for the UAE, this kept alive the possibility of a two-state solution, which it says is the only possible end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
What is not yet clear is what specific objectives Bahrain intends to achieve with the standardization agreement. For both the UAE and Bahrain, the agreements also open up the possibility of purchasing Israeli high-tech, including military technology like the Iron Dome missile defense system, as well as cooperation in the economy, healthcare, tourism, and more.
Politically, it is also a win-win situation, at least for Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Either Trump wins a second term in November and they have already scored points with their administration, or a Biden administration takes over and they are on solid ground having secured normalization agreements with Israel.
As for Israel, Netanyahu boasts a major foreign policy achievement, one that only two other Israeli leaders have been able to achieve. Menachem Begin signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979. Yitzhak Rabin signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. Netanyahu will sign normalization agreements with two countries in one day.
Crucially, the White House ceremony helps to distract attention from Netanyahu’s internal troubles: a tattered economy facing 18% unemployment, a coronavirus crisis that has forced Israel into a second blanket lockdown, and its own judgment. for corruption charges. He has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.
