His visit comes just over a year after the wealthy Gulf state forged diplomatic ties under a series of US-brokered deals known as the Abraham Accords.

Israel is also making a diplomatic push against renewed international talks with Iran, its arch-foe, over the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme. 

Bennett, who was expected to focus on trade links, according to his spokesperson, said his visit reflected a “new reality” for the region.

“In my opinion, this is… the new reality this region is witnessing, and we are working together to ensure a better future for our children,” he told the UAE’s official WAM news agency.

The volume of mutual trade had grown within a few months, “with limitless future opportunities to develop it,” he added.

“Israel, like the UAE, is a regional hub for trade. Our cooperation provides unprecedented economic opportunities not only for us, but for more countries.”

Bennett was also scheduled to meet the UAE’s technology and transport ministers during his visit, Israeli officials said.

While he is the first Israeli prime minister to visit the UAE, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid made a landmark trip in June, opening an embassy in Abu Dhabi and a consulate in Dubai. 

The UAE opened an embassy in Tel Aviv in July.

Hamas is clearly willing to play ball, but it wants Egypt and Israel to help it with the international community…

Efforts to rebuild Gaza after the brutal 11-day air, land and sea punishment by the Israeli army in May are hitting a snag. The biggest problem appears to be the issue of who controls the massive amount of money earmarked for rebuilding.

The problem appears to be focused on the attitude of Hamas in Gaza. The attacks, which erupted following Israel’s refusal to ease up on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah, have produced a funding problem for Hamas. Now most of the talk about money — such as whether to pay public servants in Gaza or push on with reconstruction — appears to be directed at the UN and its various agencies operating in Gaza. Naturally, the Ramallah-based government would also like to be the conduit of the money, but that does not appear to be possible. At best, the Ramallah leadership might be allowed to have a seat at the table.

When it comes to Hamas, the purse strings might be eased if it agrees to a prisoner swap and ensures that no further security escalations take place. On the first issue, the long negotiations don’t appear to be making serious progress because of the chasm between what Hamas wants in terms of the number of prisoners it expects in exchange for the Israeli prisoners and bodies in its possession. The new Israeli government under Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid government is not in any rush to make compromises, while opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu is breathing down their backs and accusing them of being a left-wing, appeasing government.

Meanwhile, what is hampering the efforts of the UN negotiators, headed by Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland, is the sense of victory Hamas is feeling following the 11-day battle with Israel, in which the Gaza-based movement succeeded in paralyzing Israel’s airports and businesses and sent half its population into shelters. While Israel suffered few fatalities compared to the Gazans, there is no doubt that the equation has changed because Hamas was not crushed and can therefore return again and again to disrupt Israeli lives.

External players are also trying to help the process. The Egyptians, who oversaw the current ceasefire, feel they can produce some change within the Hamas leadership, but not without the Israelis also budging. Hamas is clearly willing to play ball, but it wants Egypt and Israel to help it with the international community. Hamas wants to be legitimized and no longer treated as a terrorist organization. In particular, it would like to be allowed to be a serious part of any new government established in Ramallah.

However, the Middle East Quartet, as it stands, does not appear to be in any mood to soften its three conditions for Hamas’ participation as a legitimate partner. The three conditions — recognizing Israel, denouncing terror, and accepting existing agreements signed by the Palestinian Liberation Organization — seem difficult for Hamas to swallow, especially due to its strong feeling of victory following the recent cycle of violence.

The quartet, which is made up of the US, UN, EU and Russia, has been pushed to widen its membership to include a number of new players, including Egypt, Jordan and possibly the UK (which is no longer part of the EU), but it has so far resisted. Discussions in New York about a meeting of the quartet at the Foreign Ministry level have been discussed, but no decision has been made or date set. It is expected that, once a general framework for a deal to cement the ceasefire and agree on the mechanism of the rebuilding of Gaza is reached, then the quartet can meet to help approve and give such a draft agreement the needed push forward.

For the time being, the ball appears to be in Hamas’ court, although others like Israel have a major role to play in helping move the process forward. That will include not only reinforcing the ceasefire and beginning the rebuilding process, but also concrete steps toward the restart of direct Palestinian-Israeli talks. That seems far-fetched at the present time, but it is obviously needed if the efforts of all parties concerned are to produce the expected positive results.

Article first published on Arab News.

Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist from Jerusalem. He is the former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. Twitter: @daoudkuttab.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not reflect Milli Chronicle’s point-of-view.

Dalia Ziada

One can hardly be optimistic that this new Israeli government may be able to manage its many domestic and regional challenges…

The new government in Israel, known as “the government of change”, held its first cabinet meeting, on June 20th. However, it has already started working with full capacity and utmost pace since it was sworn in, before the Knesset, on June 13th. There is a lot of optimism inside Israel for finally being able to change Netanyahu after record 12 years in power, enhanced by the failure of four elections, within only two years, to install a new government. However, there are a lot of uncertainties, on regional and international levels, on whether this new government, with its coalition of odds, can appropriately handle the many domestic and regional challenges facing Israel.

According to the legally-binding coalition agreement upon which the government is formed, the government will be ruled by two prime ministers on rotational basis. For the first two years, Naftali Bennett, from Yamina Party, will keep the Prime Minister’s office, until August 2023. Then, Yair Lapid, from Yesh Atid Party, will take over the Prime Minister position until November 2025. Right now, Lapid serves as the Foreign Minister under Bennett. Meanwhile, the coalition forming parties shall contribute to decision-making.

The coalition forming the government is composed by a relatively large number of political parties that fall at extreme opposites of the political spectrum. From the right wing: Yamina, and Yisrael Beiteinu. From the left wing: Meretz, and HaAvoda (the Israeli Labor Party). Liberals from the center: Yesh Atid, Blue and White, and the New Hope. Hanging at a weird spot somewhere on the spectrum is the United Arab List (Raam), which is led by the Islamic Movement, a political Islamist group operating inside Israel, since 1970s.

This is the first time ever for the Israeli Arabs to participate in forming an Israeli government. Arab Israelis represent nearly 23% of the Israeli population. Most of them are young. According to Colonel Wagdi Sarhan, Chief of the Minorities Unit at the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), dozens of the young Israeli Arab Muslims challenged the norm and volunteered to join IDF, in the past few years. In that sense, it may not seem strange for the Israeli Arabs to be part of the coalition forming the new government.

However, the furious reaction by the Israeli Arabs against their Israeli Jewish neighbors, during the latest episode of war between Hamas and Israel, in May, should raise an alarm. In the heat of the conflict, they clashed with the Jews, inside Israel, and put the country on the brink of a civil war. Now, as the Arabs, who are also Islamists, have become an integral part of the Israeli government, how they are expected to react, should a new round of violence erupt between Hamas and Israel.

Nevertheless, the existence of the Israeli Arabs is not the only indigenous flaw threatening the cohesion of the vision of the new government. In fact, the structure of the coalition, which gives decision-making and veto powers to the many included parties, shall make it very difficult for the government to operate, especially on issues related to internal economic policies and handling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In that regard, we may see in Israel a scenario similar to the decision-making impasse, that the three-presidencies government of Tunisia has fallen into, in the past two years, and caused a lot of sufferings to the Tunisian people.

However, on the foreign policy level, the odd structure of the coalition government is expected to benefit Israel. Apparently, all of the political parties forming the government agree on the main outlines of the foreign policy that they should apply. Unlike the Netanyahu government, which mostly depended on a fait accompli policy, the diversity of the new government may force new compromises and diplomatic priorities, especially with neighbor Arab countries and the United States.

On one hand, the government-forming political parties, collectively, desire to normalize relations with more Arab Gulf countries, while strengthening old relations with Egypt and Jordan. On June 18th, the new Foreign Minister of Israel, Yair Lapid, made his first phone call with the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry. They discussed Egypt’s role in Gaza and the ceasefire deal and agreed to meet in person in the near future. Since 2015, the security and economic cooperation between Egypt and Israel have reached unprecedented horizons, and is expected to strengthen further in the next years.

On the other hand, all of the parties forming the government have a clear unified position against Iran and its proxies. About one week after the election of the Israeli government, a new president in Iran got elected. On June 19th, Ebrahim Raisi, the senior Imam, and Chief Judge, who with cold blood had sentenced tens of peaceful political activists to death, has been elected as the new President of Iran.

Looking at the bigger picture of the Middle East region, in light of these developments, one can hardly be optimistic that this new Israeli government may be able to manage its many domestic and regional challenges with this coalition of odds, that includes an Arab Islamist party. This is the biggest flaw that may eventually lead to an early collapse of the coalition or an early collapse of the entire government.

Article first published on Liberal Democracy Institute of Egypt.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not reflect Milli Chronicle’s point-of-view.