Opuscula A few thoughts About Israel-UAE Peace agreement

With a great deal of hoopla and self-congratulations, Trump’s son-in-law is taking bows for lining up the third Muslim country in the region to make a pact with Israel.

Peace almost always is a good thing.¹

The accord between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), regardless of what it actually entails, should be a good thing for the region. 

The Sunni-dominated UAE is a winner in the deal as it, like Israel, is threatened by Shiite-dominated Iran.

The UAE military is smaller (not being threatened by an immediate neighbor is helpful) than Israel’s Defense Force.

For 2020, United Arab Emirates is ranked 45 of 138 out of the countries considered for the annual GFP review. ²

Always in a state of readiness, the nation of Israel fields one of the most capable military forces in the world - despite its size. For 2020, Israel is ranked 18 of 138 out of the countries considered for the annual GFP review. ³

The UAE is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a political and economic alliance of six Middle Eastern countries—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. The GCC was established in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May 1981. The purpose of the GCC is to achieve unity among its members based on their common objectives and their similar political and cultural identities, which are rooted in Arab and Islamic cultures.⁴

 

Countries belonging to the GCC (Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Kenny Chmielewski @ https://tinyurl.com/y47oxzm5)

 

Because the UAE is a GCC member state, it is likely, albeit not assured, that the other member states will either follow UAE’s lead or at least use the UAE as a conduit to Israel.

Qatar currently is the main source of revenue for Hamas, until recently depositing US$15 million-a-month into the terrorists’ pockets. The funds were earmarked by the Qataris for humanitarian aid. Qatar also funds some PLO/PFLP activities.

Qatar recently sent two planeloads of medical supplies to the PLO/PFLP. Abu Mazen and friends rejected the aid since the supplies were landed in Israel sans Abu Mazen’s permission! (The PLO/PFLP lacks an airport to accommodate a modern jumbo jet.)⁵

Despite funding Hamas and the PLO/PFLP, Qatar apparently has, as do most of the GCC states, a pragmatic relationship with Israel. This is not new; as early as the 1970s Saudi were buying Israeli-made air conditioners; they worked better in Saudia’s climate than the European brands.

Israelis visit GCC states

Netanyahu visits Oman, Oct. 2018 ⁶

Communications Minister Ayoub Kara's trip to Dubai, Oct. 2018 ⁷

Sport & Culture Minister Miri Regev at UAE judo competition, Oct. 2018⁸ Regev, of Moroccan descent, also visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.⁹

 

Israeli Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev, middle, shakes hands with Mohamed Bin Tha'loob Al Derai, President of UAE Wrestling Judo & Kickboxing Federation, after one Israeli player won the bronze medal during the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Judo tournament in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018. (AP/Kamran Jebreili @ https://tinyurl.com/y266oxes)

 

Some concerns

The rapprochement between Israel and the GCC is not without concerns.

For example, Qatar had been at odds with other GCC members and Egypt for some time. ¹⁰

Direct Flights Emirates and Etihad already overfly Saudia to deliver aid to the PLO/PFLP. Will Israeli airlines (El Al, IsrAir) be allowed to overfly Saudia? Saudia is a GCC member.

Iran is troublesome for ALL middle eastern countries (and beyond).

Will agreements between Israel and individual GCC states include mutual military assistance? Israel has the strongest and best trained military in the region. While there is military cooperation with Egypt, a mutual assistance agreement to defend against a belligerent state (e.g., Libya) is not part of the public peace deal.

PLO/PFLP & Hamas Will the GCC states abandon the “Palestinians” and would that be good for Israel.

Both the PLO/PFLP and Hamas, with Islamic Jihad at its side, have proven their dependence on Israel, yet all are bent on Israel’s destruction. If the GCC quits funneling funds to the terrorists, if the GCC quits supporting the terrorists politically to the rest of the world (primarily the EU), will the terrorists finally be driven to abandon terrorism and make a true peace with Israel? One that does not have an “expiration date.” Or will the terrorists continue to receive support from the EU, and — like Pharaoh — “harden their hearts” and continue their sworn goal of a Jewish-free “Palestine.”

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Sources

1. Peace is not a good thing when it is faux pax^cq (see https://tinyurl.com/y4utkrv3) that allows a sworn enemy, e.g., Hamas or Hezbollah, to rearm and prepare for a new aggression.

2. UAE military: https://tinyurl.com/y45g4cy6

3. Israel military: https://tinyurl.com/ya9wppoa

4. GCC: https://tinyurl.com/y47oxzm5

5. Medical supplies to PLO/PFLP: https://tinyurl.com/y2dtsu37

6. Netanyahu in Oman: https://tinyurl.com/yd48z583

7. Ayoub Kara in Dubai: https://tinyurl.com/y6c9yput

8. Mimi Regev at judoka: https://tinyurl.com/yytd8buk

9: Miri Regev outside mosque: https://tinyurl.com/yarefvqx

10. Qatari conflicts: https://tinyurl.com/y4fd63ep

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Peace pact

Arabs know it but EU Hides its head in the sand

6 Arab states blacklist
All of Hezbollah

According to an article in the Times of Israel ( http://www.timesofisrael.com/one-upping-eu-gulf-states-blacklist-all-of-hezbollah/ ) headlined One-upping EU, Gulf states blacklist all of Hezbollah, “The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a political and economic umbrella organization encompassing Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait, has begun implementing a decision adopted by its foreign ministers on June 2 to place financial and security restrictions on Hezbollah, “making no distinction whatsoever between its military and political arms,” the Saudi daily Al-Watan reported on Sunday.”

Thumbing his nose at the EU, the Times of Israel reports that Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah ridiculed the European distinction between his party’s armed and political wings.

“This invention of a military wing, a political wing; this is a British act. They usually try to find such ways out,” Nasrallah said at dinner marking the end of a Ramadan fast day on July 24.

“Despite my disagreement with this division and distinction, I propose that our ministers in the next Lebanese government come from Hezbollah’s military wing,” Nasrallah joked.

“The Arab League, based in Cairo, on June 5 strongly condemned Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria, but fell short of dubbing it a “terror organization.”, the Times of Israel reported.

Hezbollah, in the Iranian ayatollahs’ pockets, is aligned with Bashar Assad, Syria’s despotic “president” and this alignment with Iran worries the GCC member states.

The Arabs get it.

The EU doesn’t, and the EU states are as vulnerable – if not more so – to an Islamist takeover as are the GCC states.

While the U.S. recognizes Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, it does very little to stop Hezbollah infiltration into the U.S.

Hamas, in Aza, is no better, but because it is a smaller organization and does not threaten the Gulf states as Hezbollah does, only Egypt and Israel are concerned.

Recent events in Egypt unmasked both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist intents. Fortunately the army, as also happened in Algeria, reclaimed power. While not “democratic,” there was, and there is now more freedom in Egypt than during the year the Muslim Brotherhood was in political control.

Europe is an 80-year-old prostitute, syphilitic, sagging, and staggering in her years, yet trying to convince the world that she’s still as spry and desirable as she was at 20. The world has passed her by, yet she still makes noises of no consequence so people will notice her. They do notice her, but either laugh at her delusions or pity her for her memories of former glory days when she was, at least in her own mind, a queen crowned with imperial adornment.

Refusing to call Hezbollah in toto a terrorist organization proves Europe’s inability to come to terms with reality. It, like the U.S. – and unlike the GCC – is more concerned with political correctness that the reality in its face.

The Arabs finally “got” it.

Too late to save Lebanon, but the GCC is using the only muscle it has to thwart Hezbollah’s intentions; that muscle is financial power. For military power the GCC will have to beg troops from the West – the U.S. and the weak sister Europeans. The GCC would be better served by making peace agreements with Israel.

Europe continues to totter in its delusions of the glory days of long ago while it welcomes its new masters with open arms and raised skirts.

And America watches and does nothing to defend its increasingly besmirched honor.

I give you political correctness on a field of fatal foolishness.