Recent Arab-Israeli Peace Deals Are Steps Toward Cultural Peace
By Sean Culley, 2020–2021 CAMERA on Campus Fellow
Israel has recently negotiated peace deals to normalize relations with several Arab nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan. Resolutions in both houses of Congress supporting the deals with the UAE and Bahrain had widespread bipartisan support, and the deals are a crucial step towards a widespread acceptance of Israel’s existence by its neighbors. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has even said that the accords can “change things in the Middle East for the next 100 years.”
Contrast this with Noura Erakat, a professor at Rutgers and formerly at Mason, who wrote in an article for NBC News that the agreements are a “charade” and perpetuate “oppression.”
Professor Erakat surmises that the true motive of the recent peace deals is to provide “the military, financial and diplomatic infrastructure to further repress popular struggles for democracy and freedom in the Middle East,” but this is baseless. In reality, the agreements are meant to cement Israel’s place in the Middle Eastern family of nations. Since the Jewish state’s creation in 1948, it has been regionally isolated, with most Muslim-majority countries refusing diplomatic relations. Only in 1978, after decades of hostility and war, did the first Arab country, Egypt, normalize relations with Israel. The Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt recognized the sovereignty of each respective state and promised de-escalation.
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