President Donald Trump announced an historic peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates(UAE). Essentially all the agreement said is the two countries would establish joint diplomatic relations. This is neither historic or a particularly important milestone.
For decades Israelis have been able to travel to Dubai ( the capital of the UAE) and visa versa. Israel has similar peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan.
Trump needed a “triumph” before his re-election campaign and Netanyahu needed a similar “triumph” to take attention away from his current trial for fraud. The reason for my being a little dismissive of this “peace agreement” is that the UAE and Israel have always had cordial relations and easy travel arrangements – both are primarily interested in business success.
What the UAE got out of the agreement was the International approval as an Arab nation trying to improve peace in the Mideast. But more importantly, Israel agreed to put on hold further annexation of West Bank lands. This, far and away, is the most important aspect of this agreement since Israel was about to annex enough West Bank land that it would have been impossible for the Palestinians to establish their own nation.
The most important Mideast nation, Saudi Arabia, while not directly linked to the above agreement had to have given the UAE permission for this agreement since the UAE is no military match to SA and in no position to anger their larger neighbor.