By: TJVNews.com
Israel and the United Arab Emirates will sign their historic deal normalizing relations at a White House ceremony on September 15, U.S. officials said Tuesday, according to an AP report.
AP reported that the officials said senior delegations from both countries will likely be led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of the UAE crown prince. The officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the ceremony would either be on the South Lawn, the Rose Garden or inside depending on weather, as was reported by AP.
The ceremony will come just a month after the agreement to establish full diplomatic relations was announced on August 13th. The historic deal delivered a key foreign policy victory to President Trump as he seeks reelection, and reflected a changing Middle East in which shared concerns about archenemy Iran have largely overtaken traditional Arab support for the Palestinians, as was reported by AP
That announcement has been followed by the first direct commercial flight between the countries, the establishment of telephone links and commitments to cooperate in numerous areas.
AP also reported that the UAE has also ended the country’s 48-year boycott of Israel, which allows trade and commerce between the oil-rich Emirates and Israel, home to a thriving diamond trade, pharmaceutical companies and tech start-ups.
Bahrain, Oman and Morocco may be next to normalize relations with Israel and UAE’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed has announced he would like to visit Jerusalem soon to finalize the agreement, according to a JNS report.
On Monday, Reuters reported that annual trade between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is expected to reach $4 billion, according to an Israeli minister.
A number of Israeli and Emirati businesses have signed deals since the normalization accord was announced.
“Within three to five years, trade between Israel and the United Arab Emirates will reach $4 billion,” Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen told Israel’s Reshet Bet radio station.
A spokesman for Cohen, Israel’s former economy minister, said the figure was annual and included defense trade, as was reported by Reuters.
Israeli carrier Israir said on Sunday it had reserved slots for commercial flights from Tel Aviv to the UAE, preparing for potential tourism, according to the Reuters report.
The heads of Israel’s two biggest banks will travel to the UAE this month, the first such visits since the countries agreed to normalize relations.
Speaking to Israel Kasnett of the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), Joshua Teitelbaum of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan was more cautious about the UAE-Israel rapprochement, saying that each side is interpreting the deal differently.
For instance, while the statement reads, “The parties will continue their efforts … to achieve a just, comprehensive and enduring resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” it is possible Israel and the UAE have different ideas of how this needs to come about.
The statement uses all kinds of language, but it does lay out certain steps establishing concrete measures on the ground, such as “to sign bilateral agreements regarding investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, health care, culture, the environment, the establishment of reciprocal embassies, and other areas of mutual benefit.”
“It is definitely a historic agreement,” said Teitelbaum, “but it is not yet a full peace.”
Also speaking to JNS was Gil Feiler, a senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for International Studies at Bar-Ilan University, specializing in Arab markets and economies. He split the deal into three stages.
“The first stage will see the two governments working on bilateral cooperation in seven key areas: investment, finance, health, the civilian space program, civil aviation, foreign policy and diplomatic affairs, and tourism and culture.
The second stage would see businessmen in the UAE who are close to the government and the decision-makers receiving a green light to work with Israel. They will focus on cyber technology, startups, water technology, joint research and more.
The third stage will see the rest of the local population involved in retail working together with Israeli businesses.
It is unlikely, according to Feiler, that Israeli businesses have much to offer Dubai, which already has access to everything.
According to Feiler, “most of the business interaction will take place between government agencies and Israeli high-tech companies.”
In an NPR report of August 31st, mattress company owner Avi Barssessat, one of several Israeli businesspeople who are coming forward now about their years of secret trade with the Emirates said “it’s new times.”
As was reported by NPR, Barssessat sells his signature bigger-than-king-sized beds in Dubai via Slovakia to hide their Israeli origins. Now he expects direct and booming trade with the Emirates. “I’m dying to go there,” he told NPR.
“A lot of my friends and families, they said enough is enough,” Mahmood Alawadi, an Emirati journalist for the Arabic news site Elaph, told NPR. His father suffers from Parkinson’s disease and hopes Israel’s medical expertise may help him. “We want economy. We want stability in the region. Enough hatred.”
In a somewhat related development JNS reported on Tuesday that Israel and South Korea are in the final stages of reaching a free-trade agreement in the next few weeks.
Israel’s business daily Globes reported on Tuesday that talks between Jerusalem and Seoul have been ongoing for a few years but had been delayed for political reasons, are now bearing fruit. This, the report said, is partly due to the recent Abraham Accord between Israel and the United Arab Emirates,” which rendered the agreement acceptable from the point of view of South Korea’s trade relations with the Arab world.”
Recently, however, the agreement was given a green light on the Korean side, among other things thanks to the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which rendered the agreement acceptable from the point of view of South Korea’s trade relations with the Arab world.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson told Globes that “the free-trade agreement with South Korea is in the final stages of drafting, and we hope that within a few weeks it will be possible to sign it. Advanced talks on a free-trade area are also taking place with China and Vietnam.”
Also on Tuesday, AP reported that an Israeli underwear brand has held a photo shoot in Dubai in what is thought to be the first such campaign since Israel and the United Arab Emirates normalized diplomatic ties last month.
AP reported that Fix, an undergarment and pajama label for young women, shot the launch of their Princess collection on Tuesday with Israeli model May Tager and Dubai-based model Anastasia Bandarenka, who is originally from Russia.
“I am very excited to be the first Israeli model to shoot for an Israeli brand here,” Tager said, hailing it as a “historical moment of fashion and politics”.
She added: “I am feeling very safe to say that I am from Israel.”
AP reported that the 21-year-old came into the UAE on her Danish passport as traveling on an Israeli one remains complicated despite moves by the two countries to start telephone service and other outreach. The first commercial passenger flight between the two nations also took place last week, though Tager came in on a different commercial flight.
Then came the breezy shoot: In the desert just on the outskirts of Dubai’s skyscraper-studded downtown, wearing Delta Israel’s new Princess collection of loungewear, Tager waved Israel’s blue-and-white flag bearing the Star of David. Next to her was Anastasia Bandarenka, a Dubai-based model originally from Russia, who waved the Emirati flag.
AP reported that Tager’s loungewear — pajamas for the couture-less — bore the likeness of Disney’s Cinderella. Bandarenka sported Snow White. The two outfits by the Israeli fashion brand Fix also had the word “ROYAL” across them.
Models seem to be everywhere in Dubai, from the social-media-minded flight attendants to others hawking brands in this country, as was reported by AP. But Tager’s appearance in Dubai comes as Israel hopes for billions of dollars in trade with the UAE, particularly in the tech and tourism industries.
“We just need the ability to do this and we will do it,” CEO Anat Bogner told the AP. “The things that stop us from doing this is a political issue and if there is no problem with the political issue then we are looking at those countries same we are looking other countries in Europe or the U.S.”
