 DECEMBER 3 • 2020 | 29

Jewish Bahraini politician Nancy Khedouri, second from left, and 

other Bahraini officials meet with foreign representatives, including 

U.S. Ambassador Justin Siberell, far left.

Southfield-based Yeshiva Beth 
Yehudah day school, Yousef Al 
Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to 
the U.S., said that, soon, “students 
in your school are going to be able 
to go talk to Israelis and Emiratis 
either in Israel or the UAE.
”
The Accords were hailed as “glo-
rious” by Israeli Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu but dubbed 
“a stab in the back” by various 
Palestinian officials.
The complexities of the agree-
ments, and the politics behind 
them, have left Jews the world over 
with many questions. Here, we try 
to answer some of them.

IN ONE WORD: IRAN
For many Arab nations, aligning 
themselves with Israel unifies them 
around a common enemy: Iran.
Iran’s rising influence in the 
Middle East didn’t happen in a 
void. Emirati Sheikh Mohammed 
bin Zayed fears Iran, which he sees 
as a clear and immediate threat to 
the UAE in particular — and to 
Sunni Islam in general.
He’s not alone. Bahrain and Saudi 
Arabia — both Sunni Muslim-led 
states — are bitter rivals of Shiite-
majority Iran. More than 60% of 
Bahrainis are Shiites, who are at 
best seen as a subversive popula-
tion and at worst an Iranian fifth 
column.
When former President Barack 
Obama started talking about a 
new, democratic and liberal Middle 
East in light of the Arab Spring 
uprisings, relations between the 
Gulf states and the U.S. reached an 
unprecedented low.
Obama supported protesters 
against former Egyptian President 
Hosni Mubarak, a longtime ally 
of the U.S., thus sending a clear 
message to Gulf leaders that if there 
were any uprisings erupting in their 
territories, American support for 
them would no longer be a given.
Eventually, the biggest blow to 
the Gulf came in the form of the 
nuclear deal with Iran, signed 
despite harsh criticism from the 
Gulf states and Israel alike — 
warming the not-so-secret alliance 

between the latter sides even fur-
ther.
Paradoxically then, by working 
toward a nuclear deal with Iran, 
Obama’s policy — praised by many 
but deemed destructive by Israel 
and the Gulf states — led to the 
most dramatic progress in Israeli-
Gulf relations, including with pow-
erhouse Saudi Arabia.
“This is because Saudi Arabia, 
like other Gulf states, has under-
stood very well that the only coun-
try with the experience, intentions 
and capabilities to act against Iran 
was Israel, not the U.S.,
” says Dr. 
Michal Yaari, an Israeli expert on 
Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States at 
Tel Aviv University.
It was no surprise then, that 
Israel was no longer the only 
regional player fearing Iran’s 
increasing might, with Gulf states 
— including the Saudis — grad-
ually neglecting the ideological 
goal of Arab solidarity with the 
Palestinians for a more practical 
path against a common enemy.

SAUDI INTERESTS
The specter of Iran had tremen-
dous importance to the Abraham 
Accords. But there were also other, 
no less unsettling powers at play.
The Middle East has shifted. 
“Iran has significantly increased its 
threats on Saudi Arabia’s security, 
mainly through its military support 
for the Houthis in Yemen,
” accord-
ing to Yaari.
“We want to thank [the Saudis] 
for the assistance they’ve had in the 
success of the Abraham Accords 
so far,
” said Secretary of State Mike 
Pompeo in a meeting with Saudi 
Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin 
Farhan Al Saud, referring partially 
to Riyadh’s announcement that its 
skies would be open to any coun-
try’s civilian plane flying to or from 
the UAE.
“We hope Saudi Arabia will 
consider normalizing its relation-
ships [with Israel] as well,
” Pompeo 
added.
Since the murder of Washington 
Post columnist and Saudi dissident 
Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Crown 

continued on page 30

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES AND JTA
COURTESY OF NANCY KHEDOURI

White House Abraham 

Accords Signing 

Ceremony with UAE’s 

Foreign Minister 

Abdullah bin Zayed 

bin Sultan Al Nahyan, 

Bahrain Foreign Minister 

Abdullatif bin Rashid 

Al Zayani, Israeli Prime 

Minister Benjamin 

Netanyahu, and 

President Donald Trump.

