Can Arabs and Israelis prosper together?

AUGUST 29, 2020 21:24

The Arab world was strangely quiet in the wake of the United Arab Emirates’ announcement of peace with Israel. The “Arab street” did not explode.

It is a strategic victory for both Israel and the UAE. Israel has started on a path toward normalization with an Arab government for only the third time in its history, and, for the first time, with a Gulf Arab state. For the UAE, it demonstrates a rare willingness to take risks for peace. The Emirates has positioned itself as a beacon of religious tolerance.

It also strengthens security for the whole Middle East, as it increases the pressure on Iran and its Lebanese proxy forces. Tehran’s public announcements certainly tried to provoke the proverbial “Arab street” into protests and demonstrations. So far, those efforts have failed.

US President Donald Trump’s Middle East adviser Jared Kushner hailed the UAE-Israel pact as an “icebreaker.” He is right.

Far from the region, Morocco’s Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani criticized the peace deal. What happened next is significant. Days later, he walked back his remarks, saying he was speaking in his personal capacity, not as a government official. This “clarification” is telling.

Remember, Othmani is also leader of Morocco’s Islamist party, the Justice and Development Party, known by its French-language initials PJD. Last week, PJD invited Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal to address the party’s young leaders. This invitation aroused massive criticism from the Moroccan media and political decision-makers.

What’s more, Othmani does not speak for Morocco on foreign policy. Under Morocco’s constitution, which was ratified by voters in 2011, foreign policy, diplomacy and national security are the exclusive province of the king.

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Many Arabs and Jews remember Morocco’s uniquely positive history with Israel. Morocco’s former king, Hassan II, worked tirelessly to foster rapprochement between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including the Palestinians. He did so privately as well as publicly.

He facilitated every major initiative from Camp David in the 1970s to the Oslo Accords in the 1990s. Behind the scenes, King Hassan II was considered a driving force for the first peace agreement between Arabs and Israel. In the years before the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors, just as pan-Arab calls to annihilate Israel were reaching a fever pitch, Hassan II publicly called for Israel’s integration in the Arab League.

Decades of tragedy and squandered opportunities later, Morocco’s current king, Mohammed VI, maintains the same commitment to advancing Israeli-Arab rapprochement. The king personally provides funds for humanitarian and medical aid to the Palestinians. In these and other efforts, he is affirming that the Palestinian people’s human needs and rights should be met. But he is also signaling that their future lies not in the triumphs or failings of any official leadership – certainly not the Arab League – but in the development of their own peaceful civil society.

There are also family ties between Israel and Morocco. One million Israelis were either natives of Morocco or have a Moroccan-born parent or grandparent. The legal rights of Jews, and other religious minorities, are guaranteed in Morocco’s 2011 constitution. Jewish schools still dot Morocco’s major cities and Jews worship freely here. Above all, the king has made his personal affinity for Jews into formal domestic policy and won over a large swath of the population to the values of religious tolerance that he espouses.

Let’s hope that Kushner’s three years of behind-the-scenes diplomacy is now paying off. Many Arabs, myself included, are hoping for the day when Arabs and Israelis can peacefully prosper together through tolerance, trade, tourism and cultural exchange.

The writer is a Moroccan publisher. He is on the board of directors of the Atlantic Council and an international counselor of the Center for a Strategic and International Studies in Washington.