Today it happens: For the first time in history, this morning an official commercial flight by El Al from Israel to the United Arab Emirates will take off and cross the Saudi Arabian sky on the way.
A flight of a few hours will bring to an end today (Monday) a boycott of almost 50 years. From Ben-Gurion Airport, an Israeli plane will take off this morning (Monday) directly to the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi. It will be a flight with three historical meanings.
Netanyahu's statement with senior adviser to US president // Photo: GPO
The first is that a prominent Arab state is retiring from the circle of hostility and establishing peace with Israel. The second - the way to it will be made in a plane that proudly carries the Israeli flag that will for the first time cross the airspace of Saudi Arabia - the rigid and powerful in the countries of the Sunni bloc. Third, El Al will finally operate a commercial flight - a notable event these days in Corona.
It is impossible not to jump on the wings of the history of the special flight and the events that will follow, since in the Boeing belly will be a delegation of senior Israeli officials, led by the head of the National Security Council Meir Ben Shabbat. Details of cooperation between countries. Senior Trump administration officials, who have organized and will be on the flight, will win over the events. Yesterday, the main bridesmaid of the moves, Jared Kushner, was rightly proud of the "Abraham Agreement" he managed to achieve. Kushner did what not many good people who preceded him in the White House did, and brought peace. This will be reflected in the picture that the White House will spread throughout the world today: Israeli representatives and emirates sit side by side around one table.
After two decades of clues, fragments of information and contacts under the table, the ties will come out today. No more Israeli planes flying secretly on their way to the Persian Gulf. No more foreign passports as a condition of entry into the country. No more camouflage and concealment of UAE citizens coming to Israel. No more tricks and sticks, trying to hide what everyone knows anyway. From now on everything will be visible and known, official and public.
Hello "from below"
Israel and the United Arab Emirates will cease to keep their friendships a secret. From noon it will be possible to tell parents.
And the equally important gospel - this is likely to be true friendships, a real partnership between the peoples. Unlike Egypt and Jordan, where peace is formal and between the leaderships only, in the emirates peace has grown from below.
Israel Today emissary on the streets of the United Arab Emirates // Photo: Eldad Beck
The business, technological, health, and probably also security collaborations have been going on for many years, to the satisfaction of both parties. Now they are just being published and getting a state seal. This in itself is likely to give them a tremendous boost going forward. All the evidence coming from the Emirates tells of a tremendous enthusiasm at the field level for establishing ties with Israel. The emirates, says an Israeli source who is in contact with them, want a connection no less than us.
"Hello" to the vocabulary
And so, after being forgotten from the Israeli vocabulary, the word "peace" suddenly rolls back on the tongue. True, the United Arab Emirates has never been defined as an enemy state and has not attacked Israel. It has no common border with us, and it is doubtful whether in the Armed Forces it was ever included in the IDF (scoring vital information). Still, it is a Muslim kingdom, which advocates Sharia law and is a member of what was the Arab League.
She now makes a resounding choice. Instead of Iran's murder, fanaticism and violence, the United Arab Emirates has clung to friendship with Israel. She turns on the light to ward off the darkness. With boldness, courage and wisdom, Prince Ben Zayed and his men connect to their religious faith progress, science, technology, tolerance and peace. This is a model that will radiate to the whole of the Middle East, and possibly beyond.
The historic upheaval
This historic breakthrough comes after decades in which we are explained "that without an agreement with the Palestinians it will not be possible to establish a peace agreement with the Arab states," and that "territories for peace" is a formula without which nothing will happen. And here, the peace agreement was drafted without giving up even an inch. In fact, one of the most significant catalysts that gave rise to the "Abraham Agreement" is actually the Trump plan. The famous vision of January 2020 is without a doubt the most comfortable for Israel ever, and includes the bold idea of sovereignty - a step that both Kushner and Netanyahu have reiterated in recent days. The Emirates contented itself with suspending sovereignty, rather than abolishing it, when no one knows how long the suspension will last.
It is itself a historical upheaval, which only those who have experienced up close the turmoil of the political ship in the last decade, will be able to understand its significance. The "traveling chorus," as Netanyahu calls the political reporters who have accompanied him since 2009, was in the Oval Office when he and Obama exchanged ice-cold glances and stared at each other with moral sermons.
The same choir, and I am part of it, participated last year in the Bahrain conference, where for the first time Israeli journalists were allowed to enter an Arab country with Magen David passports. When we dared to enter the tiny synagogue of the kingdom I could only imagine that we would be privileged to pray in another Arab country. And here it happens, and today and tomorrow we will do it again.