MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Trump facilitates peace between Israel and Bahrain: 'Sand was loaded up with blood, now it's loaded up with peace'

Bahrain became the second Arab state after the UAE to make peace with the Jewish state inside a month

After the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it is Bahrain. The Middle Eastern kingdom is the latest nation from the region to normalize relations with Israel as part of the Donald Trump administration’s broader diplomatic push to integrate Israel into the Middle East, which has been hostile towards it over the decades. Earlier this week, the GOP leader was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the peace deal between Israel and the UAE in August.

On Friday, September 11, Trump made an announcement about the Bahrain-Israel deal following a three-way telephonic conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. The trio later also issued a brief joint statement, confirming the deal. 

“This is a historic breakthrough to further peace in the Middle East. Opening direct dialogue and ties between these two dynamic societies and advanced economies will continue the positive transformation of the Middle East and increase stability, security, and prosperity in the region,” Trump, Netanyahu and King Hamad said in the statement.

In a tweet, the president said: “Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain agree to a Peace Deal – the second Arab country to make peace with Israel in 30 days!”

The Israel-UAE peace deal or the Abraham Accord was made on August 13 and overall, it made the Emirates the third Arab country after Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) to normalize relations with Israel. The Palestinian authorities expressed their anguish against the US and Israel over the agreement. 

The announcement on the Bahrain-Israel deal came on the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks and Trump told reporters at the White House that there was no more powerful response to the hatred that spawned 9/11 than the new agreement. 

“The sand was loaded up with blood. Now it's loaded up with peace,” Trump said in a tone symbolizing the desert region. 

Trump has made a number of diplomatic breakthroughs in recent times. Last week, he also announced agreements in principle for Kosovo to recognize Israel and for Serbia to shift its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the second time for brokering the deal between Serbia and Kosovo. 

Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who has also been given the responsibility to broker peace between Israel and Palestine by the president, said the pact with Bahrain marks the second one that Israel has with an Arab state in a month while it had made peace with only two Arab states in the first 72 years of its independence. "This is very fast," Kushner told The Associated Press, adding: "The region is responding very favorably to the UAE deal and hopefully it's a sign that even more will come."

Pro-Israeli evangelical Christians will like the move

The second instance of conciliation between Israel and an Arab country in less than a month is expected to boost Trump’s support among the pro-Israeli evangelical Christians ahead of the November 3 election. The latest agreement, which will normalize relations in the diplomatic, security, commercial and other fields, has been backed by Saudi Arabia, a key American ally in the region. Both Bahrain and the UAE are close allies to Saudi and US as well. Experts will now keenly follow whether Riyadh also follows the footsteps of Abu Dhabi and Manama and consolidate the anti-Iran platform in the region. 
 
Netanyahu welcomed the agreement and thanked Trump. “It took us 26 years between the second peace agreement with an Arab country and the third, but only 29 days between the third and the fourth, and there will be more,' he said, referring to the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan and the more recent agreements,” he said. 

Bahrain, like the UAE, has never fought a war against Israel and nor does it share a border with it. But it followed the Arab world in rejecting diplomatic ties with Israel in the absence of a peace deal setting up a Palestinian state on lands captured by Israel in 1967.

The agreement is likely to deliver a setback to the Palestinians who have struggled to get the Arab League to condemn normalization of relations with Israel till they get an independent state. However, the joint statement made a passing mention of the Palestinians saying the parties involved will continue with efforts “to achieve a just, comprehensive, and enduring resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to enable the Palestinian people to realize their full potential”.