The New Middle East

by Sara Al Nuaimi
September 16, 2020 at 4:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16515/the-new-middle-east

Translations of this item:

In 2015, the UAE passed a law against religious discrimination by creating ministries of tolerance, happiness and youth to develop an enlightened community -- everyone included.
A year later, schools in the UAE started teaching students peace and tolerance.
When the UAE prioritized national belonging over extremist obsessions, the decision immediately led to making peace with Israel.
My one hope as an Emirati is that we become a light for the world. It could make the entire region -- the lives of everyone, including the Palestinians -- so unimaginably great.

When the United Arab Emirates prioritized national belonging over extremist obsessions, the decision immediately led to making peace with Israel. Pictured from left to right: UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani and US President Donald Trump at the White House for the signing of the Abraham Accords on September 15, 2020. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have taken a serious step in moving out of the draconian shackles of mindless and mumbling caliphate fantasies that some extremists mention as wiping out the Jewish people in a final conquest for the globe.

The UAE's groundwork to weed out this hogwash began five years ago. In 2015, the UAE passed a law against religious discrimination by creating ministries of tolerance, happiness and youth to develop an enlightened community -- everyone included. A year later, schools in the UAE started teaching students peace and tolerance.

By 2019, we were open and receptive to a memorable year in our national history -- it was named the Year of Tolerance. It was then that the construction of the Abrahamic Family House was announced. It will include in one place a synagogue, a church and a mosque. That same year, Pope Francis made an epic visit to the UAE where, in the capital's sports stadium, the first Papal Mass in Abu Dhabi was held, attended by close to 180,000 people.

When the UAE prioritized national belonging over extremist obsessions, the decision immediately led to making peace with Israel.

Who would have known that a small country, the UAE, with 1.4 million citizens, who are the size of a fingernail compared to the fist of the Middle East, would usher in such a force of clarity and positive alignment. The divide created is a gaping gorge, but much needed. Palestinian sentiments are important, but not sacred. It would just be sad if the Palestinians chose to get left behind.

In the larger scheme of things, what onlookers from the outside fail to notice about the Middle East is the religiosity of the Arab world. Religiosity is a vital lens for assessing Middle Eastern affairs. The Arab-Israeli conflict is essentially anti-semitic. Arabs were frantic with delusions when Israel decided officially to join the neighborhood, even though Jews have continuously lived in the area for more than 3,000 years. Judea, after all, is named for the Jews. It was first the Babylonians and then the ancient Romans who tried to change those "facts on the ground." Arabs rejected a UN partition plan and began propagating conspiracy theories that demonized Israelis. The continued Jewish migration out of the gas chamber horrors to be reunited with the Western Wall was met with Arabs denying the Holocaust altogether. Their anti-semitism was deeply entrenched in a long, taught hatred. Jews were accepted as inferior neighbors, not empowered neighbors.

My one hope as an Emirati is that we become a light for the world. It could make the entire region -- the lives of everyone, including the Palestinians -- so unimaginably great.

Sara Al Nuaimi is an Emirati who lives in Abu Dhabi. Follow her on Twitter @saranuaimi.

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Related Topics: Israel

Recent Articles by Sara Al Nuaimi

We Need This Change in the Arab World, 2020-08-23
UAE: "A Huge Leap from Medieval Ways", 2015-10-14

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Comment on this item

7 Reader Comments

Solly • Sep 16, 2020 at 18:04

Just checked the population of UAE on google: says 9.6 million... but does not say how many are citizens. So perhaps the citizens may be 1.4 mil but it does have 9.6 mil people.

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Oldguyincolorado • Sep 16, 2020 at 13:10

I am delighted to see that the UAE has decided to join Israel in becoming another "Light unto the world". It also seems to join Egypt and its President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi when it rejects the rigors of the Koran as being the guidelines for Islam in the modern world. El-Sisi said, on December 28, 2014, at Cairo University "...You cannot see things clearly when you are locked (in this ideology of Islam)..."

I find it difficult to believe that many Muslim countries, Arab or not, are going to be willing to go quite so far as the UAE in rejecting all of their roots. Some may join this new, and hopefully growing alliance, but not many will do so based upon a " religious revival/reformation " (?) based upon " enlightenment ". I do expect that some will join based upon a resurrection of the old Sunni versus Shia divide. Isn't that what is mostly behind this new rapprochement?

I am sure that I am not the first to point out that this new position of Israel, in her having a few less Arab enemies, is somehow based upon the activities of Iran, this much to the chagrin of Persian Iran and Ottoman Turkey.

It will be interesting to see just how "open" the Saudis will become, they likely already being beholden to Israel.

Bahrain should also prove to be interesting considering that it is a Sunni monarchy dominating a Shia majority. But this is already a well recognized potential thorn-in-the-side.

Don't even talk about Syria or Lebanon. They are both far too fractured to come into the discussions except to be nothing more than killing fields.

Interesting times for us all.

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Jeffrey Allan • Sep 16, 2020 at 12:37

Indoctrination in any form is not healthy. It leads to a loss of the individual spirit . Any extreme view us unhealthy. It does not allow valid discourse or growth. In my opinion only Charity of spirit leads to a society of unity. The more charitable , the more it draws people and nations together. We are not an Island . Mankind needs a wholistic view to survive, not attitudes of belligerence and self aggrandizement . The educational stance taken by the UAE is so dynamic. One positive deed brings another. May your region prosper and develop. A great example to the nations of our planet has now been set. A new Genesis is about to begin. A new dawn for mankind

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BillyBob Texas • Sep 16, 2020 at 11:15

MOST EXCELLENT! Glad to see some forward thinking amongst the Arabs in the Region. Thank YOU, and good luck!

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Solomon • Sep 16, 2020 at 07:27

Sara Al Nuaimi; You can be proud you have indeed are become a light to the world. 100 years ago, Britain, thirsty for oil, dishonoured its mandate, set up the Arab League and incited Arabs against Jews; Arabs and Jews who coexisted over centuries had to go to a 100 year war. You might say, had the world engaged in containing climate change 100 years ago, no holocaust and millions of lives saved and liberated . We start again on a slippery road with fundamental Islam being used by neo-Bolsheviks to try and destroy the Abrahamic religions. Tools like Obama were drawn into this. They are no friends of Arabs indeed, Obama turned to Iran against the real Arabs round al Jazeera. We made a great start but we need to keep a watchful eye on subversives and pray Trump gets another 4 years to continue his work for peace

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Miriam • Sep 16, 2020 at 06:37

The signing of today's peace accord is a monumental event in history.
However it is not the end point of history but the very beginning of history.
It must be remembered that Muslims have been brought up to see Jews and more so Israelis as inferior, not just since 1948 but for many centuries. This mindset will take many years to change, but I am hoping it will change. There are also political reasons for this new peace deal.
To begin, the Gulf states understand that oil is finite and because of that they need to look for better technology. Israel is the leader of technology in the entire Middle East and is up there with the rest of the world.
Secondly, and most importantly, is the issue with Iran. Iran is a major threat to the Sunni States (which most of the Gulf States are) and once it has finished manufacturing a nuclear bomb it would not be afraid to use it. Iran supplies weapons to Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and the Houthis in Libya.
The Gulf States need not only Israeli technology but it's intel on what is being planned. By the same token, it will need the support (if limited) from the Gulf States if it has to defend its citizens from Hamas, Hezbollah and perhaps Iran.
The Palestinians are unhappy. However they are counting on a Biden victory and if that is the case it will be business as usual!
I am no real supporter of Donald Trump. However Obama threw Israel under a bus and when he left office the Middle East was a far more dangerous place than it is today. It is interesting how silent the EU is about this monumental event. Let us hope that more countries sign up for peace and then we can get a resolution to the Palestinian issue.

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Soo • Sep 16, 2020 at 06:33

I have real concerns about this Abraham Accord. Have you seen the commemorative medal?... the symbols on it are pretty dodgy looking and Trumps signature is right under a quote from the Koran. Isn't peace in the Middle East suppose to be a sign of the end and even worse isn't it the anti-Christ who brokers that peace?

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