Last month, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, with the help and mediation of the United States, signed a peace accord between them, with agreements to establish full diplomatic relations, business interactions, direct flights between the countries and other steps that characterize normal relations between countries. A big step in solving the decades old conflict in the Middle East and an important development for both countries, that may prove to be both profitable and beneficial, and not only in financial matters.
So what is the problem? Like every contract and agreement, also this one, must have a “small print” section, that describes, like in most cases, the bureaucratic and boring details that make agreements like this work. In the case of this agreement between Israel and the UAE, the small print is so small that nobody has been able to read it. Apparently there are secret annexes to this agreement that the parties (or at least Israel and to some extend the United States) do not want to become public knowledge, at least not until the agreement is a done deal.
Immediately after the announcement that an agreement was reached, the Emirates proudly proclaimed that their aim has been to prevent the annexation of Palestinian lands and that this agreement would take the usurping of Arab lands by Israel, off the table. When carefully reading the complete, published agreement, there is no mention of a commitment by Israel to stop the annexation process. But, after the public declarations in Abu Dhabi, it cannot be conceived that the UAE would have moved forward without a clause on the annexation, so it must be part of the “secret” parts of the agreement.
In addition, it became clear quickly that as part of the agreement, the United States has agreed to sell the UAE advanced American weaponry, and foremost the most modern “stealth” fighter in the U.S. arsenal, the F-35. This strategically important fighter plane has until now only been sold in the Middle East to Israel, as part of the American commitment to Israel’s military superiority. While it was vehemently denied in Israel that the F-35 was part of the deal, in the United States, even a president like Donald Trump could not avoid this issue or blatantly lie about it, (and maybe he didn’t want to) and it quickly emerged that indeed the United States will be selling the stealth planes to the UAE. The haggling in Israel is currently only about if Israel agreed, when Israel agreed, what Israel got or will get as compensation, and if and when the Defense Minister knew about the fact that Israel supposedly accepted such a deal (it being public knowledge that Gantz, the Defense Minister, didn’t even know about the agreement with the UAE until it was published in the press, makes it highly unlikely that he did know about the clause agreeing to the sale of the F-35 planes).
An ultra-rightwing member of the Knesset, Bezalel Smotrich has claimed that the agreement includes arrangements about the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, (which includes the Omar and El-Aqsa mosques and is claimed by the Jews as the place where the second temple stood), including visitation rights and property ownership. While Smotrich is not the most reliable member of the Knesset and one who will stop at nothing to promote his right-wing, racist cause, he has not been the only one making remarks about clauses concerning the Temple Mount in the agreement and it would not at all be surprising if the Emirates had demanded a different approach to the Temple Mount, as part of the peace agreement.
It is normal and acceptable that agreements on such sensitive issues as peace, will need a sensitive and sensible approach to specific segments and parts may be kept under wraps at least initially to prevent embarrassment or worse to one or more of the parties, but in this case the details are kept secret because Netanyahu didn’t want them to be known not to his political opponents and not to his supporters, because they would spoil the party.
Thus, last week, the Peace Agreement with the United Arab Emirates was brought before the Knesset, and our representatives were requested to approve it, as is required by law. Eighty Knesset members, or two-thirds of our representatives, voted in favor of the agreement even though they did not know the complete contents of this agreement!
Netanyahu, declared un the plenum that there are no secret annexes to the accord and that was enough for most of the honorable Knesset members (not of few of them probably would have voted in favor of selling their mothers, if Netanyahu demanded it). But if there is one thing most Israelis agree upon with respect to Netanyahu, it is that he is a prolific liar and nothing he says should be believed as is.
The bottom line of what happened here is that Israeli Democracy has been handed another devastating blow. A Prime Minister who dares forcing a crucial agreement through the Knesset, without divulging the details of it, and eighty members of that same Knesset that will vote apparently for anything even if they do not know what they are voting for. Even Bezalel Smotrich voted in favor, never mind the secret parts.
This is only one instance whereby the Knesset lost its legitimacy and there are many others. The scandalous behavior of the Knesset speaker after last week’s vote on the establishment of a parliamentary committee to examine the ”Submarine” affair is another example that shows that also this Knesset speaker, like his predecessor, considers his relations with Netanyahu more important than the democratic procedures he is supposed to oversee.
Democracy is like your health. You will only really miss it after you have lost it. And getting it back will take more than two aspirins and call me in the morning.
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