A real live split screen between Gaza rockets and UAE, Bahrain peace
It was the living embodiment of a cable news split-screen, as we glanced at the headlines popping up on our phones with trepidation, while listening to the officials on the White House’s balcony.
By LAHAV HARKOVPolice and medical personnel at the scene where a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a road in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod (top); Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump, Bahrain?s Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister (photo credit: FLASH90/REUTERS/TOM BRENNER)
The sun shone brightly on the White House’s South Lawn, where hundreds gathered to witness history, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed agreements with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed and Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Alzayani, the third and fourth ever between Israel and Arab states, witnessed by US President Donald Trump.Politicians, rabbis and Jewish community leaders chatted, while the politicians met in the Oval Office.The president and his wife Melania Trump greeted Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, outside the West Wing. None of the four wore a mask, but they didn’t shake hands.Inside the Oval Office, Netanyahu looked overjoyed to be there with Trump, who handed him a “key to the White House” and called him a “great leader.”Netanyahu even kept up a poker face when Trump promised to make a good deal with Iran and said that “Sleepy Joe” Biden would sell the US out to the Russians, Chinese and Iranians.Outside, the atmosphere was celebratory and joyful, and only just barely marred by concerns about the coronavirus.That is to say, the central figures deftly hid any concerns they may have had and continued to go barefaced, while the crowd was a mix of masked and maskless individuals sitting right next to one another, who barely seemed bothered.The Israeli media was kept behind a rope, in order to maintain Health Ministry standards, but it was hardly a sterile zone, and it was impossible not to mix with American and Emirati journalists nearby, as well as sources invited to the event who came up to the rope to talk.For the Israelis, the concerns over having to quarantine on the way home – because we may have broken the “purple ribbon” coronavirus bubble rules – were then replaced with notifications of a barrage of rockets on Ashdod.It was the living embodiment of a cable news split-screen, as we glanced at the headlines popping up on our phones with trepidation, while listening to the officials on the White House’s balcony talk of peace and the dawn of a new Middle East.The UAE and Bahrain agreements are important, despite what the naysayers, blinded by their dislike of Trump or Netanyahu, may say. It has broken the paradigm of “peace with the Palestinians before Israel can be treated like a normal country in the Middle East.” It may trigger a domino effect by which several other Arab states normalize ties with Israel, and “end the Arab-Israeli conflict once and for all,” as Netanyahu put it.Trump predicted in the Oval Office that the Palestinians will join this new circle of Middle East peace soon enough.But in the meantime, the push notifications flashing on our phones were a sobering reminder that as excited as we are about this peace, the homes of a million Israelis in the Gaza envelope can be turned into a war zone at the drop of a rocket.
Related TagsMiddle East peace
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