22 Aug Netanyahu sent top aide to UAE in quiet push to fix ties strained by Gaza campaign
Ron Dermer, Israel’s strategic affairs minister, traveled to the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi last week and held talks with officials including President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private meetings.
The visit, which wasn’t made public by either side, came following security alerts from Israel and Western powers — including the US and UK — about potential attacks against UAE sites associated with Israel and Jews.
The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netanyahu’s office and a spokesperson for Dermer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dermer’s visit was largely focused on briefing the UAE’s leadership on Israel’s planned operation to take over Gaza City, an escalation of the war against Palestinian militant group Hamas, one of the people said. Abu Dhabi warned earlier this month that Israel’s decision to seize Gaza’s de-facto capital would “lead to catastrophic consequences.”
Late on Thursday, Netanyahu announced that in tandem with the fresh military mobilization in Gaza and offensive on Gaza City, he has authorized negotiations to end the nearly two-year war and return hostages still held by Hamas. The UAE wants an immediate ceasefire or end to the war that’s devastated Gaza, as do most Arab states and many of Israel’s closest allies in Europe. But the US, Israel’s most crucial backer, has supported the latest military plans.Israel has hardened its conditions for a ceasefire deal in recent weeks and is now demanding Hamas surrenders, disarms and releases all 50 hostages held in Gaza. Prior talks centered on the release of half the 20 hostages believed to be alive as a first step.Hamas must “agree to the conditions Israel has set for ending the war — first and foremost freeing the hostages and surrendering their weapons,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday. “If they don’t agree, Gaza City, the capital of Hamas, will become like Rafah and Bet Hanoun,” he said, referring to other parts of Gaza that have been largely destroyed.Israel and the UAE normalized relations in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords, which opened the door for Israelis to travel to the oil-rich Gulf state for business and tourism. The agreement earned the UAE political capital in Washington and gave it greater access to US and Israeli technology in sectors including defense and security.
But tensions between the two sides soon grew over Israel’s deteriorating relations with Palestinians, causing billions of dollars of proposed UAE investments in the country to stall. Those frictions worsened following the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
That conflict, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians, has prompted the UAE to hit the brakes on deepening bilateral economic and political ties and to distance itself from Netanyahu and his government, at least publicly, according to three people with knowledge of the Emirati leadership’s thinking.
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed, also known as MBZ, has refused to meet Netanyahu, said those people, with Abu Dhabi hardening its rhetoric against Israel in recent weeks. While several countries — both Arab states and in Europe — increasingly criticize Israel over the war, the UAE’s position is particularly significant as it’s one of the Middle East’s biggest economies and a rising geopolitical power.
‘Incendiary Statements’
Last week, the UAE denounced remarks made by Netanyahu during a TV interview about his support for the ultra-nationalist and expansionist concept of “Greater Israel,” which foresees annexing the whole of the West Bank and Gaza and laying claim to territories in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
“Incendiary statements and actions by extremists within the Israeli government” must end, the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. “Settlement and expansionist plans,” most notably in the West Bank, “threaten regional stability and undermine prospects for peace and coexistence.”
Israel gave final approval to a controversial project to expand settlements in the West Bank on Thursday, a move seen as banishing hopes for a Palestinian state as called for by more than 145 nations including the UAE, all Arab and Muslim states and an increasing number of European governments.
At the same time, UAE officials have repeatedly reaffirmed their commitment to peace with Israel, stressing that these ties are meant to endure beyond any one government in the Jewish state.
The UAE emphasized that point in a communique issued following a visit to the country in early July by Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid, which angered Netanyahu. Lapid’s meeting with Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed “focused on the evolving bilateral relations between the UAE and Israel,” it said.