The UAE is an alliance of seven sheikdoms run by ruling families. The parliament, based in the capital Abu Dhabi, serves as an advisory body. Its 40 members are either directly appointed by the ruling sheikhs or elected by citizens hand-picked by the rulers to vote. There are no official opposition groups and political parties are banned. Several Gulf states have been rocked by pro-democracy protests inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, including Bahrain, Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Some have rightly noted that while this is the third peace treaty Israel has signed with an Arab state, it is the first to contain the promise of a warm peace. With Egypt, the peace treaty has rarely reached even that threshold. Nor has King Abdullah of Jordan. In over a decade of rule, Abdullah has abstained from visiting Israel despite meeting several times with PA head Mahmoud Abbas in nearby Ramallah.
Israel has been at peace with Egypt for nearly a half a century, but not one Egyptian soccer team has ever played against an Israeli team either in Israel or anywhere else.
Not one delegation from an Egyptian university has ever visited an Israeli counterpart, let alone engaged in a joint program. Not one Egyptian cultural ensemble or group has ever visited Israel. For that gesture they were met with opprobrium and threats. Many have noted that the UAE peace treaty, unlike the treaties with Egypt and Jordan, was signed under quite different conditions.
There is a wide expectation that it will be followed by one or more similar pacts with other states, especially other Gulf States and Saudi Arabia. One major accomplishment has already been achieved by the UAE-Israel agreement. It has been largely overlooked, perhaps because it is a case of what did not happen rather than what did.
Even as an El Al plane flew over Saudi Arabian territory carrying a bevy of Israeli officials, businessmen, and investors to the Emirates with the aim of promoting a warm piece, there were no demonstrations of consequence in the Arab world. There was, of course, a din of voices castigating the UAE for normalizing ties with Israel, but they emanated mostly from dinosaur institutions that dominate the landscape of the Arab world and against which there are frequent popular demonstrations.
But unlike in Western democracies, a lack of protest in the Gulf does not mean acceptance. In the UAE, political parties are banned and political expression is heavily suppressed. Mira Al-Hussein, an Emirati PhD candidate at Cambridge University, said Emiratis feel taken care of and valued by their government, which provides citizens with strong social safety nets.
Over the years, there have been changes to school curricula across Gulf Arab states to replace pan-Arab and pan-Islamic ideals with a nationalistic identity that unites people around the flag. For millions of Arabs, social media is the only space where limited freedom of expression is possible. Since the war began, users have been flooded by images of dead Palestinian children being pulled from the rubble of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
These platforms have also been awash with images of Israeli security forces firing stun grenades and tear gas at worshippers and protesters in Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, of Palestinian families fighting eviction from their homes and of deadly protests across the occupied West Bank.
At least Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 61 children and 36 women. More than 1, people have been wounded. Twelve people in Israel, including a young boy and a soldier, have been killed in Hamas rocket attacks.
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