Cooperation in the Middle East – a bridge to resist WillenIn the Corona-crisis, the impossible becomes possible: In Israel, the planes from the Gulf States not to land with aid for the Palestinians – what is this happy at first. Dunja Ramadan, Alexandra Föderl-Schmid Tel Aviv0 comment cooperation beyond ideologies: Etihad Airways transported relief goods from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv.Photo:
Before the Etihad machine leaves the airport at Abu Dhabi in mid-may in an unusual direction, next wave staff busy for the aid packages. With the Mouth guard you are on the tarmac and loaded 14 tons of medical supplies, including ten ventilators. On your vest UAE Aid is “”. The message of these images, the land on Twitter: We, the United Arab Emirates, send during the Corona-crisis aid packages to the Palestinians.
This is the fastest way through the Israeli Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. The Problem: Officially, the rulers do not recognize the Gulf of Israel. However, in the Corona-crisis, they make an exception. For the Palestinians, to say the Emiratis. A progress and a sign for the “normalization” of relations with the Arab States, the Israelis say.
And so a plane from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Israel and the images of lands for the first Time in the network. The Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon sounds on Twitter particularly optimistic: “Hopefully, we will soon see also passenger flights.”
cooperation in the health sector
In the case of the addressees of this “humanitarian diplomacy” in Corona-times this message is not all that good. The Palestinians reject the bailout from Abu Dhabi. Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said in the government-related sheet, “Al-Ayyam”: “We learned of the delivery of aid from the newspaper. She was to have been coordinated neither with us nor our Ambassador.”
More Palestinian representatives stated that they did not want to be a bridge for relations of Arab countries to Israel. The relationship between the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah, and Abu Dhabi is also cool, because in the Emirates, Mohammed Dahlan shelter has found, a rival of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel and the Arab States are approaching increasingly. Before Abu Dhabi, the Israeli government was already in need of assistance. Than two dozen Israelis were in the middle of the Corona-the crisis in Morocco beaches, offered the United Arab Emirates, you can fly out.
Morocco has no diplomatic relations with Israel, thus the Israeli airlines are not allowed to land. As the government learned in Rabat of the secret agreement, blocked the Plan. Only three months later, the stranded Israelis with Air France could fly to Paris, and from there it went further to Tel Aviv.
the gesture of The Emirates shows again how Israel and some Arab States to converge increasingly, and both sides are always self-confidence. Lana Nusseibeh, the UN Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates pleaded in an online conference of the American Jewish Committee, the public health sector as a “unpoliti focused space in which we all try to pool our Knowledge about this Virus”.
Even arch-enemy Qatar behaves during the Corona-crisis Israel-friendly.
According to the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv in the past weeks, already a lively exchange with representatives of Bahrain and the UAE. It should also have contacts with Kuwait given, to which there is neither confirmation nor denial.
Israel has coped with the pandemic, relatively well, even if it was in the past few days, a strong increase in new infections, which led to the recent closure of 92 schools. In the UAE, the number of Infected is about twice and in Bahrain more than three times as high. In the Tel Aviv hospital is a “growing willingness of Gulf States to cooperate in the field of health with Israel, it is stated”,.
The gang for while the Corona crisis intensified exchange last June, has been linked. To participate in the Jared Kushner, Donald trump’s son-in-law and middle East negotiator, organized the summit, “Peace to Prosperity” was to enter the government in Bahrain for the first time, Israelis. Kushner introduced the economic aspects of the US greater middle East plan, which should move the Palestinians to Cede areas to the Israelis. With this in Manama, Yitshak Kreiss, the Director-General of the Sheba Medical Center was running, about the contacts.
Even arch-enemy Qatar behaves during the Corona-crisis unusual Israel-friendly. The airline Qatar Airways from PR-distributed flights for Employees in the health care reasons. Israelis are entitled to apply for the Tickets, said the Airline. “There is no difference, no barrier in the medical fields,” said Akbar al-Baker, Executive Director of the airline.
Gulf States act in a pragmatic
As non-political cooperation in the health sector between Israel and the Gulf States may be on the pandemic in addition, it will show in the next few weeks. Of Israel head of government Benjamin Netanyahu wants to Annex from July to parts of the West Bank and the Jordan valley.
While the Arab League condemned the plans. However, the recent advances of the rhetoric to let off other interpretations. So the Gulf States act not only in a pragmatic way and responding to pressure from the Americans. Your representative can also be a negotiating fatigue to the Palestinian leadership to Shine through.
Just out of Israel: Uzi Dayan, the former head of the National security Council in Israel, the Arab States, looks “not so strongly on the Palestinian issue about how a few years ago”. They had not the least because of the Corona-crisis problems of their own. In addition, many Arab States joined with Israel in the fight against terrorism and Iran. That is why the time is right, the US Plan to implement.
The Airport Ben Gurion arrival of medical relief goods in the UAE, have been taken by the staff of the special coordinator of the United Nations, Nikolay Mladenow, in reception. As a donation in the framework of the UN aid program to the Palestinians are ready to accept them.
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