What Normalizing Relations Could Mean for the Middle East

The White House’s surprise announcement this past week that Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are formally normalizing relations was met with both open arms and claims of deceit by neighbors in the region.

The normalization agreement comes with a promise by Israel to suspend its efforts to annex parts of the West Bank for the time being.  Critics argue that the deal, which follows a 1979 normalization of relations with Egypt and a 1994 normalization of relations with Jordan, leaves very little for the Palestinians, whose governing authority promptly withdrew its Ambassador to the UAE in protest, deeming the accord a ‘betrayal’.