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2018-11-23 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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While Israel’s Gulf ties soar, UAE and Abbas’s PA now bitterly at odds
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[IsraelTimes] Abu Dhabi has embraced Abbas rival Mohammad Dahlan, and its donations to Paleostinian Authority have dried up; PA officials now accuse it of backing Trump peace plan.
For at least the past decade, Israel and the United Arab Emirates have slowly cultivated ties under the radar. In 2010, an Israeli minister attended a conference in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed reportedly met in New York City in 2012. Israel opened a diplomatic mission to a United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
body in the Emirati capital in 2015, and the Israeli and Emirati air forces took part in the same exercises in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
Continued from Page 2
In the past several weeks, however, the two countries ‐ which both view Iran as a major threat ‐ have taken prominent additional steps to advance their ties. Culture Minister Miri Regev visited Abu Dhabi in late October to attend a judo tournament, where Emirati officials appeared to treat her and Israeli judokas to first-class hospitality. Not only did the officials in the Gulf country permit the sounding of the Israeli national anthem twice in honor of two Israeli gold medalists, but they also brought Regev on a tour of Abu Dhabi’s grand Sheikh Zayed Mosque.
Two days after Regev left the UAE, Communications Minister Ayoub Kara landed in Dubai, where he participated in an international telecommunications conference. Kara, who is Druze, delivered a speech in Arabic to the gathering and spent four days in the Gulf country.
While Israel and the UAE have gradually developed ties, by contrast, Abu Dhabi relations with Ramallah have floundered.
Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
 ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
frequently visits Arab countries across the Middle East. In the past year alone, he has traveled to Jordan, Egypt, Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, Oman, Qatar
 ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, and other countries.
However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
the last known time Abbas visited the UAE was in 2011, when he met Emirati Crown Prince Muhammed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi.
In addition, the UAE, once a major financial backer of the PA, has stopped sending funds to the Ramallah-based government.
PA Finance Ministry records show the UAE sent an average of $87.8 million annually to the PA between 2008-2013. But since the beginning of 2014, the records indicate Abu Dhabi has not contributed a penny to the PA’s coffers.
Instead, the UAE has sent money to the West Bank and Gazoo through the United Nations and other organizations and in certain instances, bypassed the PA. In early 2018, for example, Abu Dhabi sent $2 million to the UN to pay for fuel for Gazoo’s hospitals.
More recently, Paleostinian frustration with the UAE was voiced by Abbas and other Paleostinian officials.
Abbas lashed out at an Arab minister in a televised speech at a Paleostine Liberation Organization body in January, accusing the minister of criticizing the Paleostinian street’s response to the US administration’s decision to relocate its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The minister, according to Abbas, had said the Paleostinian people "did not rise up forcefully" against the embassy move.
The minister Abbas was referring to is Anwar Gargash, the UAE state minister for foreign affairs, three Paleostinian officials told the Times of Israel. Gargash made the comments at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in January in Amman, the officials said.
And in a recording of a phone call leaked in November, top Fatah official Jabril Rajoub accused UAE Crown Prince Mohammad bin Zayed of making efforts to advance the Trump administration’s vision for Israeli-Paleostinian peace.
"The person directing the matter is Mohammad bin Zayed," Rajoub told Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, official Husam Badran in the phone call, referring to the US administration’s plan.
The Paleostinians have vehemently opposed the Trump administration’s peace efforts and vowed not to even consider any US peace plan.
WHY ARE RELATIONS SO POOR?
But the core of the weak ties between the UAE and the Paleostinians relates to Mohammad Dahlan, one of Abbas’s top rivals.
Dahlan, a former security chief who was accused of attempting to overthrow the PA leader, fled the West Bank in 2011 after PA security forces raided his home near Ramallah. He subsequently settled in Abu Dhabi and quickly became a close adviser to the Emirati crown prince.
"The dispute between the UAE and the [Paleostinian] Authority relates to the Emiratis adopting and hosting Mohammad Dahlan," said Jihad Harb, a Paleostinain analyst and researcher.
Since settling in the UAE, Dahlan has become one of the most vocal critics of Abbas, lambasting him for his consolidation of authority in Fatah, the PA, and the PLO.
Back in Ramallah, Abbas has grown irate over the role Abu Dhabi has granted Dahlan and increasingly attempted to stamp out his influence in Paleostinian politics.
At the last Fatah congress in 2016, Abbas and the Ramallah-based Paleostinian leadership ensured Dahlan and many of his allies did not participate, essentially excommunicating them and curbing their influence in decision-making positions in the party.
"The ties between the UAE and the PA have been poor since the UAE initially embraced Dahlan," Ziyad Iyad, a professor of political science at al-Quds University, said. "But the relations between the two started to substantially deteriorate approximately four years ago when the UAE started opening doors for Dahlan in Egypt."
For the past few years, the Egyptian General Intelligence Services has welcomed Dahlan. At times, it has also allowed him input on Paleostinian affairs, especially those related to Gazoo.
In 2017, Egypt even allowed Dahlan to play a part in sending millions of Emirati dollars into Gazoo to promote social reconciliation efforts.
"With the UAE’s help, Dahlan has taken on a role in Paleostinian-Egyptian relations," Iyad said. "Abbas has seen the development as intervention in internal Paleostinian affairs and part of an effort to promote an alternative to his leadership."
And with the UAE and Dahlan on the same team, the collapse of Paleostinian-UAE ties likely will only get worse. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2018-11-23 00:00||
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