Ever Normalized Like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates has long been in contact with the Israeli regime, interacting in various areas such as trade and cybersecurity.
This simple fact begs the question of why the two sides have recently decided to formalize or as they like to put it to normalize their relations with much fanfare. The normalization scenario was unfolded just in the run-up to the presidential elections in the United States of America. Dragging a line of failures including the so-called Deal of the Century behind, Donald Trump was dying for a tremendous foreign policy achievement to brag about in his election campaign.
By the same token, a shambolic peace pact with an apparently Arab enemy could - at least temporarily - ease pressure on the embattled Prime Minister of Israel. But it is naïve to downplay the whole story to a mere political move.