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Trump awards top aides for Arab-Israeli normalization deals

Thursday, 24 December 2020 10:03 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 24 December 2020 10:07 AM ]

Senior Advisor to President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner walks towards Marine One in Washington, DC, on December 23, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

US President Donald Trump has awarded his top advisers for their role in helping the push for normalization deals between several Arab states and Israel as he scrambles to clinch more agreements before leaving the White House next month.

The outgoing president awarded the National Security Medal to his top advisers, under an executive order that allows for recognition for major contributions in the field of national security.

Trump awarded Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, national security adviser Robert O’Brien, senior adviser Jared Kushner, Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz, US ambassador to Israel David Friedman and John Rakolta, US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.

“Thanks to the efforts of these individuals, the region will never be the same as it finally moves beyond the conflicts of the past,” the White House said in a statement on Wednesday.

Over the past four months, they pushed for the agreements, known as Abraham Accord, between Israel and four Arab states; the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.

They are now pushing for agreements between Israel and Saudi Arabia and Oman.

In a recent move, the Trump administration also offered billions of dollars in aid to push Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, to sign normalization deal with Israel.

The White House offered Indonesia on Monday more than double its current $1 billion portfolio if it signs the accord with Tel Aviv.

US offering billions to coerce Indonesia into normalization with Israel

Last week, Indonesia dismissed Israeli media allegations that Jakarta was seeking to establish diplomatic ties with the Tel Aviv regime.

Indonesian Islamic groups and pro-Palestinian NGOs have condemned the recent normalization deals.

The normalization deals have drawn widespread condemnation from Palestinians, who seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital. They say the deals ignore their rights and do not serve the Palestinian cause.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), which is headquartered in Ramallah, vowed to cooperate with all Palestinian powers “to confront the wave of Arab normalization with Israel,” denouncing the peace accords as “a betrayal to Palestine” and a “national sin that only serves the Zionist enterprise in the region.”

The Gaza-based resistance movement, Hamas, has called for unity and resistance against Israel, vowing to keep fighting against the occupying regime until the liberation of Palestinian territories.