There is much to celebrate as we mark the fifth anniversary of the Abraham Accords, the historic agreements mediated by the first Trump administration and signed on September 15, 2020 by Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain, and later by the Kingdom of Morocco.
Long isolated from, and regularly vilified by, much of the Arab world, Israel today enjoys normal diplomatic relations – though not without strains – with five Arab states, open official contact with at least three others, and a range of economic and military-to-military engagements with other countries short of formal relations, all of which makes the volatile Middle East safer and more prosperous.
The process of Israel’s regional integration has a long history. For decades before the Abraham Accords, Israeli diplomats, entrepreneurs, and political figures found ways of connecting with Arab counterparts – often, but not always, in third countries – pitching the mutual benefits of bilateral ties (see for example, Jeremy Issacharoff’s “Four Decades of Talks with Arab Diplomats”).
The American Jewish Committee played an active role as well, and continues to play that role, advancing the argument in Arab capitals that openness to Israel will serve their countries’ interests in a range of fields, win favor in the United States, and equip bold leaders with political capital to promote a fair resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Yet, five years after the Abraham Accords, their potential remains unfulfilled – the exact objective of the Hamas terrorists and their Iranian supporters. The October 7, 2023 massacre and mass kidnapping in southern Israel, which they knew would draw an overwhelming Israeli response, froze momentum toward a Saudi-Israeli agreement reportedly nearing conclusion. That agreement, a senior Saudi official observed to me privately, would have effectively ended the Arab-Israeli conflict – an intolerable outcome for an Iranian regime that weaponizes anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
With searing images of destruction and deprivation in Gaza saturating the media, and with Israeli forces pressing the battle against Hamas – throughout the coastal enclave and in Doha – as they seek to liberate the remaining hostages, the region today is in no mood to celebrate the Abraham Accords, despite their achievements.
To alter that mood will require action by multiple stakeholders. On this fifth anniversary, reviving the vision and promise of the Abraham Accords will demand the openness, commitment, and courage of Israeli and Arab leaders – as well as the continued high-level support of Washington, and a pragmatic approach by the international community.
For Israel, still deeply scarred by the atrocities of October 7, restoring progress toward full regional integration will require bringing the war in Gaza to the earliest possible end. This will require the return of all hostages both living and dead, the replacement of Hamas by a Palestinian administration with international legitimacy and the active support of moderate Arab states, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the periphery to assure security and block weapons smuggling.
Beyond that, as my meetings, public and private, with Arab leaders over many years have made clear, reviving the spirit of the Abraham Accords will require a signal from Jerusalem – however challenging in the current political context – that Israel is committed to a fair, pragmatic resolution of its territorial conflict with the Palestinians, with recognition that the antidote to Palestinian rejectionism and extremism is a political horizon for the Palestinian people. Whether that signal leads eventually to a demilitarized Palestinian state, or to an alternative political construct, will be a matter for negotiations between the parties – but opening the door to a change in the poisonous status quo will have profound resonance across the region and around the world.
For Arab governments, expanding the circle of peace and cooperation will require encouraging the trust and the risk-taking they expect of Israel by demonstrating to the Israeli public, the ultimate decision-makers in that democratic state, true acceptance, a commitment to true partnership. As President Sadat did when he flew to Israel to address the Knesset in 1977 and set Egypt on the path to peace, and as King Hussein did in 1997, three years after Jordanian-Israeli peace, when he flew to Israel and knelt in grief before the families of schoolgirls killed by a Jordanian soldier, the physical presence of Arab leaders on Israeli soil will change hearts and minds in Israel – and change the country’s politics.
In addition, countering rejectionist voices and silencing those that ennoble violence against Israel and against Jews, continuing the school curriculum reform process that has spread across the region and reduced incitement to hate, and demonstrating to the Arab public the benefits of engaging Israel will make it clear that the region is embarked on a new and more hopeful path.
For the United States, the opportunity to lead for peace in the Middle East presents benefits as well as demands. A more stable, integrated region will lessen the US defense burden, completing the multilateral security architecture already beginning to take shape. It will ease the opening of new trade and energy transfer routes, including the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, advantageous to American commercial interests. The balance sheet should include an enhanced memorandum of understanding with Israel providing new security safeguards and assurances, reducing the risks inherent in the pullback of Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank, and a US role in coordinating stabilization in Gaza, and facilitating, as needed, the next wave of negotiations between Israel and its neighbors.
For the international community, increasingly drawn to the empty symbolism of recognition of a yet-nonexistent Palestinian state, investment in the expansion of the Abraham Accords, coupled with insistence on the delivery, not just the promise, of Palestinian Authority reforms, will yield tangible returns – including the restoration of political capital that the recent announcements from European capitals will have squandered.
After 23 months of the crisis triggered by Hamas on October 7, the survival of the Abraham Accords, thanks to the endurance of the strategic decisions made in 2020 by the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco – is cause for celebration as the region marks the agreements’ fifth anniversary. It is also a summons to all stakeholders to take the next steps to realize the promises made at the White House on that September afternoon. It is time to make history again.
