UAE Leader Urges Gulf States to ‘Normalize’ Ties With Israel

JERUSALEM, Israel - Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, current Deputy Chief of the Dubai Police, urged Arab states to normalize relations with the Jewish State.

“The truth is that it's meaningless not to recognize Israel,” he said in a series of tweets that went viral on Twitter, Israel’s Channel 12 reports.

“Israel is a country built on science, knowledge, prosperity and strong relations with all developing countries. Who are the people who do not recognize Israel's [international] status? Where do they think Jews come from? Hawaii?" Tamim continued.

He also urged Gulf states to form a diplomatic relationship with Israel.

"As soon as the Gulf states normalize their relations with Israel, Qatar's role as a proxy state for terrorist organizations, will be over," he wrote, to the country’s close ties with Hamas.

"It is known that Qatar supports Hamas and still maintains a relationship with Israel. So what stops us from having a normal relationship with it [Israel]?” Tamim asked.

He said Israel "wants long-term peace and security. I support that. All Arab countries, the UAE and the Saudi kingdom accept Israel. Want to make peace with Israel. When that happens, Qatar will no longer need its fighters in its territory. The war will end.”

Although no Gulf States have official diplomatic ties with Israel, the COVID-19 pandemic is helping bring Israel and the United Arab Emirates together. In a rare public moment of cooperation, a UAE commercial aircraft flew directly to Israel for the first time last month.

“There have been some remarkable outcomes in terms of advancing Gulf-Israel relations during this pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the six Gulf States, four of them right now are in contact with Israel,” Rabbi Marc Schneier, President of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding told CBN News.

“My conversations with different Gulf leaders, they’ve said to me, ‘Rabbi, with our wealth and resources and Israel’s brain, trust, and technology, we could be the region to find the vaccine, to find the cure,'” he said.

Israeli media reported that the UAE, Bahrain, and one other unnamed Gulf state have turned to Israel for help in combatting the COVID-19 outbreak in their countries.

“There is a growing readiness to interact with us, even openly, in the health sphere,” said Yoel Hareven, who leads Sheba Medical Center’s International Division. “These things happen slowly, but they happen, maybe not at the [inter-governmental] level as we would have liked, but things are happening.”

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