“Peace” is not in the air. The deal done between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE, boastfully brokered by President Trump, has little to do with peace, but much to do with military hardware and hoped-for economic gain.
The parties concerned have not been at war; it cannot be about that. Peace can never prevail while gross injustice persists, while one party occupies another’s territory, while one party inflicts gross human rights violations on another, while one party builds the apparatus of apartheid, and while the Palestinian people and their representatives are absent from the process.
This deal most certainly does not improve the plight of Palestinians, offer them hope or address their concerns. While the UAE has said it prevents the annexation by Israel of the Jordan Valley, Prime Minister Netanyahu denies this is the case and is already incrementally clearing the land of Palestinians and assuming sovereignty.
This is not a deal that brings peoples together, it is a deal done by four leaders with their self-interested agendas in mind.
Any deal done by President Trump that appears to favour Israel helps him with his domestic politics. He has openly confessed the reason he moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was to keep his evangelical voting base firmly behind him. Any deal that opens the sale of military hardware is also attractive to him.
Read the article by Bishop George Browning in The Canberra Times.