Eli Lake, Columnist

Why the UAE Chose to Normalize Relations With Israel

The agreement reflects two important realities in the Middle East.

August 13, 2020 at 7:15 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

An agreement deserving of applause.
Photographer: Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images North America

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

For President Donald Trump’s critics and supporters of Palestinian nationalism, there will be a temptation to spin today’s historic normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates as a setback for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Following the announcement of Trump’s Middle East peace plan earlier this year, Netanyahu began the process of annexing parts of the West Bank, a process he said the plan authorized. The White House urged him to reconsider. He pressed on.