United Arab Emirates embassies wish Jews a happy Hanukkah

UAE embassies in the UK, the US and France took to Twitter to wish Jews around the world a happy Hanukkah.

By RACHEL WOLF
Lighting of the Hanukkah menorah (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Lighting of the Hanukkah menorah
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
United Arab Emirates (UAE) embassies in the UK, the US and France all tweeted messages in honor of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
The UAE embassy in the US and its consulate in New York tweeted messages for the festival of lights along with blue and white images of menorahs that read "Happy Hanukkah."

"Our warmest wishes to our friends of the Jewish faith on the occasion of the first day of the Festival of Lights. Wishing you a joyful #Hanukkah," the UAE Embassy in the UK tweeted with an image of a gold menorah with candles lit and the words "Happy Hanukkah." The UAE Embassy in France tweeted a similar message in French with the same graphic.

Recently, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for the United Arab Emirates tweeted an article supporting an emerging alliance of Arab states with Israel. Along with the article he tweeted "Islam's reformation: An Arab-Israeli alliance is taking shape in the Middle East."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the tweet saying, "I welcome the closer relations between Israel and many Arab states. The time has come for normalization and peace."

Seth J. Frantzman contributed to this report.