Five years ago today, Israel signed the Abraham Accords on the White House lawn. Most Israelis, (myself included) in their wildest dreams, did not expect to see embassies, direct flights, open airspace, and genuine Gulf partnerships in their lifetime. Then the unimaginable happened, thanks to a rare convergence of interests and leaders: President Donald Trump’s team, Gulf rulers who took a strategic leap, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu championed normalization as a pillar of Israeli policy.
Here is the hard part on the fifth anniversary of the Accords: A prominent Emirati friend told me this weekend that the Accords are with the State of Israel, not with a cabinet and not with a personality, and that Netanyahu today is a political liability.
“Netanyahu is a danger to Israel itself,” he said. “He goes against the foundations of peace, and countries in the region do not want a relationship with him.”
Trust is being tested after a bruising year and a combustible week, yet he insisted the path of peace remains open if partners defend the fundamentals that made normalization possible.
He reminded me of what responsible Arab leaders said on October 7. “It was a barbaric act,” he said. That clarity, in his view, gives moderates moral space to say the obvious: Hamas should have no role in any future Palestinian entity.
“The Accords cannot survive in a vacuum,” he added. “Our leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), still has the foundations to continue and even expand them. This is not a walk in the park; it is a walk in the jungle, but you do not give up after one crisis.”
This week’s crisis has a name: Doha. Israel’s strike targeting Hamas figures in Qatar last week triggered an emergency Arab-Islamic summit and a Geneva debate at the UN Human Rights Council. A draft resolution warned that Israeli attacks threaten coexistence and efforts to normalize ties. The UAE summoned Israel’s deputy ambassador and condemned both the strike and what it called hostile and unacceptable rhetoric from Jerusalem.
On Sunday, Sky News Arabia’s general manager Nadim Koteich put the same dilemma on television in his own words. “Some in the region are now raising the ceiling of expectations, suggesting the Doha summit might go as far as freezing ties with Israel or reviewing security agreements with Washington,” he said. “But frankly, this logic of escalation is the very mindset that brought us here in the first place.”
He pushed a thought experiment: even if Abu Dhabi canceled the Accords, Egypt withdrew from Camp David, Jordan suspended Wadi Araba, and the Palestinian Authority ended security coordination, “what would change for the Palestinian people? Nothing.” His bottom line was stark: tearing up frameworks has produced dead ends, and it is Hamas and the “resistance axis” that brought the region to this point.
Context matters on an anniversary. The Accords, launched on September 15, 2020, normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, followed by Morocco and a halting track with Sudan. Whatever one’s politics, this created a new architecture, especially in the UAE relationship, that tied together governments, economies, and people.
"Do not burn the only tools that have built something"
The economic spine is real. The UAE–Israel Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement entered into force on April 1, 2023, cutting tariffs on most goods and opening services. It still anchors daily commerce even during a difficult two years. Policy can and should be debated, but the instruments of cooperation are not a matter of social media posturing. They are the tools that turn resilience into routine.
So what does year five demand? My Emirati friend’s view is that peace is achievable and the Accords remain strong, with room to grow if its foundations are defended. His caveat is explicit. Netanyahu and his government are among the main obstacles right now, because they make it harder for Arab leaders to defend the project at home.
In addition, Koteich’s warning points arrive at the same conclusion from a different angle: do not burn the only tools that have built something. Use them to tie normalization to tangible steps for civilians, insist that any mediator pass a behavioral test, and keep a credible horizon alive. That is how you protect the Accords, and that is how you protect the possibility of a two-state future.