Much has been written about regional geopolitical risks and opportunities, and about the UAE’s place in the Middle East. But as the fog of war begins to lift, the UAE may emerge not only as an important geopolitical actor, but as a critical strategic economic partner for Israel, Israeli business, and longer-term regional investment.
At first glance, the region still looks defined by instability: Iranian aggression, attacks on shipping, missile threats, and uncertainty all seem to argue against long-term investment and strategic capital deployment. For the UAE, whose model depends on stability, tourism, global business, and international talent, that environment would appear especially challenging.
Yet a different story is unfolding beneath the surface. Rather than retreat, the UAE appears to be doubling down on long-term regional development, infrastructure, and economic integration. One clear example is the recent series of transactions around Jordan’s Port of Aqaba and related transport infrastructure.
Over the past year, UAE-linked entities signed agreements worth over $2 billion to build infrastructure connecting Jordan’s phosphate and potash regions to Aqaba, while AD Ports Group secured a 30-year concession to operate and expand the Aqaba Red Sea port. Together, these transactions link rail, ports, logistics, and industrial exports into a single economic corridor and a more integrated regional trade platform with potential for future expansion from the Gulf to the Mediterranean.
These are not isolated Jordanian projects. They reflect a broader Emirati strategy stretching from Egypt and Jordan to East Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean: investment in ports, logistics hubs, industrial zones, transport corridors, energy assets, and digital trade systems. Companies such as AD Ports Group, DP World, and Etihad Rail are increasingly serving not only as commercial operators, but as instruments of long-term regional economic strategy.
More importantly, UAE leaders understand that future influence will not be defined by oil alone. It will increasingly come from infrastructure, trade routes, capital, technology partnerships, logistics networks, and talent. In that sense, the UAE is positioning itself as a regional connectivity platform linking Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.
This approach also aligns with broader American strategy. Washington has promoted the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC), a plan to connect India, the Gulf, Israel, and Europe through shipping, rail, energy, and digital infrastructure. It also fits emerging technology and economic frameworks such as Pax Silica, which emphasize AI supply chains, semiconductors, cloud systems, energy capacity, data centers, and the physical backbone required for the next generation of artificial intelligence.
Israel’s participation in Pax Silica together with the UAE reinforces this alignment. The AI economy will require significant investment in electricity, data centers, cybersecurity, logistics, and resilient trade routes. The Gulf states, led by the UAE, are positioning themselves at the center of that build-out.
In the end, resilience depends not only on assets, but on people, institutions, and culture. Despite today’s risks, the UAE has developed leadership talent, a culture of initiative, and the execution capacity needed to translate present challenges into future security, growth, and prosperity.
For Israel and Israeli businesses, this may create major medium-term opportunities, including in infrastructure, technology, and finance. Israel brings technological talent, infrastructure expertise, institutional capital, entrepreneurial culture, and global business networks. Its companies already lead in AI, logistics software, cybersecurity, water technology, energy innovation, and advanced industry—precisely the capabilities needed for the next generation of regional infrastructure and economic platforms. And Israeli institutional investors allocate and manage vast pools of long-term savings, creating opportunities not only in technology exports but in infrastructure finance, project funding, insurance, private credit, and digital trade systems.
That is the economic opening: the UAE brings capital, logistics scale, and regional positioning; Israel brings technological depth, engineering talent, innovation, and sophisticated cyber and financial capabilities. Together, they could become key partners in building the region’s next economic architecture.
Israel and Israeli companies should therefore deepen their engagement with the UAE and the wider region, moving beyond a transactional mindset toward long-term partnerships built on trust, shared interests, and strategic economic as well as geopolitical alignment. Looking beyond the coming days and months, the risks are limited and the potential significant. In times of war, it is easy to focus only on immediate risks and miss the economic structures quietly taking shape beneath the surface. But the signals are increasingly clear: a deeper regional transformation may already be underway.
David Alexander is Deputy CEO of Phoenix Financial