CAIRO, Jul 24 (NNN-XINHUA) – The Abraham Accords, framed by the U.S. as a breakthrough for Arab-Israeli normalisation, are once again at the centre of Israel and the U.S.’s diplomatic push.
Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, in a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, on Jun 30, said, “Israel is interested in expanding the Abraham Accords, and normalisation with Arab countries.” According to him, “We have an interest in adding countries like Syria and Lebanon to the circle of peace.”
Saar referred to the U.S.-brokered deals that Israel signed in 2020, with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. U.S. President, Donald Trump, who championed the Abraham Accords at that time, has reportedly been intensifying pressure to expand the agreement, hoping to bring more Arab states into the normalisation fold.
But according to Egyptian political analysts, without a just, viable solution for the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict, normalisation efforts, no matter how broad, will not deliver the peace and stability the region craves.
Egyptian political scientist, Heba Gamal Eldin, head of the Futures Studies Department, at the Institute of National Planning, warned that, behind this U.S. diplomacy lies a deeper, more dangerous agenda, one aimed at erasing Arab religious and national identity.
“The biggest problem is that, the so-called Abraham Accords seek to erase Arab religious, national, and cultural identity, to create a kind of U.S.-backed regional federation,” she said.
For Gamal Eldin, the Israeli offensive in Gaza has only deepened Arab outrage, and “reignited Arab anger and awakened a generation of youth who weren’t even born during past Israeli wars.”
Mokhtar Ghobashy, secretary-general of the Cairo-based El-Faraby Centre for Political Studies, argued that, no peace can be achieved without an independent Palestinian state, with clear borders and East Jerusalem as its capital.
He added that, “this is something Israel is unlikely to allow, as it considers it an existential threat, and the United States won’t allow it either.”
He referred to the Abraham Accords as “the greatest deception of nations and their sovereignty,” adding that, many Arab analysts and academics see normalisation as a disgrace, especially when two million people in Gaza are besieged without food or medicine.
According to Gaza’s health authorities, since Oct, 2023, the ongoing Israeli war has left more than 59,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, dead, and over 142,000 injured.
Ghobashy emphasized that, there are nearly five million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, with many having lost parents, children, siblings, or entire families to Israeli atrocities.
For him, Washington’s unjust policy and unlimited support for Israel, are among the main obstacles to Middle East peace.
“The United States does not follow fair or just policies; it blocks the world from delivering food and medicine to two million people, starving in Gaza,” Ghobashy said, questioning how peace can be achieved under such U.S. double standards.
He further criticised the United States’ pro-Israeli, anti-Arab moves.
“When the United States moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, it undermined peace, rather than enhanced it. When it recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, it again undermined peace, not reinforced it,” Ghobashy argued.
Many experts argue that, Israel’s repeated military actions against some countries across the region, including Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, show that it is not acting as a nation seeking peace.
“The normalisation drive, without justice at its core, could leave the peace process permanently stalled,” Ghobashy said.– NNN-XINHUA
