Becker: Abraham Accords could influence Palestinians over time
The first anniversary of the landmark Abraham Accords set the stage for a special AIJAC Live Online webinar on September 13 with one of the key diplomats involved in laying the groundwork for the agreements – respected peace negotiator and Director of Legal Affairs for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr Tal Becker.
Speaking courtesy of the Israeli Foreign Ministry in a webinar coinciding almost a year to the day since the White House signing ceremony between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain [later expanded to Morocco and Sudan], Becker was effusive over what the Abraham Accords had already achieved and how they may influence regional peacemaking moving forward.
“My involvement in drafting and negotiating the Abraham Accords was for me very meaningful,” Becker said, proudly showing off the actual pens used to sign the agreements. “It was nice to be involved in drafting something that was finally signed and hopefully it will have in the end a positive impact on the Israeli-Palestinian relationship as well.”
Becker said that the agreements were driven by a variety of common interests, including the Iranian threat, combined with the trend of the disengagement of the US from direct involvement in regional defence.
He added that the Palestinian expectation of a perpetual veto over normalisation between Arab countries and Israel had been “unnatural” and proved to be unsustainable.
“Most countries [foreign policy] tend to pursue their interests,” he continued, “that’s what they do, and in our relations particularly with the Gulf states the convergence of interest was very striking and it came to a point where it seemed at least to me unnatural for those interests to be held hostage to … the Israeli-Palestinian dynamic.”
Becker hinted that additional countries are close to joining the Abraham Accords but could not elaborate.
Moving on to the subject of the Iranian nuclear threat, Becker said that Iran’s election of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi as President together with increasing signs that it will not return to the 2015 nuclear deal has have encouraged the Biden Administration to rethink its approach to Iran moving forward, with input from Israel.
“I think the election of Raisi and the kind of radicalism of the regime in everything it’s doing at the moment … has… created an opportunity to think very seriously about what is being called in some places a ‘Plan B’.” He added, “I think in that sense there is a genuine opening for dialogue and good coordination [with Israel] with respect to this very serious challenge.”
On the issue of peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians, Becker said that he hoped that Abraham Accords can eventually build popular Palestinian acceptance of Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state.
The Abraham Accords give expression [to the] idea… that the Middle East is made up of different peoples who call it their home who belong here and one of those peoples is the Jewish people… The fact that… that there are Arab states willing to speak in that way, I think, gives more legitimacy and resonance to a kind of dialogue that will perhaps enable a different Palestinian voice to emerge over time.”
Becker added, “that doesn’t mean we don’t need to work today with the Palestinians to try to improve the situation.”
AIJAC’s next webinar, to be held at noon on October 6 and broadcast live on AIJAC’s Facebook page, will feature Canada’s former Minister of Justice and Attorney General Irwin Cotler, founder and chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, and Dr Karen Mock, Human Rights advocate and President of JSpaceCanada. The topic will be “The infamous 2001 Durban World Conference Against Racism and the ongoing challenge of antisemitism”.
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