Former ambassador to Israel Ido Aharoni called the normalization agreements inked between Israel and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday “extremely important.”
During a Tuesday appearance on Newsmax TV’s “American Agenda,” Aharoni said the normalization agreements are even more important than Israel’s peace agreements with Jordan in 1994 and Egypt in 1979.
“These are the first agreements that we signed that are all about normalization,” he said. “In the Middle East, oddly enough, you have to sign a peace agreement in order to have non-belligerency. In many ways normalization is more important than that because you have to have peaceful relations in order to fully normalize.”
He noted that Israel doesn’t have normalization with Egypt or Jordan.
“So, normalization first is very, very important,” he said.
When asked by host Bob Sellers if Arab countries view Iran as a bigger threat to them than Israel, Aharoni replied. “Absolutely.”
“The digital revolution made it clear that the No. 1 human asset today is not oil or gold it's human creativity,” he said, adding that “new Arab leaders” are looking toward Israel as a “strategic partner.”
“Israel is the key for them to remain relevant in the 21st century, and I think that's the main motivation,” Aharoni said of the historic agreements.
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