Middle East Diplomacy

Israeli-Emirati relations ‘weathered the shock’

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When Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 7, it was the first exchange at that level since Oct. 7, 2023. Lower-level diplomatic engagements continued during Israel’s war against Hamas, and the United Arab Emirates, which condemned Hamas’s attack early on, often criticized the Jewish state’s prosecution of the war harshly in international fora.

“The reception by Sheikh Abdullah was clearly very warm and friendly, and so they put it all over the ministry of foreign affairs’ feed and out of the Emirati embassy in Washington,” Sievers, a former diplomat who served in the region, including as US envoy to Oman, told JNS.

Sievers, whose new role focuses on deepening ties between American Jews and Gulf leaders and citizens, doesn’t think it is a coincidence that an Emirati media report about the same time as the ministerial visit quoted official sources about an Emirati role in post-war Gaza. That wasn’t a new idea, according to Sievers, but it had added weight given the high-level diplomatic meeting.

The Jan. 7 meeting nudged Israeli-Emirati ties back into the spotlight, but Sievers told JNS that AJC never stopped working in the country, even as the war appeared to fray some of the bonds forged in the Abraham Accords.

“Certain things slowed down. Bringing visitors to Israel wasn’t really possible after Oct. 7, and there were a lot fewer Jewish and Israeli visitors coming here,” he said. “But there was always a dialog — we just did it without publicity and without calling attention to ourselves.”    

The AJC hosted an iftar break fast for Ramadan even as the war escalated last March. Sievers said that the event, which wasn’t publicized on social media, did not receive negative feedback. There have also been several low-key events and visits from AJC and US Jewish lay leaders, and Israeli tourists and Jewish groups have gradually returned to the country, he said.

“The Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi never closed. It wasn’t asked to close by the Emiratis, and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs had sufficient confidence in the security levels here that they never withdrew,” Sievers said. (A two-week stretch at the end of 2023 was the only exception, in which families left.)

The relationship between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi “weathered the shock” of the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath, “and even though it was difficult in some ways, there was certainly less criticism here,” Sievers told JNS. “They found different ways to mitigate that.”

Large Emirati humanitarian efforts in Gaza were coordinated quietly with the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Defense Ministry, and downplaying that collaboration helped blunt domestic criticism in the Emirates about continued diplomatic ties with Israel, according to Sievers.

“I think in terms of the relationship being able to take this kind of shock of the ongoing war in Gaza and other tension in the region and still keep on going, that’s quite an accomplishment,” he said.

Abu Dhabi has been an exception when it comes to the Abraham Accords. Israeli envoys in Bahrain and Morocco returned to Israel — either due to security concerns or pushed out by the countries.

Sievers and the AJC decided to stay in Abu Dhabi even after the Iran-sponsored kidnapping and murder of Zvi Kogan, a 28-year-old Chabad rabbi, in late November. They also did so amid reports that Tehran was keeping watch over Israelis and diaspora Jews visiting the Emirates.

“We did have discussions about our presence here. It’s a personal decision really more than an organizational decision,” Sievers told JNS. “My wife and I decided right away that we weren’t going anywhere, but we did get multiple messages from the Emiratis, from the leadership here, that gave us a connection with the police that I didn’t have before — in case there was a need.”

Other Jews in the country have different reactions and thoughts about their safety.

“The circumstances are different in Abu Dhabi than Dubai,” Sievers said, noting that the latter is more diverse and busy.

There are also more Jews in Dubai than Abu Dhabi, with some 2,000 to 3,000 in the entire country.

“I know a lot of people were nervous,” Sievers said. “At least in terms of our circles of friends and contacts in the community, I don’t know of anyone who left.”