DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – As Israel heads to the polls next week for the fourth time in two years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to capitalize on his new partnership with the United Arab Emirates in his desperate campaign to stay in power.
But the UAE was silent – and perhaps unimpressed – in response to the lush descriptions of billions in UAE commercial investment and promises of a historic meeting with Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince. An Emirati official said the federation would not be involved in Israel’s election campaign, “now or never”.
Conflicting signals from countries, which normalized relations in a US-brokered deal last fall, sparked a storm of speculation, highlighted political differences between the sides and undermined Netanyahu’s talking points about the Arab Arab sheikh’s friendly embrace .
“The honeymoon ended quickly,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent political scientist in the Emirates, tweeted on Thursday.
Trapped in a fierce re-election battle, Netanyahu tried several times to take a lightning trip to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, to show off his diplomatic feat. The visit promised little substance other than a valuable photo opportunity for Netanyahu, who sought to present himself as an indispensable statesman, uniquely qualified to turn Israel’s enemies into allies and guide his nation through turbulent times.
After the coronavirus restrictions thwarted his plans several times, Netanyahu attempted a hasty visit last Thursday, only to cancel it at the last second. In an embarrassing setback, he said Jordan had refused to allow him to fly through its airspace after disagreements over security measures prevented a private visit to Jerusalem by Jordan’s crown prince.
Most Emirati officials were silent, a response that seemed to mask a backward trend behind the scenes.
A rare exception was Anwar Gargash, a presidential adviser to the Emirates who until last month served as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. “The United Arab Emirates will not participate in any internal election campaign in Israel, now or never,” wrote Gargash on Twitter.
“From the perspective of the United Arab Emirates, the objective of the Abrahamic Agreements is to provide a robust strategic basis for promoting peace and prosperity with the State of Israel and throughout the region,” he wrote, referring to last year’s agreements that saw four Arab countries establish ties with Israel.
Struggling with an ongoing corruption trial and popular outrage over the economic consequences of the pandemic, Netanyahu sought to focus the spotlight on historic agreements, the so-called Abraham Agreements.
In his speeches and interviews this week, Netanyahu promised to reschedule his trip to Abu Dhabi. He balanced the promise of normalization with four more Arab countries, without mentioning them. He told reporters that the UAE has pledged to invest $ 10 billion in Israel.
The UAE state news agency WAM confirmed last week that Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan had discussed with Netanyahu the establishment of a $ 10 billion fund to invest in the “strategic sectors” of Israel, ranging from energy and space to health and agriculture.
However, days later, after Netanyahu’s media campaign, Sultan al-Jaber, the Emirate’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, seemed cautious not to act too quickly. According to the UAE state newspaper, The National, al-Jaber emphasized that the UAE’s investment plans “are in the early days” and tried to eliminate any association with Netanyahu and his re-election campaign.
“We are at a very early stage in the study of laws and policies in Israel,” he said. “The $ 10 billion is driven commercially and not politically associated.”
He added, vaguely, that “the United Arab Emirates has a long history and a rich history of making the right investments in the right places, based on the commercial assessment of that market.”
While Netanyahu was trying to make a high-level visit, plans for a more moderate diplomatic visit from Israel were underway. Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, a member of the rival Blue and White party, was scheduled to fly to the United Arab Emirates earlier this week to open Israel’s new embassy in Abu Dhabi.
But Netanyahu canceled the visit at the last minute, said an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu deprived his political rival of the visit because he wanted to be the first Israeli leader to be photographed at a ceremony in the United Arab Emirates.
Ben-Dror Yemini, a senior columnist for Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper, said unidentified Emirati officials told him they were shocked by the decision to cancel Ashkenazi’s visit.
“Netanyahu’s action is a negative sign,” wrote Yemini. “It may be that the Emirates sees Israel a little less positively.”
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press. Netanyahu’s office declined to comment when asked about the cancellation of Ashkenazi’s trip.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu confirmed to an Israeli radio station that, after all, he would not fly to Abu Dhabi before next week’s elections.
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Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.