DAWN OF A NEW ERA
The Abraham Accords refer collectively to the agreements of warm peace, diplomatic relations, and full normalization between Israel and partner countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and Kosovo. The Abraham Accords mark a historic step toward moving beyond the Arab-Israeli conflict that has, historically, inhibited progress in the Middle East since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. Over seven decades, this conflict divided countries and local populations while allowing a counter-productive narrative to undermine hopes for a better future for the people of the region.
The Abraham Accords constitute the beginning of a transformation of a region that has historically confounded geopolitics. As Secretary Blinken recently observed in his remarks receiving Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in Washington, “You rightly noted our strong support for the normalization agreements, the Abraham Accords with Israel’s neighbors and beyond. We strongly support this and hopefully there’ll be other participants.”
For the first three decades following the establishment of the state of Israel, peaceful and friendly relations with its neighbors was an elusive dream. A landmark event on the path to peace in the region occurred when the first peace treaty between Israel and a neighbor was signed. Following negotiations at the U.S. presidential retreat at Camp David, the “Camp David Accords” were signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on September 17, 1978, paving the way for the Egypt-Israel Peace treaty, which was signed at the White House on March 26, 1979 in the presence of U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The next major breakthrough occurred on July 25, 1994, when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan, and U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Washington Declaration in Washington, DC, announcing the end of the official state of enmity between the nations, and the start of negotiations on a peace treaty. On October 26, 1994, Rabin and the Prime Minister of Jordan Adbelsalam Majali signed the Israel-Jordan peace treaty in a ceremony attended by U.S. President Bill Clinton close to the Israel-Jordan border.
These seminal agreements laid the foundation for subsequent progress towards peace. However, it would be another quarter century before their promise bore the fruit of additional normalization agreements. In the summer of 2020, an incredible new chapter of the story of the journey to lasting peace and harmony began. On August 13th, U.S. President Donald Trump announced an agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel to fully normalize relations following a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. This agreement, the first of its kind between Israel and a Gulf Arab state, began an unprecedented wave of diplomatic breakthroughs.
Almost immediately, negotiations began with another Gulf state, culminating in a September 11th phone call between Trump, Netanyahu, and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, which resulted in another normalization agreement. As a result of Bahrain becoming the second Arab state in one month to normalize relations with Israel, as many Arab states had normalized relations with Israel in that one-month period as had done so in the entire prior history of the state of Israel. Additional good news had arrived in the interim in the form of an agreement between Israel and Kosovo on September 4, 2020 to officially establish diplomatic relations. Once again, the Trump administration had been instrumental in securing the agreement. The momentum towards peace continued to pick up steam. On October 23rd, President Trump, while joined on the phone by Netanyahu, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, and Sudanese Chairman of the Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, announced the agreement between Israel and Sudan to normalize relations. On January 6th, 2021, Sudan officially signed the Abraham Accords Declaration in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. By this time, another country had joined the movement towards peace.
On December 10, 2020, an agreement between Israel and Morocco to normalize relations was announced following a phone call between President Trump and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI. In signing a Joint Declaration on December 22, 2020, Morocco became the sixth Arab League country to normalize relations with Israel. Of these six states, four had normalized relations in an unprecedented wave of agreements, in the second half of 2020. In order to sustain the Abraham Accords’ momentum towards peace, the Abraham Accords Peace Institute now exists to strengthen and solidify the ties among the members of the Abraham Accords, and in turn, demonstrate the benefits of peace and incentivize future signatories.
Read The AccordsAdvancing The Abraham Accords
The Abraham Accords Peace Institute's role is to tangibly solidify and strengthen the bonds among the members of the Abraham Accords, positively reinforcing the signatories’ decision to join the Accords. The Institute will serve as the primary platform for disseminating the progress made through the Accords, thereby countering the propaganda and misperceptions that allows the Arab-Israeli conflict to persist. The Institute will sustain existing relations, develop new opportunities for economic growth, and expand trade and investment by convening public and private sector organizations and leaders for planning, discussion, and cooperation.