This year, Eid al-Fitr, the Islamic holiday also known as the feast of breaking the fast signifying the end of Ramadan, was celebrated on a somber note in the United Arab Emirates. During Eid prayers in Abu Dhabi, Muslims were reminded of the deadly violence taking place three flight hours away as Hamas and Israel fired at each other in the worst bout of fighting between the longtime foes since the 2014 Gaza War.

The mood has shifted since the United Arab Emirates led the way in the September 2020 signing of the historic normalization agreement with Israel known as the Abraham Accords, brokered by the Trump administration, where the UAE established diplomatic relations with Israel. Other nations — Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan — followed. Of late, there has been talk of more open relations with Saudi Arabia, the ultimate prize in the deal.

The accords were sold as “historic,” or as Netanyahu called them in September, “a pivot of history.”  The UAE said that the accords helped prevent Israeli annexation of some Israeli settlements in the West Bank, therefore holding off a worrying escalation.  After the White House signing ceremony, the UAE and Israel moved briskly to establish political and economic ties. 

Unlike Egypt and Jordan, which had made peace with Israel decades earlier, neither the UAE nor Bahrain was ever at war with Israel, and for years had maintained some ties with the Jewish state.