It may be completely coincidental that one of the main ads for Expo 2020, which opened Sept. 30 in Dubai, featured an Israeli flag right over the head of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed, the strongest person in the United Arab Emirates. Coincidental or not, it certainly was symbolic. A flag that in the not-too-distant past could not be flown in the Emirates at all is now right at the center of things – and certainly in the center of economic affairs.
And the same is true of Bahrain as well. In quick succession, these two countries broke a decades-long policy among Gulf states by signing normalization agreements with Israel — because it was in their own interests.
