Inside Netanyahu’s relentless push for meeting with UAE’s MBZ

TEL AVIV — The relentless pressure exerted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to arrange a meeting with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed eventually paid off with a visit to Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Still, with Israeli elections approaching on Oct. 27, the Emiratis are simultaneously seeking to engage with Netanyahu’s political rivals, high-level Israeli sources told Al-Monitor.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed hard for a meeting with a reluctant Emirati leader, the sources told Al-Monitor.

The visit was initially kept secret and only publicly acknowledged after Israeli media reported it. The Emiratis received Netanyahu at the airport, there was no press conference, offered no photo opportunity and issued no joint statement on the nearly 4-hour encounter. Netanyahu, the sources said, had a strong interest in making the meeting public. He was accompanied by Mossad chief Roman Goffman, national security adviser Shmuel Ben Ezra, military secretary Guy Markizeno, the head of the Shin Bet's security division and the premier's wife, Sara Netanyahu.

In May, Netanyahu revealed that he had traveled to the UAE and met Sheikh Mohamed, but the Emirati Foreign Ministry denied that such meeting had taken place.

This time, Emirati authorities and Netanyahu’s office confirmed the meeting, saying it was focused on strengthening bilateral relations and addressing regional challenges and threats.

The political sources said that Netanyahu wanted the trip to project to Israeli voters the image of a world leader who is not internationally isolated and maintains high-profile contacts with Gulf partners.

A diplomatic source familiar with the details of the prime minister’s visit to the country on Sunday told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that Netanyahu's bid to secure the meeting was intense, "involving phone calls between officials on both sides, contacts via regional players and messages about the importance of current and future bilateral security cooperation.”

Israeli aims

The political sources said Netanyahu pushed for the meeting with Israel’s Gulf partner so he could be seen conducting high-profile diplomacy to rehabilitate his image as a statesman. In 2020, the UAE became the first Gulf country to sign a peace agreement with Israel under the Abraham Accords, but Abu Dhabi's relations have been cold and at times tense with the far-right Netanyahu government. 

On Sept. 8, Haaretz dropped a bombshell, revealing that Sheikh Mohamed had called Netanyahu a week and a half before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and explicitly warned that the Palestinian militants were planning a major operation from Gaza. Netanyahu reportedly told the Emirati leader that Israel was prepared for every possibility but did not share the warning with the heads of Israel’s security agencies.

That report has been corroborated by other outlets including the New York Times. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel had also warned Netanyahu of a potential attack just days before Oct. 7, but the Israeli premier reportedly ignored that warning as well.

This news could prove hugely damaging to Netanyahu ahead of his Oct. 27 reelection bid, as he has vehemently denied knowing about the Hamas plot and shifted all blame to intelligence and military agencies for failing to warn him of what became the worst disaster in Israel’s history. After the Wall Street Journal report, Netanyahu accused then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar of failing to brief him about warning signs on the night before the attack.

The political sources said that Netanyahu had hoped to persuade Sheikh Mohamed to deny the Haaretz bombshell or at least that a meeting with the Emirati leader could help him defuse the emerging doubts and anger among his supporters.

Eyes on Netanyahu’s rivals

The Israeli diplomatic source explained that after the cold shoulder from President Donald Trump, who did not meet with him during his brief trip to New York for the UN General Assembly summit last week, and Trump’s refusal to endorse his candidacy, Netanyahu is left with few assets around the world.

He is not welcome in most countries in Europe because of the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court to face war crimes charges. His relations with most Middle Eastern leaders are strained by the wars in Iran and Gaza, the source said. Sheikh Mohamed was all he had left, and the UAE has not issued a single photo of the meeting.

Netanyahu, said the diplomatic source, knows that Sheikh Mohamed prefers two of his opponents, former co-premiers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. Bennett was the first Israeli prime minister to officially visit the Emirates in 2021 and met again with Sheikh Mohamed in March 2023. Lapid met with the Emirati leader while he served as prime minister in 2022 and then again in 2024. None of these meetings were kept secret.

There is also growing international interest in his main rival, former military chief and Yashar head Gadi Eisenkot, who has invitations for contacts pouring in from European powers as well as Arab and Muslim countries in the Middle East, noted the diplomatic source. 

Citing two sources familiar with the talks, the Jerusalem Post reported on Sept. 3 that senior Arab officials have been speaking with associates of Eisenkot and continue to maintain contacts with other potential Israeli political leaders such as Bennett and Lapid. 

A poll published by Israel’s public broadcaster KAN on Sunday projects that Eisenkot’s Yashar would win 23 of 120 Knesset seats, compared with 21 for Netanyahu’s Likud.

Reluctant host

The diplomatic source told Al-Monitor Netanyahu's visit had originally been scheduled for the week of Sept. 14. “The Emiratis tried to avoid or delay the visit, and eventually the visit was canceled one hour before Netanyahu and his wife's departure time from Tel Aviv, under the pretext that Sheikh Mohamed had to leave the capital abruptly,” the diplomatic source said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Emirati source told Al-Monitor that the UAE leader had not left the capital at all during that time. Asked at the time whether he would eventually host Netanyahu, the Emirati source responded, “It’s hard to say. It depends on the amount of pressure. As far as we’re concerned, the visit is unnecessary.”

Netanyahu’s brief visit to the UAE included discussions of security and diplomatic issues, another Emirati diplomatic source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “But it was impossible not to notice Netanyahu’s desire for Sheikh Mohammed to issue a more convincing denial about that warning call,” he said. The UAE has neither confirmed nor denied the reported warning.

Netanyahu's meeting in Abu Dhabi reportedly focused mostly on Iran. “They also talked about the Houthis and their growing threat to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf,” said the Israeli diplomatic source. Israel’s security support for the UAE with missile and drone interception systems, early-warning capabilities, intelligence-sharing and more were likely the main reasons Sheikh Mohamed reluctantly agreed to meet with Netanyahu, a former Israeli diplomat commented to Al-Monitor.

“Sheikh Mohamed doesn’t have the luxury of betting on Netanyahu’s loss in the elections. Iran is not going anywhere and the UAE is stuck with it, just a stone’s throw away,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Israel is the only insurance policy that currently exists in the region,” he added.