Even before the first ambassador from the United Arab Emirates arrived in Israel, economic relations between the two countries had been flourishing. Data from the final quarter of 2020, published by Al-Monitor just as the normalization agreement with the Emirates was announced, reveals that business deals worth $1 billion had already been signed between the two countries, with most of those deals involving the sale of Israeli high tech to the UAE. The potential for growth is enormous since the Emirates — and Bahrain — are international commercial centers that import most of their basic needs, especially food and technology but just about everything else as well.

Thus, economics and trade are becoming the underlying foundation for the close relationship that Israel is building with the UAE and Bahrain, but also with Oman and the Saudis, even if in the latter two cases it is taking place behind the scenes. In contrast, the cold peace with Jordan and Egypt persists, decades after the original agreements were signed. The difference between those first-generation peace agreements and the current normalization agreements can perhaps be attributed to persistent memories of the wars those countries fought with Israel or maybe the absence of any real civil economic, and other, non-political relations.

The UAE’s new ambassador, Mohamed Al Khaja, arrived in Israel March 1 and immediately held a series of meetings with Israeli officials. His first meeting took place in the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem with Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi. It was followed by a meeting with President Reuven Rivlin, to whom he presented his credentials. He met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the next day. At each of these meetings, the participants spoke about how the relationship between the countries was based on what Ashkenazi termed “a model of warm and inclusive peace between countries and peoples.” As an example of this, upon arriving in Israel, Ambassador Khaja started a Twitter account in Hebrew, Arabic and English. He soon had tens of thousands of followers, most of them Israelis (he had 31.6k followers at press time).

In his brief speeches and tweets, the ambassador emphasized his intent to expand cooperation between the two countries, especially in civilian matters. So, for instance, during his meeting with Netanyahu, he spoke about plans to collaborate with Israel in the war against the coronavirus. According to one senior source in the Prime Minister’s Office, he was referring to an initiative planned by Netanyahu and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals to create a vaccine development and manufacturing center in Israel to produce the drugs necessary to combat the coronavirus and other diseases.