The Glade 4.0

What's up, guys? Been a while.

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/15/913164450/israel-bahrain-and-uae-sign-deals-formalizing-ties-at-white-house

So what's ya'll's take on this? On the one hand, "oh, yay, Middle East peace plan..."

On the other, it's an actual peace deal with several countries. I think this puts a lot of pressure on the Palestinians to get back to the table and salvage the process before other Arab countries lose patience and just move on from the issue.

Not to make everything about Trump, but it's an election year. This is not his doing - the peace plan they put forth flopped last January, but this came out of that. Sounds like Israel said ok, settlements after the flop and then this was proposed by UAE to counter that. To give credit where it is due, the administration pounced on this, brought Bahrain in, and is going all in.

I think this has the potential to make a huge impact. I'm hopeful. Again...

I think the focus on states like the UAE and Bahrain that have money, but are not a threat to Israel, have no border with it, and no real reason to have a beef with it is a good approach. Iran is a threat to these states; Israel is not.

The deal with the Palestinians that fell through I think had value all its own in that they were offered a great deal, and just said "no" outright. Rather than continue trying to coax and cajole, we just moved on and thereby made clear to the other Arab nations that they've allowed the Palestinians to have vetos over their own policies even as Palestinians are more and more in Tehran's pocket - and Tehran is a real threat to these countries. If we ever find ourselves embroiled elsewhere in the world and can't be there to provide a deterrent, the gulf states will need to deal with Iran.

I think it would be unwise to regard this as ushering in a pan-Middle-Eastern era of peacefulness, but I think it will be durable at least insofar as Bahrain and the UAE go. They've simply got nothing to gain having a beef with Israel, and having two more countries not beefing with Israel is progress regardless of what happens afterwards.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I don't have enough knowledge to have an opinion. But from a lay perspective, UAE and Bahrain are both US allies (such as that is in the ME) and the least likely to go to war with Israel (another US ally) anyway. So I think it's a far cry from "peace in the ME," but perhaps is useful for stability to have Arab nations formalizing the good relations. (instead of already having good relations but keeping it a dirty secret).

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

This feels like neutral parties agreeing to peace far more than enemies coming together.

Do we /rebonk people when they come back from hiatus?

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On the surface, rather true, but this opens the door for other Arab states that have been closer and closer to enemy status to do the same.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Yeah, over-all it's good, but people that are proclaiming it "peace in the middle east!" so they can credit Trump seem somewhat premature. (and foolish)

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Excellent point, hopefully they step through that door.

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