In an interview with Channel 20 on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benhjamin Netanyahu said that there has been communication between Jerusalem and Dubai “for years” before last week’s historic agreement. Regarding the unexpected warming of relations between Israel and the Gulf State, the Israeli premier said that the main turning point happened during the Iran Nuclear Deal. At that time, Netanyahu said that he was ready to “stand up to the entire world, even in Israel.” He added that his campaign against Iran impressed the UAE to the point where they “not only realized that the two countries weren’t enemies, but that they were indeed allies against a common enemy and that they could count on us to accomplish big things.”
Netanyahu added that Israel is “leading the opposition” against Iran. He then switched gears to the economy taking credit for lowering taxes and increasing entrepreneurship. Regarding the economic benefits of the UAE deal, the PM noted that he is bringing “huge investments from a new market” into Israel to help people gain employment while calling it “unprecedented.”
Netanyahu also said that there was a lot of interest by the Emirates to invest in Israeli technology. Hailing a new Israeli policy, Netanyahu called the initiative’s approach “peace for peace” which he described as a gamechanger to the traditional ‘land for peace’ philosophy that has been guiding Israeli foreign policy since the Camp David Accords.
On the topic of sovereignty, Netanyahu said that the campaign to annex parts of Judea and Samaria has not yet been canceled and that it is merely “put on hold.”