The UAE’s policy towards Israel is clear and unwavering. The rulers of the UAE, often referred to as the “sons of Zayed,” made their decision long ago: they are fully aligned with Israel and support the complete crushing of Hamas and all Palestinian resistance factions. In fact, they are more enthusiastic about “completing the mission” than Israel itself.
According to the Lebanese newspaper “Al-Akhbar,” the UAE does not hesitate to directly invest in Israeli crimes. This week alone witnessed two significant developments on this front.
First, the announcement of an Israeli company, Rafael, establishing a branch in Abu Dhabi to convert Emirates Airlines aircraft into cargo planes. Second, the financial rescue of Israeli businessman Patrick Drahi, who was struggling financially, through a $1 billion direct investment in his Sotheby’s auction house, after Qatar rejected him due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
It is worth noting that Drahi owns the Israeli channel “HOT” and the news network “i24,” both of which strongly defend Israel’s massacres in Gaza.
Since the signing of the “Abraham Accords” in September 2020, scarcely a week has passed without a new investment in or with Israel, even though announcements about the numbers reflecting the growth in trade relations between the two sides have decreased during the war.
The latest development was the announcement by Israel’s Ambassador to the UAE, Amir Hayek, in mid-2023, that trade with Israel reached $1.29 billion in the first five months of 2023, excluding software trade, which has not been disclosed.
As for the UAE’s “Gallant Knight” operation to assist Gazans, which has produced three versions so far, it hardly qualifies as either gallant or noble. These qualities would first require a boycott of the enemy oppressing the Palestinians, not direct investment in its war machine.
Moreover, the aid provided by the Gulf state to Palestinians in Gaza pales in comparison to what is generated by the “corridor” opened for Israel through Saudi Arabia and Jordan, enabling Israel to receive everything it needs from Emirati ports after the Ansar Allah movement successfully imposed a blockade on the Israeli port of Eilat in the Red Sea.
Who’s to say that this token aid isn’t one of the soft war tools parallel to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza? The reality is that it likely serves suspicious objectives, ultimately benefiting the role that the “sons of Zayed” regime might play in Gaza post-war.
This role is sought by Israel, which is why Abu Dhabi can establish a field hospital in Gaza that is not bombed, while all other Palestinian hospitals are leveled to the ground.
Similarly, the UAE can set up bakeries in Gaza that remain untouched, while the enemy leaves no stone unturned in other bakeries. Following the same pattern, the UAE can evacuate a thousand wounded from Gaza and treat them in its hospitals, while other wounded people, who are not allowed to leave, die.
The UAE is at the forefront of plans to manage Gaza post-war.
The UAE played a key role in facilitating the entry of aid through Cyprus, before it was halted when the Israelis noticed that the stomachs of Palestinians in Gaza might have been full for the first time since the war began.
In all the plans devised by Americans and Israelis for post-war Gaza management, you will find the UAE, which is fulfilling the role assigned to it as a “gallant knight,” at the top of the list.
Through all of this, the UAE, even on a small scale for now (which may expand later), provides what it, the U.S., and Israel hope will serve as an alternative to Hamas’ governance of Gaza, whether in distributing aid now or perhaps managing the sector later. Abu Dhabi even has a security tool to perform this task: Mohammed Dahlan and his group.
There are also internal objectives for the UAE, as this aid may deceive many ordinary Emiratis into believing it is a humanitarian act carried out in their name for the benefit of Palestinians, especially since Israel’s crimes in Gaza have created suppressed public resentment in the UAE due to the type of relationship their country has with the enemy.
Thus, since Israel’s real objective is the extermination or displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, the role of the UAE’s “gallant knight” becomes feeding the sacrifice before leading it to slaughter.
What the UAE can do for Israel, no one else can, and the failure of the U.S. naval bridge is a clear example of that.
The newspaper concluded that the UAE is an “Arab-speaking state, able to communicate with the Palestinians in Gaza, and can influence them by being the only channel, in some cases, through which something can reach their mouths and stomachs amid hunger.”
However, the UAE’s role has not yet reached the point of provoking the resistance, which is concerned with ensuring that some aid reaches Palestinians, even if it comes through the devil himself.
