Many assume that Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed’s (MBZ) relationship with Israel began in 2020 with the Abraham Accords and the public announcement of normalisation. But the truth runs deeper and far earlier. His story of complete loyalty to Tel Aviv started decades before.
Since the 1990s, the then–Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi — and later its de facto ruler — worked to build secret channels with the Zionist entity. At the heart of his calculation was one formula: an alliance with Israel as the ultimate guarantee for his grip on power.
This conviction was born from deep anxieties: fear of Islamists, an obsession with internal and regional control, and a readiness to sell every card he had to Washington and Tel Aviv in exchange for survival.
The Secret Roots: Meetings in Washington
In the mid-1990s, U.S. intelligence agencies arranged meetings between Emirati officials and Israeli representatives. Tahnoun bin Zayed attended some of them, while Yousef al-Otaiba played the role of political “interpreter,” shaping the clandestine contact into palatable diplomatic language.
For Mohammed bin Zayed, these weren’t mere courtesy meetings. They laid the foundation for a strategic partnership rooted in a dark principle:
“Ally with Israel against Islamists, and your rule will last forever.”
Israel, in turn, offered Abu Dhabi irresistible tools for authoritarian rule:
- Surveillance and spyware technology such as Pegasus, allowing the UAE to crush dissent and monitor opponents at home and abroad.
- Influence networks in Washington that opened the doors of Congress and the White House, helping polish MBZ’s image in the West as a “reformist leader” confronting political Islam.
Thus, Israel became the supplier of the regime’s ruling tools, while the UAE turned into a deep investment pocket for American and Israeli lobbies.
2020: Normalisation as a Throne Guarantee
By the time the Abraham Accords were announced in 2020, the step was anything but surprising. It was the culmination of years of covert security and intelligence coordination. For Mohammed bin Zayed, normalisation was not just a diplomatic move — it was a certificate of guarantee for his throne, based on three pillars:
- Absolute American protection against any internal or external threat.
- Access to advanced weapons deals that boosted the UAE’s standing as a Gulf military power.
- International cover for regional adventures in Libya, Yemen, and Sudan, where Abu Dhabi backed militias and fueled civil wars.
From that moment, MBZ internalised the idea that Israel was his sole insurance policy for staying in power.
From Secret Coordination to Open Loyalty
What was once managed in backrooms as security cooperation became, after 2020, an open display of allegiance:
- Reciprocal visits between Israeli and Emirati officials.
- Embassies opened and wide-ranging military and economic agreements signed.
- Abu Dhabi transformed into a regional hub for Israeli firms in technology and cybersecurity.
No longer worried about popular or regional backlash, Mohammed bin Zayed placed survival in power above everything — even if it meant betraying the Palestinian cause and destabilising the region.
Normalisation as a Tool of Domination
Normalisation wasn’t only an external manoeuvre; MBZ wielded it as an internal weapon:
- He advanced the narrative of the “alternative enemy,” portraying Islamists as a greater danger than Israel.
- With Israeli technology, he expanded security and intelligence control to subdue society and crush opposition.
- He promoted a shallow cultural “openness,” masking an iron grip over politics, media, and public life.
Regionally, the alliance gave Abu Dhabi cover for reckless interventions:
- Yemen: partnering with separatist forces and militias aligned with Israeli interests in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
- Sudan: backing the Rapid Support Forces militias in a project overlapping with Israel’s aim of weakening Sudan’s army to pave the way for Khartoum’s normalisation.
- Libya: supporting Khalifa Haftar militarily and politically, in indirect coordination with Israeli designs in North Africa.
All of this was branded under the slogan: “The UAE is a strategic partner of the U.S. and Israel in the war on terror.”
“Normalise… and Survive”
At its core, Mohammed bin Zayed’s philosophy can be summed up in one phrase crafted for him by Tel Aviv and Washington:
“Normalise… and you live.”
In other words, loyalty to Israel and full alignment with its policies is the price for the longevity of his rule.
But the formula that looks profitable in the short term carries within it the seeds of collapse in the long run. People stripped of their rights — whether Palestinians or those inside the Emirates and across the region — will not remain silent forever.
When the barrier of fear finally breaks, it will be revealed that everything MBZ built on his alliance with Tel Aviv was nothing more than a sandcastle on a turbulent shore.
In truth, Mohammed bin Zayed is not the “modern leader” he tries to market himself as, but a fearful ruler who mortgaged his country entirely to Israel — transforming the UAE from a state with independent aspirations into a mere subordinate in the Tel Aviv–Washington order.
