Since signing the Abraham Accords, Abu Dhabi has made normalisation with Israel a pillar of its strategic doctrine — transforming diplomatic relations into a lever of economic, security, and political influence, at the moral expense of the Palestinian cause and particularly the people of Gaza.
This alliance has not merely produced bilateral ties; it has generated a network of influence now used to shape post-war narratives and entrench new regional realities on the ground.
What we are witnessing is no ordinary diplomatic cooperation but a systematic experiment — testing how far Arab regimes can be pushed to accept an order where:
- the political dimension of Palestine is erased,
- resistance is neutralised, and
- the prospect of sovereign Palestinian self-determination is closed off entirely.
The UAE has endorsed, pressured, and co-authored the architecture of international proposals that prioritise Israel’s security while offering Palestinians little more than symbolic humanitarian relief.
This is not a “peace settlement”; it is a settlement built upon ruins.
Exporting Normalisation: Diplomacy as Power Projection
On the diplomatic stage, Abu Dhabi’s role has been unambiguous — shuttle visits, unexpected appearances in pivotal Arab capitals, and messages from Gulf elites insisting that alignment with Washington and Tel Aviv is the only “pragmatic path forward.”
Its self-presentation as a mediator or “regional stabiliser” is not altruistic; it is part of a calculated repositioning — ensuring the UAE becomes a key player in redesigning Gaza’s future after its destruction.
Visits by Emirati officials to Arab capitals following regional escalations, along with coordinated Gulf diplomacy, show that Abu Dhabi’s leadership did not simply support Israel — it helped draft the conditions of Arab compliance.
The most dangerous component of this policy is the separation of reconstruction from political resolution. In plain terms:
Rebuilding Gaza’s structures does not mean restoring Palestinian rights or returning dignity to a people whose land and institutions have been systematically erased.
By promoting “reconstruction plans” tied to weakening or bypassing the Palestinian Authority, Abu Dhabi effectively consolidates the occupation’s outcomes, facilitating Gaza’s re-engineering to serve regional and international security calculations rather than Palestinian sovereignty.
The Media Front: Marketing the Illusion of Peace
The UAE has also deployed its media and diplomatic networks to reframe the narrative — preparing both Arab and Western audiences to accept a truncated political solution that permanently removes the prospect of a Palestinian state while legitimising Israel’s ongoing military control.
Observers note that these campaigns were not mere “messaging” but a coordinated effort to redefine key terms such as “truce” and “reconstruction,” transforming them into substitutes for justice and liberation.
The result has been a lowering of the Arab political ceiling — shifting discourse from rights and sovereignty to humanitarian crisis management, under an international framework that supervises, conditions, and depoliticises Gaza’s survival.
In this context, Abu Dhabi effectively served as Israel’s unofficial envoy to Arab capitals — not out of concern for Palestinians, but in exchange for geopolitical and economic dividends.
The Political Transaction
This is what makes Mohammed bin Zayed’s role particularly troubling. He does not speak for the Arabs, nor does he align with the Palestinian people’s aspirations. Instead, he has become a broker of acceptance — crafting an Arab consensus that grants Israel strategic legitimacy while normalising a new regional hierarchy in which Tel Aviv sits comfortably within Arab security frameworks.
When a wealthy Gulf state offers its moral reputation and values as the price for integrating Israel into its economic and security systems, it is not solving a conflict — it is marketing a post-war order built on the ashes of Palestinian nationhood.
Through this path, the UAE has chosen influence over justice, and in doing so, it has become a staging ground for international plans that legitimise Gaza’s destruction.
For this, Abu Dhabi bears both political and moral responsibility — not merely for its silence, but for its active role in preparing the world to accept the liquidation of a people’s struggle for freedom.
