Israel-UAE agreement shows Trump’s Middle East policy succeeding

Originally published by Fox News Opinion

Thursday’s announcement of a “historic peace agreement” between Israel and the United Arab Emirates — the first deal to normalize relations between Israel and an Arab nation brokered by the U.S. in over a quarter-century — is more evidence that President Trump is the first president in a long time to get U.S. Middle East policy more right than wrong.

Under the agreement, Israel and the UAE will establish “full normalization of relations,” including diplomatic relations with the opening of embassies, trade, tourism, direct flights and other agreements. The only two other Arab nations that have diplomatic relations with Israel are Egypt and Jordan.

In a major concession, Israel will “suspend declaring sovereignty” over portions of the West Bank that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had planned to annex “and focus its efforts now on expanding ties with other countries in the Arab and Muslim World,” according to a joint statement issue by Trump, Netanyahu and the leaders of the UAE.