Israel and the Gulf: From Secret to Open Relations

Following the signing of the US-brokered "Abraham Accord" between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel in September 2020, this webinar will explore the background and implications of this agreement for the Middle East and Arab-Israeli relations. It will address the reasons for exposing long-clandestine Israeli-Gulf links, the possible impact of this development on Israeli-Palestinian relations, and the likelihood of additional peace agreements between Israel and Arab countries. Ebtesam Al-Ketbi is Founder and President of the Emirates Policy Center, the UAE's leading foreign policy and security think tank. She is a professor of political science at the United Arab Emirates University and a member of the Consultative Commission of the Gulf Cooperation Council. She has served in several capacities, including: as the secretary general of the Gulf Development Forum; as a board member of the Association of Political Sciences; as a member of the board of trustees of the Arab Unity Studies Center; as a member of the board of trustees of the Arab Organization for Transparency; as a consultative board member of the Arab Thought Foundation; as a member of the board of trustees of the Arab Council for Social Sciences; and as a member of the core team behind the 2006 Arab Human Development Report, among others. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Clive Jones is Professor of Regional Security in the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University. He moved to the School of Government and International Affairs in February 2013 where he now holds a Chair in Regional Security (Middle East). In 2011, he was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society and between 2013-16 was the Chair of the European Association of Israel Studies (EAIS). In 2018, he was awarded a Visiting Research Chair at NTNU, Trondheim, Norway. Jones' research interests lie in three related areas: International Relations (particularly with regard to foreign and defence policy decision-making), Middle East studies (with a clear emphasis upon Israel and Gulf Security) and security studies (with emphasis upon low intensity conflict and the political and operational use of intelligence as it relates to the Middle East). Elie Podeh is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre and the Bamberger and Fuld Professor in the History of the Muslim Peoples in the Department of Islamic and Middle East Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He serves as the President of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Association of Israel (MEISAI) and is a board member of Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies. His areas of study include Egypt, inter-Arab relations, the Arab-Israeli conflict, education and culture in the Middle East, and Israeli foreign policy. From 2004–9 he served as the Head of the Department of Islamic and Middle East Studies at the Hebrew University and from 2000–8 was the editor of Hamizrah Hehadash, the Hebrew journal of MEISAI. He has published and edited twelve books and more than seventy academic articles in English, Hebrew and Arabic. At present, he is writing a book on Israel’s secret diplomatic relations in the Middle East since 1948.