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Oman, once thought to be next Abraham Accords signer, criminalizes relations with Israel
(JTA) — Just a few years ago, Oman was expected to be next in line after Morocco, Sudan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to sign onto the Abraham Accords normalization agreements with Israel.
On Friday, the country’s parliament voted to criminalize any relations or interactions with “the Zionist entity.”
While the exact details have not been made public, the new law seems to be broadly applied.
“The brothers, Your Excellencies, looked at the development taking place, whether it was technical, cultural, economic or sports, and proposed additional amendments that include severing any economic, sports or cultural relations and prohibiting dealing in any way or means, whether it was a real meeting, an electronic meeting or something else,” said Yaqoub Al-Harithi, vice president of the Omani parliament, about the bill, according to Oman’s WAF news agency.
The sultanate at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, where the Indian Ocean meets the Persian Gulf, was for a long time closer with Israel than other states in the region were. Oman never took part in any war with the Jewish state and established unofficial trade relations with Israel in the early 2000s. Omani Sultan Qaboos Bin Said welcomed three Israeli prime ministers to his country: Yitzhak Rabin in 1994, Shimon Peres in 1996 and Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018. Rabin’s visit was the first by an Israeli prime minister to a Gulf nation.
Under Qaboos’ leadership, Oman carved a niche for itself as the Switzerland of the Middle East, able to deal simultaneously with countries such as Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Yemen, all while maintaining a sense of neutrality. The country has been an important middleman in everything from the Iranian nuclear talks to Yemeni Civil War negotiations.
So what happened?
Sultan Qaboos, who was the longest reigning ruler of the Middle East’s oldest independent state, died in 2020 with no heirs. Rulership passed to his cousin Haitham Bin Tariq.
Though Sultan Haitham, upon his inauguration, announced that he would follow in his predecessor’s peace-making footsteps, he has moved closer to Iran, which funds military activity throughout the region.
While Saudi Arabia opened its airspace for Israeli flights earlier this year, Oman has held out on opening its own, blocking the most direct route for some flights from Israel to Asia. In doing so, Oman has received pressure from President Joe Biden’s administration to open its skies.
However, the developments Al-Harithi is referring to in his statement could include the rise of Israel’s new right-wing government, which has already provoked anger well beyond the Middle East. “What also potentially fuels this is a recent call by a number of Arab countries, including the UAE, to go to the United Nations and condemn Israel over the recent rise of [Itamar] Ben-Gvir,” Nir Boms, the director of the Program for Regional Cooperation at the Moshe Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Protesting Israel “remains one of the few unifying factors in the Arab world,” Boms said.
For more Islamist-leaning factions across the region, “The issues around Israel are coming to a point where they need to have a counter-reaction and come back to a boycott policy,” he added.
Another reason may be fear of Iran, which is conducting military exercises off of Oman’s coast and is reeling from months of domestic protest.
“The last thing Muscat wants is for the Gulf to become a battlefield with attacks on western shipping, resulting in the closure of the Straits of Hormuz,” said Tom Gross, a British journalist and Middle East expert. “Oman, like Qatar, is trying to calm Iran. Their message is: ‘We are not the ones rushing to form relations with Israel so don’t take it out on us.’”
Despite the bill, Gross thinks that Omani relations with Israel will continue as they always have, under the table.
“The Omani vote was primarily designed to appease the Iranian regime. There is a feeling in intelligence circles that the counter-revolutionary uprising in Iran has passed the point of no return and as a result the regime in Tehran may try to externalize its domestic problems,” Gross said. “Meanwhile, relations with Israel will likely continue, albeit more quietly.”
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‘The world needs more Trumps’: US president receives a hero’s welcome in Israeli parliament
(JTA) — The Israeli government will wage a campaign to promote President Donald Trump as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, the a top lawmaker announced Monday as Trump visited the Knesset to mark the ceasefire deal he brokered between Israel and Hamas.
Trump received a lengthy standing ovation — over two minutes — when he first arrived in the parliament after landing in Israel on Monday, just after the 20 living hostages who remained in Gaza returned to their country.
A series of speakers then lavished him with praise, emphasizing his devotion to the hostages and the peace that may follow in the region. Trump was scheduled to leave Israel Monday afternoon for a peace summit in Egypt.
“The world needs more Trumps,” said Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who said he would work with U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to rally world leaders to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. (Nominations for the prize, which was awarded for this year on Friday, in January.)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would nominate Trump to become the first-ever non-Israeli to win the Israel Prize. Listing Trump’s pro-Israel bona fides, he repeated a sentiment that he has shared before: “Donald Trump is the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House.”
And opposition leader Yair Lapid, too, praised Trump. “The fact that you were not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is a grave mistake by the committee, but they will have no choice, Mr. President, they will have to award it to you next year,” he said. “Peace will not come by waiting. It will come by building, by reaching out and by daring, once again, to believe. You, Mr. President, have done the unimaginable. We will be eternally grateful.”
Israelis have celebrated Trump for pressing for the ceasefire deal that resulted in the release of the hostages. Signs praising him have popped up at rallies around the country.
The post ‘The world needs more Trumps’: US president receives a hero’s welcome in Israeli parliament appeared first on The Forward.
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Trump heralds ‘the historic dawn of a new Middle East’ in speech to Israeli parliament after hostages returned
In Jerusalem on Monday, President Donald Trump celebrated the implementation of a viable ceasefire in Gaza with the return of the last living hostages after two years in captivity.
“This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East,” Trump told the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. “After so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today, the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace, a land and a region that will live, God willing, in peace for all eternity.”
Ahead of his address, Trump met with several freed hostages and the families of Israelis who were held by Hamas in Gaza.
On the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Trump recognized its impact. “The United States of America grieved alongside you, and we mourned for our own citizens who were so viciously taken that day,” he said in his speech. “And to all the families whose lives were forever changed by the atrocities of that day, and to all the people of Israel, please know that America joins you in those two everlasting vows: Never forget, and never again.”
Hamas killed almost 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7 and kidnapped about 250. Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip, where the hostages were taken, have since killed at least 66,000 Palestinians, the Gaza Health Ministry says, and left much of the enclave in ruins.
Trump noted that Israel’s military had accomplished what it could. “Israel, with our help, has won all that can be won by force of arms,” he said. “Now, it is time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.”
Trump has received multiple standing ovations and sustained applause during his speech. He was briefly heckled by two members of the Knesset who held up a sign that said “Recognize Palestine.” They were quickly removed.
Acknowledged at the Knesset before Trump’s speech were special Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, credited with helping to shape the deal, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others. As Ivanka Trump made her way into the chamber, the Knesset broke into applause. She also received a standing ovation when Trump mentioned, during his speech, that she had converted.
Trump’s popularity in Israel
In his introduction of the president, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Donald Trump is the greatest friend that the state of Israel has ever had in the White House.”
Trump was the fourth U.S. president to address the Knesset — and only the second Republican, following George W. Bush’s 2008 speech on Israel’s 60th anniversary. He was also the third president to do so after brokering a peace agreement between Israel and its neighbors: Bill Clinton spoke in 1994, a year after the signing of the Oslo Accords, and Jimmy Carter in 1979, after brokering the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. The late Richard Nixon also visited the Knesset during the first-ever U.S. presidential trip to Israel in 1974, though he only spoke at a reception held in his honor.
Netanyahu has addressed a joint session of Congress four times – the most of any international leader.
But Trump made history in Israel by being the first American leader to address representatives of a nation that credits him more than its own leadership with ending the trauma of its longest war. The speech also comes five years after Trump brokered four normalization deals between Israel and Arab states, known as the Abraham Accords. “There’s never been an event like it,” Netanyahu told Israeli reporters as he walked into the chamber Monday.
Leading up to Trump’s speech, the speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana, said, “Mr. President, you stand before the people of Israel not as another American president, but as a giant of Jewish history, one for whom we must look back two and a half millennia into the mists of time to find a parallel, Cyrus the Great. You, President Donald J. Trump, are a colossus who will be enshrined in the pantone of history.”
That sentiment was also evident at the weekly Saturday night rally for the hostages in Tel Aviv, where boos erupted at the mention of Netanyahu’s name by Witkoff — in sharp contrast to the enthusiastic applause and cheers for Trump.
Many Israelis credit Trump alone for securing the release of the remaining hostages and ending the two-year conflict with Hamas in Gaza, while blaming their longtime leader for the failures surrounding the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and prolonging the conflict. Some have also accused Netanyahu of showing little empathy toward the families of the hostages and of undermining negotiations for their release.
Trump repeatedly pointed to the massive crowds in Tel Aviv as proof that Israelis were eager to end the war and bring the hostages home.
Nonetheless, Trump struck a positive tone toward Netanyahu, praising his leadership and crediting him for his cooperation in reaching this moment. “He’s not the easiest guy to deal with, but that’s what makes him great,” Trump said about him in the Knesset. That endorsement could boost Netanyahu’s standing with the Israeli public ahead of an election year. Netanyahu was invited by Trump to join him on his ride from Ben Gurion Airport to Jerusalem Monday, giving the prime minister rare one-on-one time and an opportunity to shape the tone and content of the remarks.
Three members of Netanyahu’s coalition boycotted Trump’s speech, criticizing the terms of the deal and saying there’s no reason for celebration.
‘My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker’
When Trump first campaigned for president in 2016, he vowed to broker the “ultimate deal” to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His first term, however, was marked by a series of pro-Israel moves, including relocating the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. His ambitious peace plan, rolled out in January 2020, stalled amid Israeli political deadlock and rejection by Palestinian leaders. He then pivoted toward securing normalization agreements with Gulf states.
During the 2024 presidential election, Trump renewed his pledge to deliver peace in the Middle East, vowing to end the ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon while further isolating Iran.
“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier,” Trump said at his inauguration.
Ten years after he launched his first White House bid and nine months after returning to power for a second term, Trump managed to eliminate an immediate nuclear threat from Iran, backed Israel in crushing Hezbollah as an Iranian proxy in the north, and last week oversaw the adoption of the first phase of a permanent ceasefire-for-hostages deal that could end the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and potentially bring regional peace.
Trump insists that his 20-point post-war plan would enhance Israel’s standing in America and globally and expand the Abraham Accords, though uncertainty remains about the next phases – disarming Hamas and establishing a coordinated Gaza reconstruction effort.
At the Knesset, Netanyahu reiterated his commitment to the deal, saying, “Mr. President, you are committed to this peace. I am committed to this peace. And together, Mr. President, we will achieve this peace.”
The post Trump heralds ‘the historic dawn of a new Middle East’ in speech to Israeli parliament after hostages returned appeared first on The Forward.
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‘The world needs more Trumps’: US president receives a hero’s welcome in Israeli parliament
The Israeli government will wage a campaign to promote President Donald Trump as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, the a top lawmaker announced Monday as Trump visited the Knesset to mark the ceasefire deal he brokered between Israel and Hamas.
Trump received a lengthy standing ovation — over two minutes — when he first arrived in the parliament after landing in Israel on Monday, just after the 20 living hostages who remained in Gaza returned to their country.
A series of speakers then lavished him with praise, emphasizing his devotion to the hostages and the peace that may follow in the region. Trump was scheduled to leave Israel Monday afternoon for a peace summit in Egypt.
“The world needs more Trumps,” said Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who said he would work with U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to rally world leaders to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. (Nominations for the prize, which was awarded for this year on Friday, in January.)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would nominate Trump to become the first-ever non-Israeli to win the Israel Prize. Listing Trump’s pro-Israel bona fides, he repeated a sentiment that he has shared before: “Donald Trump is the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House.”
And opposition leader Yair Lapid, too, praised Trump. “The fact that you were not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is a grave mistake by the committee, but they will have no choice, Mr. President, they will have to award it to you next year,” he said. “Peace will not come by waiting. It will come by building, by reaching out and by daring, once again, to believe. You, Mr. President, have done the unimaginable. We will be eternally grateful.”
Israelis have celebrated Trump for pressing for the ceasefire deal that resulted in the release of the hostages. Signs praising him have popped up at rallies around the country.
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The post ‘The world needs more Trumps’: US president receives a hero’s welcome in Israeli parliament appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.