Were We Fooled by the Abraham Accords?
It is known that there are no friends in geo-politics, only strategic alliances. When the Abraham Accords were signed in 2020, I was already six years into being a proud Zionist, which did not come with any hatred of Arabs or Muslims (in high school and college, I had quite a few Muslim friends) but more of a cautionary awareness, along with an acute comprehension of Judean history across the Middle East and North Africa since the invention of Islam. My Mizrahi friends were an 80/20 split with most of them not being trustful of the Accords, highlighting how taqiyya is often used by Muslims to further promote their agenda to fool non-Muslims. Their distrust of Muslim countries and Arabs, overall, was and remains akin to how numerous Ashkenaz Jews tend to be anti-Poland, Ukraine, and even though they have at least apologized for the Holocaust, Germany.
Statements by the UAE’s Foreign Minister leading up to the Accords calling for Israel to adopt the antisemitic two state solution did not help matters.
As an Ashkenaz Jew, though, I was mighty curious about the Arab world. Dubai was already an established travel and ex-pat destination for non-Muslims, and although as an American, I had free reign to travel almost anywhere, I promised myself that until and unless Israelis were allowed to travel there, I would not in solidarity. My initial foray into the Arab world, physically, presented itself in the spring of 2022, when a trip to the UAE was offered as an extension to a mission trip to Israel through a Jewish organization.
For any Jew traveling to the UAE on Jewish tours, it is a sugar-coated experience in that interactions are largely contained to the indigenous Emiratis, which on the surface makes perfect sense as it is their Federation. However, the reality is that Emiratis only comprise 12% of the UAE population, with non-Emirati Muslims making up the majority.
That initial trip to the UAE was as if it were lifted from a Muslim-Jewish relations utopia—the bus we were on had a large Magen David on it, as it was part of the logo of the organization with whom we were traveling. I befriended the female tour guide and when I asked her over lunch if the UAE taught about Israel in schools, she answered that no, Israel never existed in their books, but now with the Abraham Accords, that is quickly changing.
There was also the newly opened Crossroads of Civilization Museum, where I saw more artifacts proving the indigeneity of Jews to Israel than in any Jewish Museum. The Director of the Museum also chastised our group at one point for not leading with the fact that Jews are indigenous to Israel. He said that was the number one mistake Jews make, not knowing how to clearly explain our indigenous roots. A Muslim Sheikh helped shape my Zionism educational focus as Taking Back the Narrative was forming. The trip was pure perfection on all fronts. I was also beginning to dare say find affinity with Arab culture (at the time).
Even Saudi Arabia was on its best behavior towards Israel during that fruitful period, with the Saudi Kingdom, not prompted by Israel, leading a social media campaign explaining the Temple Mount is not holy to Islam and neither is Jerusalem. That truth was repeated by a tour guide during a visit to Saudi Arabia six months later. Within the two trips, Arab culture gripped me – I was listening to equal amounts of Arab music as Israeli, was suddenly connecting with a lot more Arabs on social media, even befriending a very Zionist Iraqi Muslim, who happened to have ties to the most notorious dictator in that region of the 20th century. He did share that although most of his family vehemently disagreed with that family member’s policies, he was the only Zionist among his large clan.
However, I also wholeheartedly listened to and absorbed the antisemitic experiences of my Mizrahi friends’ families, from utter humiliation under dhimmi laws, to outright pogroms and massacres, and of course forced conversions, even in present-day Kurdistan. A Kurdish-Jew friend of mine shared that many in his clan were forcibly converted to Islam and that his immediate family remaining practicing Jews has resulted in consequences from physical altercations to all-around discrimination. Jews had lived in Muslim Arab-colonized regions of the Middle East (outside of Arabia) and North Africa far longer than Arabs.
Six months after my first trip to the Arab world, I returned, but this time outside of any Jewish trip. My mom was turning 70, and one of her dreams was to see the pyramids in Egypt. Egypt was never on my travel list, especially since becoming a Zionist, and I was aware of the cold peace despite Sisi doing far more against Hamas than Israel (until this current war post the Jewish genocide). It didn’t help that a good friend of mine cut her trip to Egypt early, just a few years prior, due to antisemitic threats. Weighing adhering to my Zionist morals vs. being a good daughter, I chose the latter. And off to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and back to the UAE I traveled.
Our tour guide in Egypt mentioned the Jewish history without being prompted (my mom and I were either the only Jews on the tour or among very few), and his account was surprisingly accurate. He also said ‘Israel’ instead of Palestine (meaning in the antisemitic sense, not in the historically accurate sense that it was the colonizer term for Israel for 1,812 years (136 AD – 1948).
In Jordan, we had a Bedouin tour guide, and we know that the Bedouins in Israel and Israel East aka ‘Jordan’ are genetic Jews – descendant of Jews who forayed into the Hejaz after both 586 BC and again in large droves after 136 AD. Our Bedouin guide in Aqaba looked on to Eilat with even a sense of longing and spoke graciously about Israel (and yes, said Israel). He also explained to us that a different population lives in Amman (former Israeli-Arabs who fled to Israel East aka ‘Jordan’ to help Arab armies kill Jews faster in 1947 – 1948).
But it was in the UAE, this time without the cover of a Jewish tour, that I noticed the real Muslim attitude, an ingrained hatred that can never be truly erased by any Accords. My Mom and I had a driver from Pakistan and a tour guide from India – both Muslims. We did not reveal we were Jews. Not out of any fear, but being just two women, we had a don’t tell unless asked policy. Had they inquired about our background, we would have proudly told them we are Jews. It was in a museum in Sharjah, an emirate north of Dubai, where the antisemitism unfolded. There was a replica of Jerusalem in a display, and the tour guide proceeded to go on a tirade about ‘Al-Quds’ – interesting that antisemitic Muslims use that term as it literally is an Arabic translation of Har HaBayit, the Temple Mount, the actual holiest site for the Judean faith. And he refused to say Israel, but called the Jewish homeland, ‘Falastin’ – as if we are still living under Ottoman times.
More than a year later, I was back in the Middle East, this time in Israel, and despite the incident in the UAE, I eschewed that outburst as fairly minor and was determined to see more of the Arab culture in Israel. After all, this was my seventh trip to the homeland, and almost all had focused near-solely on Jewish sites. I had been to Jaffa (Yafo) before, but this time it felt different, eerie looking back as this was days prior to the Jewish genocide. The Arab cab drivers after asking my background, were not friendly whatsoever, almost annoyed that a Jew was sitting in their cab. There was a heavier air in the Arab stores as well. In Jerusalem, prior to seeing the shift (from my perspective, perhaps it has been there for over a century, and we all know about the Jewish pogroms there) in Jaffa, I asked my friend if we could see an Arab neighborhood. No amount of convincing on my part budged him to agree. He said it was too dangerous. The Molotov cocktails being thrown near nightly on the Temple Mount was a constant threat at the time.
The Jewish genocide on October 7th transpired the day after I returned to the U.S. Surely my Arab ‘friends’ and contacts would be pro-Israel, would be loud voices against the terrorist vermin. No such thing occurred. In fact, quite a few turned to social media to rail against Israel.
The only Abraham Accord country to speak out immediately against the Jewish genocide vocally was the UAE, but through a rather tepid statement (though to their credit, the death penalty was issued just days ago to the three Uzbek murderers of Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan), and after vilifying Israel about striking its own land and the occupiers on it, Bahrain finally corrected course, after much too long.
Mohammed Bin Salman, who was absolutely pro-Israel prior to the Jewish genocide, became more concerned about the occupiers who murdered Jews rather than being on the right side of history. This is the same Saudi Arabia where in the 1990s, children were being forced to hand in donations to the terrorist PLO during school visits by Arafat. Forcing Israel into an antisemitic deal will never erase the Saudi’s terrorist past.
In fact, MBS lied that his Kingdom helped Israel during Iran’s initial missile attack. Israel was able to defend itself against nearly all the missiles on its own. Even the U.S. was helping its bases far more than aiding Israel. What the Saudis did was to ensure no Iranian missiles landed inside its territory, just as ‘Jordan’ did – only the gullible would believe it was to ‘help Israel.’
And then there is social media. In the past 17+ months of being in the bowels of Arab Muslim accounts, not one has raised their voices to support Israel. The one exception was an account called Syrians Love Israelis. Turns out, that account is run by Druze in Syria, so they do not represent the majority in Syria. I could count on my two hands the number of Arabs who are speaking out worldwide against the pure evil Israel faces (a future newsletter article will be highlighting the remaining fearless Arab Zionists and those who paved their path from the early 20th century).
The Abraham Accords were, and remain to be a remarkable achievement, and are still needed; however, we cannot count on a geo-political tool to undo nearly 1500 years of Muslim antisemitism, it is a hatred which is not latent. In my many years of attending Jewish services both in America and in Israel, not once did I hear any rabbi talk about Arabs or Muslims and certainly not negatively. Of course, conversations post-Jewish genocide reflect reality, but never has a word of hatred been said inside a shul. Meanwhile, a study revealed that nearly all mosques in even America are routinely where Imams spread antisemitic rhetoric to their congregations. *
The reason the non-Emirati Muslims in the UAE behave themselves is due to the strict laws of the Emirates, and the Emiratis fall in line with whatever their leaders say because they trust that the leadership has the UAE’s best interest in mind. Similarly in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, in terms of harsh laws keeping the population at bay. Without those police states, violence against Jews would not be different then elsewhere.
Morocco signed on to the Accords in exchange for recognition of Western Sahara belonging to Morocco. Sudan only agreed to the Accords in exchange for America removing them from the international terrorist list. The Trump Administration is dropping hints that more nations will be joining the Accords. At what cost? For the Saudis to sign a peace deal with Israel, thus far, Israel is being demanded to accept an antisemitic two state solution. No deal is worth the additional terrorism that would inevitably return if Jewish Gaza is not reclaimed.
Would a Cyrus Accord be more pro-Israel long-run, once the Iranian regime is toppled at some point? Perhaps, as 80% of Iran’s population is anti their regime. No matter the accords moving forward with Israel, Jews have to be realistic that a piece of paper will not overturn the populace’s ingrained antisemitic attitudes unless the population was not hateful towards Jews beforehand (Muslim nations such as Albania, Uzbekistan – though Jew hatred is rising there currently, Azerbaijan), or the pre-Islam Zoroastrian Persians in Iran.
* “Many in the United States want to believe that Islam is a religion of peace only, and that sermons and speeches by imams reflect that perspective in their comments about Jews and Israel, but Congressional hearings show that the imams analyzed in this article are not just isolated cases.[22] In 2021, MEMRI published an archive of around 450 pages recording the hatred, antisemitism, and incitement in sermons by imams of mosques throughout the U.S., including California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.[23]
But if any audience is still doubtful regarding these findings, I encourage them to search for a khutbah or any statement of any imam in the U.S. in which the imam states that the Jews are NOT pigs, apes, filthy, evil, or any other antisemitic trope. In the words of MEMRI founder Yigal Carmon (personal communication, July 26, 2021), “these imams in the U.S…. are inciting their congregations to violence against Jews, and urging them to spread anti-Israel sentiment within their communities.” – https://www.memri.org/reports/antisemitism-sermons-us-mosques
Spring 2025 Zionism Education Class Registration
No effort to push back effectively against antisemitism is complete without accurate Zionism education.
For 20 years, I was fairly anti-Israel and not just due to the media, but mostly because of the Jewish organizations I was part of – organizations that used terms such as Palestinians (not meaning Jews in Israel from 136 AD – 1948), settlements, settlers, West Bank, East Jerusalem, terms such as ‘both sides,’ and who shared that the UN ‘created’ Israel in 1948 or that Herzl ‘founded’ Israel. It was that misinformation as my sole knowledge source that I then used to spread lies about Israel to my then mostly non-Jewish friends.
I became a proud Zionist in 2014, and since then, have been educating on Israel and the Middle East with a focus on pure historical facts; it is those facts that helped me convert thousands of people (Jews and non-Jews) to be pro-Israel.
Three years ago, I launched
Back the Narrative (www.tbtnisrael.com), a Zionism education company, whose mission is to prove the Jewish continuous presence in the Jewish homeland since Jews emerged from the Semitic tribes in Judea & Samaria, 4,000 years ago. Filling in the 2,000 year ‘gap’ in Israel most skip over, from the last (partial) Exile in 136 AD to the liberation of Israel by brave Jews in 1948, is essential to combating antisemitism. As is utilizing accurate, non-antisemitic terminology.
Taking Back the Narrative has a wide-array of Zionism education tools: the website itself (www.tbtnisrael.com), a Zionism education class taught four times per year (Israel Explained: Through the Lens of History), a newsletter (The Zionist Corner), a podcast, and speaking engagements (I have been a featured speaker for a Holocaust educator group, counter-antisemitism task forces, as well as non-Jewish groups and think tanks). TBTN also works with Jewish organizations to both create and strengthen Zionism education programming.
**I am pleased to share that registration is now open for the Spring 2025 Israel Explained: Through the Lens of History class:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DCXXQpOOQRmsYnDASnNVHA
*Zionism fact of the week:
I was antisemitic when I said Palestinians (to mean the Arab occupiers).
I was antisemitic when I said Palestinian-Arabs.
I was antisemitic when I was trying to be ‘PC’ and said ‘Gazans’ as if the Arab occupiers in Jewish Gaza are FROM Gaza. Jews lived in Gaza from 145 BC – 2005, with only brief periods of ouster, and Jews in Gaza were never called Gazans.