Fraternal Enemies

Relations between Israel and the Gulf states have existed for decades. Since 1993 both Qatar and Oman had established diplomatic ties with Israel. In the more recent past, news outlets reported frequent and secretive meetings between Israeli, Qatari and Emirati officials. The shared suspicion and hostility towards the Iranian regime strengthened the ties between Israel and the UAE especially. For the same reason, the head of the Israeli secret service, Mossad, was reported to have secretly met Saudi leadership.

Jones and Guzansky analyze Israel’s relation with each of the Gulf monarchies: Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. They use as a framework the idea of ‘tacit security regimes’. ‘This regime allows for the evolution of ties between Israel and the Gulf monarchies to be explored and analysed while allowing us to be mindful that these relations have rarely been linear, let alone underpinned by any shared normative values. Indeed Realpolitik [i.e. policies based on realistic needs and expectations] … best captures the essence of such ties’ (p. 10). Another offered description is: ‘security regimes [are] configured around principles, rules, and norms that engendered mutual reciprocity and restraint’ (p. 13).