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Bahrain on Sunday became the fourth Arab country to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel. At a ceremony in Manama, officials signed eight bilateral agreements, including a “Joint Communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic, peaceful, and friendly relations.”
In that document, the two states agreed to refrain from any hostile activities against each other and, notably, to act against harmful actions by third parties, a likely reference to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The other deals were memoranda of understanding covering cooperation in fields ranging from technology and communications to civil aviation and agriculture.
While the Joint Communique is technically a “framework agreement”and not a treaty such as the one Jerusalem forged with the United Arab Emirates, leaders on both sides nevertheless stressed that the interim accord was a stepping stone to a broader pact, the text of which has not yet been finalized.
For his part, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the development as a “continuation of the breakthrough toward peace.”
The Israeli delegation was accompanied by a US team led by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Together, they traveled to Manama on El Al Flight 973 – a nod to Bahrain’s telephone country code – the first-ever nonstop passenger flight from the Jewish state to the Sunni Gulf kingdom.
A delegation from the United Arab Emirates is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Tuesday, in a first-of-its-kind visit following the September 15 signing at the White House of a peace agreement between the nations.
One of the main issues on the agenda is the prospective travel by Gulf residents to the Jewish state, particularly to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount – known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif and atop which sits al-Aqsa Mosque.
According to Jerusalem’s deputy mayor, the holy city “will host between 100,000 and 250,000 Muslim tourists a year.”
But the matter has become a point of contention for the Palestinian Authority, especially after a small number of Emiratis were recently photographed touring the religious complex. A leading Jerusalem-based official from PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah faction accused the group of “storming the site” in a move “not different from the repeated incursions of the occupation soldiers and settlers, who desecrate al-Aqsa.”
Meanwhile, the first-ever Etihad Airways commercial flight early Monday morning arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport. The plane was slated to pick up tourism industry leaders and fly them back to the UAE to meet with their counterparts in order to begin planning for much-anticipated reciprocal visits by Israelis and Emiratis.
In another sign that Sudan’s transitional Sovereignty Council may be considering establishing ties with Jerusalem, the first conference of the Popular Initiative for Normalization with Israel was held this weekend in Khartoum.
That the event was allowed to take place is being construed as further evidence that Sudan’s military leaders are inching towards normalizing realtions with the Jewish state, including by preparing their public for the move.
Najm al-Din Adam Abdullah, a member of the Popular Initiative for Normalization with Israel, said: “We believe that Sudan has remained in the same place since The Three Nos and has not been able to move forward,” in reference to the infamous decision – “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it” – taken by Arab countries in the wake of Israel’s victory in the 1967 war.
“[The absence of] such a relationship with Israel has cost us enormously. It put us on the [US] list of state supporters of terror,” Abdullah added.
The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group has condemned Israel’s normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and called for retaliatory attacks in Saudi Arabia. In a purported audio recording posted on Telegram, a spokesperson for the terror group described the deals with the Jewish state as a “betrayal” of Islam.
He then urged ISIS fighters and other Muslims to carry out attacks, including against Westerners, in Saudi Arabia: “Targets are plenty,” the terrorist began, adding, “Start by hitting and destroying oil pipelines, factories and facilities which are the source [of income] of the tyrant [Saudi] government.”
Manama and the Abu Dhabi are both allies of Riyadh, which, despite having no formal relations with Jerusalem, is believed to maintain clandestine ties with Israel.
Israeli doctors saved a baby’s life using a rare surgical procedure performed while the boy partially remained inside his mother’s body. The ex utero intrapartum treatment (EXIT) used during a Caesarean-section delivery at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center was planned when prenatal imaging revealed that the fetus’ airways were blocked by a growth.
A team of 30 medical experts prepared for the EXIT procedure – previously done in Israel only a few times — using a 3D-printed model of the fetus’ neck.
After the baby’s head protruded from the mother’s body, physicians inserted a tracheal tube that bypassed the growth. When the rest of the infant’s body was pulled out, the umbilical cord was cut and the baby was able to breathe on his own.
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