On Thursday, the United Arab Emirates formally agreed to a deal with Israel to normalize diplomatic ties between the two nations, making it only the third country in the Middle East to do so. Speaking Monday on Boston Public Radio, WGBH News analyst and GroundTruth Project CEO Charlie Sennott said that the agreement, while significant, is not the peace deal that some media outlets have claimed.
"It’s important, it’s significant, but it is nowhere near what you would call a peace deal,” he stated, emphasizing the agreement's negative implications for Palestine, despite Israel's concession that it would suspend plans to annex territory in the West Bank.
“The Palestinian leadership now has seen its neighbors start to give up on the idea that they’re going to be a government that can actually broker a peace with Israel,” he said. Sennott added, "I see it as a technical normalization of relations. … The clouds that surround the possibility of peace between Israel and Palestine are still firmly in place."
"I don’t want to underestimate the significance of this. I think it can become a good development for the region," he said. "But I don’t think we should hold our breath, and I don’t think we should overestimate its impact."
