RABAT, Morocco (AP) – White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner led a delegation from Israel to Morocco on Tuesday on the first known direct flight since the two countries agreed earlier this month to establish full diplomatic ties as part of a series of US-mediated standardization is in agreement with Arab countries.
Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has overseen diplomatic pressure that caused the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco to normalize relations with Israel into historic agreements that also brought them great favors from Washington.
As part of the deal, Morocco, which is home to a small but centuries-old Jewish community and has long welcomed Israeli tourists, received US recognition of the 1975 annexation of the disputed Western Sahara region., which is not recognized by the United Nations.
The US decision to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara has drawn criticism from both the UN and US allies in Africa and beyond. African observers have said it could destabilize the wider region as it already fights against Islamic uprisings and migrant trafficking. Former US Secretary of State James Baker, who served as a UN envoy to Western Sahara, called it “an astonishing retreat from the principles of international law and diplomacy.”
Israel has traditionally supported the UN position and has not said whether it will join the US to recognize Moroccan control over the area.
Kushner joined the head of the Israeli delegation, National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat. Both men were expected to meet with the King Mohammed VI of Morocco and other top officials.
The delegations were expected to restore the low Israel-Morocco relations that existed in the 1990s and sign several cooperation agreements, including the introduction of direct flights, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said.
“The goal is to take the relationship from a low level to full diplomatic relations,” he said. He said there was no set timeline for this process.
Adam Boehler, chief executive of the US International Development and Finance Corporation, said he expected the visit to bring huge trade benefits by exposing an existing relationship.
“We have done a lot of research on investments in Morocco,” he said. “They are a gateway to Africa, they have been a great ally of the United States, they have a great investment climate. So I think obviously you’ll see a multi-billion dollar memorandum coming out of this, but also some announced individual investments. “
Before Israel was founded in 1948, Morocco was home to a large Jewish population, many of whom ancestors migrated from Spain and Portugal to North Africa during the Spanish Inquisition.
Today, hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews trace their lineage to Morocco, and a small community of Jews, estimated at several thousand, continues to live there.
In the 1990s, Israel and Morocco established low-level diplomatic relations, but Morocco closed its Tel Aviv representative office after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000. Still, the two countries have maintained good behind-the-scenes contacts, and continue to do so annually 30,000 to 50,000 Israelis visit Morocco.
On the tarmac in Israel, Kushner said he hopes the delegation’s visit will “pave the way for a new warm peace between Israel and Morocco,” noting emerging ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Ben-Shabbat, whose family immigrated to Israel from Morocco, said that “history is being written before our very eyes.”
Israelis of all backgrounds have celebrated the normalization agreements after decades of their country being shunned by the Arab world because of the still unresolved conflict with the Palestinians. Saudi Arabia, a regional power with close ties to Morocco, has tacitly supported the standardization agreements and could be next.
The agreements, billed as the “Abraham Accords” to the biblical patriarch revered by Muslims and Jews, were a major foreign policy achievement by the Trump administration. President-elect Joe Biden has welcomed the agreements, even though he has vowed to pursue different policies in the region, including giving the US back to Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
But the agreements are all with countries that are geographically distant from Israel and have played a minor role, if any, in the Arab-Israeli conflict..
Critics say they came at a high price. The agreement with the UAE paved the way for controversial US sales of F-35 stealth fighter jets to the Gulf country. Sudan has been removed from the US list of sponsors of terrorism, paving the way for much-needed American and international aid, but dividing the Sudanese as they negotiate a fragile transition to democracy.
The agreement with Morocco is a major setback for those in Western Sahara who have fought for independence and want a referendum on the future of the territory. The former Spanish colony the size of Colorado, with an estimated population of 350,000 to 500,000, is said to have significant offshore oil and mineral resources.
The accords have also contributed to the serious isolation and weakening of the Palestinians by eroding the long-standing Arab consensus that recognition of Israel should only be given in return for concessions in the peace process.
The Trump administration has given Israel unprecedented support by relocating the US embassy to contest Jerusalem, giving up US opposition to West Bank settlements, and recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, which it is in the war. from 1967 from Syria.
The Trump Mideast plan, drafted by Kushner, overwhelmingly favored Israel and would have made it possible to preserve almost all of East Jerusalem and up to a third of the West Bank. Israel conquered both areas in the 1967 war, and the Palestinians want them for their future state – a position with wide international support.
Critics say the US recognition of Israeli control over the Golan and Moroccan control over Western Sahara undermines a fundamental principle of international law: the prohibition of forcible take-over territory. Proponents say the accords recognize the reality on the ground and seek to banish age-old hostilities into the past.
Biden opposes annexation and has vowed to adopt a more balanced approach to the Middle East conflict, including restoring aid to the Palestinians and pushing for renewed negotiations.