The Aftermath: Are Israel’s Friends Here to Stay?
After the 11-day Operation Guardian of the Walls, Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas reached a ceasefire. The long-term implications of the ceasefire are diverse and far-reaching. One big question Israel has had to consider: How will our relationships with other nations change? According to Israeli officials, they really haven’t changed—and that’s a good thing.
Israel spent the second half of 2020 securing some improbable, crucial relationships with Arab countries, starting with the United Arab Emirates in the Abraham Accords before adding normalization agreements with Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. But while international allies didn’t waver in their support for Israel this month, “Experts warn, though, that another longer conflict could risk some relationships or harm those still in the process of being forged, and that Israel has work to do to patch up its ties with others,” according to The Times of Israel. But a senior Foreign Ministry official also said, ““In the places where international public opinion is made, among the members of the UN Security Council… in the U.S., the entire American political realm, members of Congress, in the Administration, and in Europe, we are seeing definite movement toward far greater echoing of Israel’s messages.”
Seeing this much international support for Israel is a great encouragement to supporters of the nation like us. Certainly some anti-Israel European capitals haven’t changed their tune, but Israel’s voice of defense is no longer being dismissed as flippantly as it often has been. And that’s a good reason to hope for Israel’s future.
