What exactly does sovereignty entail, and why is everyone so passionate about it?
A
re the United Arab Emirates (UAE) bluffing when they say an Israeli declaration of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria is a “red line” that would cause them to reconsider their participation in the Abraham Accords?
Even if they’re serious, how much weight should Israel give to the UAE, when compared with the economic and security benefits sovereignty could bring to the more than 700,000 Jews who live over the “Green Line”?
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu apparently can’t answer that question, or doesn’t want to yet, as he has called a timeout, temporarily removing the sovereignty proposal from a cabinet meeting agenda, despite vigorous counter-pressure from Likud and Religious Zionist cabinet members to approve it.
Considering that nearly everything Israel does agitates one nation or another, and sometimes many at once, Netanyahu must constantly juggle domestic and foreign policy concerns.
However, by seeming to bend to UAE pressure, Israel has again acted defensively rather than assertively — a move that is likely to attract more pressure from other Arab and Muslim nations considering joining the Abraham Accords.
What could Netanyahu have said to the UAE?
He could have pointed to Clause 2 of the treaty signed on September 15, 2020, which clearly states that the two countries “shall recognize and respect each other’s sovereignty and right to live in peace and security.”
The two-page treaty is more of a diplomatic wish list for the future of the Israel-UAE relationship, but as is often the case, Israel’s treaties with the Arab world veer down one-way streets. Over the past five years, Israel has significantly contributed to the UAE’s security and tourism industry, with little reciprocation.
The treaty calls for establishing people-to-people programs focused on tourism, culture, and sports. PBS News reported that in the first two years after the treaty was signed, while more than 500,000 Israelis flocked to the UAE, only 1,600 UAE citizens came to Israel.
It’s not as if Israel lacks mosques to pray in.
Elizabeth Dent, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, highlighted military cooperation like joint naval exercises in the Red Sea and air force drills in Greece this year, despite Israel’s war in Gaza. The UAE is also considering buying Elbit’s Hermes 900 UAV system for reconnaissance, surveillance, communications, and electronic warfare.
“In 2024 alone, signatories of the accords [including Bahrain and Morocco] accounted for 12 percent of Israel’s nearly $15 billion in arms exports,” Dent wrote.
It would seem that the UAE has as much, or more, to lose by downgrading relations with Israel.
Rising Up in Class
What exactly does sovereignty entail, and why is everyone so passionate about it?
The Knesset voted 71-13 on July 23 for a nonbinding declaration asking the government, as soon as possible, “to apply sovereignty — Israeli law, jurisdiction, and administration, to all expanses of Jewish settlement, including all its forms, in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley.”
This is the same, exact language the Knesset used in 1967 to incorporate the East Jerusalem neighborhoods it captured from Jordan and in 1981 to formalize Israeli control over the Golan Heights.
While all Jews living in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley are Israeli citizens, they do not have all the same rights as those living west of the Green Line. After Israel captured these lands in 1967, the government granted authority to a military governor to administer the territories, which added extra layers of bureaucracy to a country already suffocating in red tape.
Registering property purchases and transferring ownership after a sale is more complicated and confusing. A division of the Ministry of Defense often has the final say on housing expansion and the delivery of essential services, and sometimes the decision-makers are “anti-settlement,” creating more bureaucratic obstacles.
When we bought our first apartment in Beitar Illit in 1996, a clause in the contract clearly stated that we had to follow any orders issued by the military governor, which many assumed included a provision that, if they ever ordered an evacuation — like what happened in Gush Katif in 2005 — we were legally bound to comply.
A declaration of sovereignty would free residents from military rule and make them equal to first-class citizens with all the rights that a resident of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem has.
Red Light, Green Light
Even if the Ministry of Defense relinquishes civilian control over Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan River Valley settlements, the IDF will stay just as busy as it was before. One of the reasons the government directed the IDF to seize and hold outposts in Lebanon and Syria is that both countries, along with Jordan, are part of the arms smuggling route Iran established to supply arms to Iranian-supported terrorist factions that operate under Palestinian Authority protection.
Whatever Israel decides, expect a decision ahead of the UN General Assembly session in two weeks, where France, the UK, and other European nations have pledged to support the advancement of Palestinian statehood in Judea and Samaria.
A few plans are on the table, from the minimalist to the maximalist.
Israel could extend sovereignty over Israeli settlements and the roads that lead to them, or about ten percent of Judea and Samaria. Or it could tack on the Jordan River Valley and the main settlement blocs, covering about 30 percent of the territories, in line with what the first Trump administration had in mind when it released its “Deal of the Century” in 2020.
A third plan calls for Israel to apply sovereignty to all of “Area C,” which under the Oslo Accords fell under Israeli military and civilian control. Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich released a fourth plan last week, which scared everyone, as Smotrich has the ability to do, with maps showing Israel declaring sovereignty over 82 percent of the land, leaving the large Arab-populated cities in isolated cantons.
President Trump has yet to weigh in. His ambassador, Mike Huckabee, tweeted last week: “The US has never asked Israel not to apply sovereignty. I have repeatedly stated that the US respects Israel as a sovereign nation and will not tell Israel what to do.”
Huckabee’s double negative in his first sentence sparked some confusion, especially when translated into Hebrew, although it’s not clear that you can imply the positive from the negative.
As a sovereign nation, Israel has to decide. The longer it sits in traffic and waits for the light to turn green, the greater the chance it has of remaining red.
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1078)
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