Fox News panel: Rosenberg discusses Abraham Accords and Saudi pathway to peace with Israel
Watch video with Rosenberg; Kiron Skinner, former senior adviser to the secretary of state, and Dallas' First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress
In a panel discussion with Shannon Bream on Fox News, All Israel News Editor-in-Chief Joel C. Rosenberg said witnessing the peace deal between Israel with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain was "was deeply moving for me personally.”
"For me to sit there, on the lawn - as a novelist, as a Middle East analyst, starting this new website All Israel News, but also having two sons who have served in the Israeli army - I want this peace," Rosenberg said. "And to see two Arab leaders and the prime minister of Israel and the president of the United States making these deals, it was deeply moving to me personally.”
Rosenberg also lauded U.S. President Donald Trump for brokering these deals. Critics have said the deals mean little since these countries were not at war with Israel and have already had commerce agreements.
“If you can’t get credit for making the first Arab-Israeli peace deals - and two of them I might add - in 25 years I don’t know what you get credit for," Rosenberg remarked.
"Look for me it was an emotional moment for several reasons. One, as you know Shannon because we’ve discussed it, I was with the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates two years ago in the palace for two hours with an Evangelical delegation that I brought there at his request. And I said, ‘We as evangelicals have been praying for the peace of Jerusalem for decades and we’re looking for the next Arab leader ready and willing and courageous just to have a vision to have peace.' And he leaned forward and he said, 'Joel I’m ready.' We were stunned, and for the next two hours we discussed the pathway forward, but that was an off the record conversation at the time."
Kiron Skinner, former senior adviser to the secretary of state, called this a "complete reordering of the Middle East." Skinner said despite prior commerce arrangements, to "codify" these agreements puts Iran on notice and sends a signal to the Palestinians that their "interests are tied to the Arab future, one in which Israel has a place and in which the United States will serve as a key broker of peace in the Middle East."
"This is a very different world tonight," she said.
Rosenberg added that Oman could be the next nation to come to the table next, but the "big prize would be Saudi Arabia." Much of the Arab world is likely waiting to see reactions to yesterday's signing of the Israel-UAE-Bahrain peace deals, Rosenberg said.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
