 Hi everyone. Thank you so much for joining our Zoom today. I know it can be a lot asking everybody to come on to these conversations given the amount of time we all spend on this application but I think we can look forward to a really robust and interesting discussion on a super pertinent topic. So my name is Connor. I'm the co-president of the Towson Release Research Group which is an IGL affiliated club. I would like to thank, before we start this, the IGL for all their logistical support, especially Stacy in helping us set up this webinar. And as we move on, I'd also like to thank our panelists for taking time out of their day to join us. On August 13, 2020, the UAE and the United States agreed in a joint statement to operationalize the Abraham Accords peace agreement, treaty of peace, diplomatic relations, and full normalization between the United Arab Emirates and the state of Israel. Where in the United Arab Emirates became the third Arab country in the first since 1994 to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel. Today, we are joined by Ariella Steinreich and Ambassador Marin Rubin, two individuals with impressive backgrounds and unique perspectives on the Accords. Here discussed with us some of the most important aspects of the Accords and what the future might hold for Arab-Israeli relations and the political economy of the Middle East as a result of this historic agreement. Laila Farasach of UMass Boston was supposed to join us on this webinar today, but I was notified that she had a family emergency and unfortunately will not be able to attend today. Now move on to introducing the speakers and then we'll invite them to give opening remarks about four minutes before moving into Moderated Q&A. For all the attendees and participants, make sure to drop your questions into the Q&A function of the webinar and we'll get to those questions at the end after Moderated Q&A is finished. Ariella Steinreich is a prominent communications professional and strategic advisor in the United States and the Middle East. She's head of the Middle East Division for Steinreich Communications multinational public relations firm where she creates and implements global communications and media relations programs for leading companies and organizations. She's also a founding member of the UAE Israel Business Council and a founding member of the Gulf Israel Women's Forum. Ariella Steinreich has a long record of work in strategic media counseling, media training, communications, strategic strategy development, social media strategy, crisis communications, issues management, financial communications and corporate social responsibility. She serves on the boards of several nonprofits and is active in a range of cultural, educational and social impact initiatives in addition to her professional work. Ambassador Marin Rubin is a Consul General of Israel to New England. He has a diplomatic career spending over three decades doing what she had served in various positions including roles at the Israeli embassies in Chile and Mexico and his ambassador to Paraguay, Bolivia and Colombia. Ambassador Rubin served as Israel's ambassador to the UN between 2010 and 2011 as well as Israel's chief of state protocol from 2015 to 2020. In this post he was the go-to foreign ministry official responsible for diplomats and visiting world dignitaries. At the end of his tenure he was behind the scenes when leaders from the United Arab Emirates made a historic visit to Israel as part of the Abraham Accords in 2020. Ambassador Rubin was born in South Africa in 1961 and immigrated to Israel from the UK in 1974 where he studied diplomacy and international relations at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. During his military service Ambassador Rubin was an air traffic controller in the Israeli Air Force. Ms. Steinreich I now invite you to make your opening remarks and then followed by Ambassador Rubin. Well thank you all for having me today. It's really wonderful to speak with you. I'm privileged to speak with many groups around the world about the Abraham Accords and I think what makes me most excited is to speak with college students and alumni who really this is the Accords are made for you. The Accords were created now but it's to create a better future for all of us including the future generation of business leaders, government officials and the like. So it's really my privilege to be here today. I think that the Abraham Accords are different than any other piece of Accords we've seen so far that Israel has with its Arab neighbors. It's really built on warm peace. I can tell you I've been to the UAE and to Bahrain before the Accords and afterwards and there's such a different vibe in the streets. I mean you're seeing, you know, it's there for Hanukkah and you saw Emiratis singing Hanukkah songs and lighting the menorah. I was just there for Purim in Bahrain and we had local Bahrainis coming and baking homentation. It's a whole new world and it's really really exciting to be part of and I think that the possibilities are endless. You know some of the ways we're already seeing a lot of these MOUs being signed and everything from healthcare to education. You know we have some universities that are now maybe partnering together to FinTech and kind of everything in between and so it's a very exciting time in that respect and I guess the big question that I always get is you know I do a lot of work with other GCC countries and where do they stand and are they next and the reality is that there's a domino effect at play here. You know once you have the first, once you have the second, yeah others do want to come to the table and it's a process but we'll get there and it's a really, it's very exciting in that respect so I thank you for these you know a few moments but it's really my, I'd love to give the time to the ambassador you know who plays a much more pivotal role so I'll turn to him. Thank you very much Ariella and I prefer to be called Mehron, titles as I like to say come and go and one ends up being yourself in the end so I think that that's the most important, the important part. I can only agree with you I think the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements, I don't know whether it's an actual peace agreement because I don't remember us really being at war with Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates but we definitely would call it a normalization agreement and agreements. I think it's very, very difficult to underestimate how important they are and where it takes the Middle East I think and not only the Middle East, I think the Middle East, North Africa and the whole area. First and foremost it's wonderful to be with you today, I'm relatively new, I arrived on Thanksgiving and went immediately into quarantine and so yes I've been here for some three months and working on Zoom sometimes is a little bit difficult because I very much have preferred to be with you in person, I hope that that will happen soon, I had to fly to Israel about two weeks ago and so I immediately got vaccinated the moment I got there which was as you have probably been reading in the press, the rollout is quite impressive but going back to of course the Abraham Accords, the Abraham Accords have focused once again the world on what is going on in the Middle East. I think that it has shaken up the Middle East and made the movement or future movement on what is going on in the Middle East as something I think it's the first time really as was mentioned in in practically 30 years that we've seen such an advancement in the relationship between Israel and its neighbors and Israel and the region and I think that what we're going to see as was mentioned by Ariela is that we're going to be moving into a different phase of the conflict though I don't know whether I'd like to call it a conflict it's maybe it's something it's something else on top of that of course one is seeing maybe what I think the most one of the more important points is that things are being done above board whereas previously there were a lot of things that were said behind the scenes and never actually focused on and pointed towards but the coming together of Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Bahrain, Israel and Sudan, Israel and Morocco on top of the peace agreements and the diplomatic relations that we do have both with Egypt and Jordan is I think going to force our neighbors the Palestinians whether they like it or not to maybe think slightly differently about how to go about dealing with us and the impasse that we've had for so long might even be shaken up and we might be moving towards another period I think a very good period and I hope a very peaceful period for the region so I think with that I will start and please Conor I think you are mediating yeah so I'm actually going to turn it over to my colleague and friend Zach now he will begin moderated Q&A with you guys thank you so much for joining us today Ambassador Marron I'd like to start with you so you mentioned how the accord kind of came together in your eyes and how things were said behind the scenes for a few years leading up to this so I'd love for you to talk about how it came about in like from your perspective in the Israeli Foreign Service and what was happening behind the scenes in Israel leading up to it well as as was mentioned and as I noted beforehand there's always been quite a lot of activity between Israel and its Arab neighbors I mean you can see that even in the before the independence of the state of Israel in 1948 our leaders then also went and spoke to the leadership in the in the Middle East and then of course even when we were officially at war with Jordan we had members of the cabinet moving across and being in contact with people in Jordan and I think that there is this behind-the-scenes talk that has gone on for quite some time I even mentioned that I personally had been in the Emirates some 14-15 years ago on a trip that was requested by the United Arab Emirates so I think that and also as ambassadors of the United Nations whereby we actually found that it was even though we were chastised in the United Nations a lot of the countries came to us and requested cooperation or focusing in so when we go to the Abraham Accords this is something that had without the I think without the United States focus on on the Accords and looking for a different way to to move forward in the Middle East I don't know whether we would have had such a breakout in August of last year but at the same time there has been a steady stream of connections between Israel and the quite a lot of countries in the Middle East but with the the help and the and the pushing of the United States diplomacy I think what we've seen is first and foremost putting a pen to paper and having an official agreement and the meetings that have taken place there's we often don't always know but I think that Israel and quite a lot of the Sunni Muslim states have an agenda that definitely sees eye to eye on quite a few subjects and and what is going on in the in the Middle East I think is something that is maybe we are the Accords have put onto the table a sort of new alliance I would like to say of Israel filling in a position in the Middle East which maybe it should have been doing many years ago and that is to be part and parcel of the Middle East and I think that this is something that is really very very impressive delegations and talks were of course begun by the United States to try and get the the Accords into into focus there was of course the hesitancy of one country not being not wanting to be the only country to to sign an agreement with with Israel and so the necessity to bring other countries on board and I think that this is also important because there of course is criticism from certain areas in the Middle East as to the the Accords and so one needed quite a strong backing to to to sign and to make sure that these these Accords came to fruition so all in all I think it's a it's a very it's a it's a joint venture it's a joint effort and and we really have to thank here the diplomacy of the United States for moving things forward and arriving at the Accords first and foremost with the United Arab Emirates and then with Bahrain and this was then as you know followed by the other Accords of with Sudan and finally with with Morocco though if I may it may diverge a little bit on that as the chief of state protocol of the state of Israel Morocco actually did have an office in Israel some two decades ago not only an office but also a house in Savion which was meant to be for the head of that office and believe it or not the Moroccans have been paying municipal taxes for both the their offices in Tel Aviv and their house in Savion for the last 20 years and the payment actually comes from a bank account in the Gaza Strip but that's just a little anecdote that that is quite interesting and thank you very much I'd like to move to Ariela and similar question I know you're involved commercially with especially Jewish businesses in the Gulf countries before prior to the Accords so what was business like prior to the Accords and how how new avenues of cultural and commercial investment opened up after the Accords so I think there was a big misconception Jews were always able to do business in the Gulf that's still not an issue for the countries who are not part of the Abraham Accords it just you know it's Israelis where there was kind of a block and I think what we're seeing is that the Accords have made Jews in the Western world some of them more comfortable now doing business but to your point I mean I've been working with them for for the last six years doing stuff there it's it's no secret that you know Israel and Dubai alone in just the you know the second half of the year right after the Accords it brought in $272 million worth of business I think it's almost every day that you read of a new MOU we just did for one of our clients the first ever green tech MOU that's assigned between the two of them and it's really every day we got a university that's that did one we have another one that's about to come up it's not just in kind of the the financial services base or the tech space I mean you're seeing real collaboration across all sectors I I had a meeting uh while while I was overseas a couple weeks ago um with uh with one of the big hospitals there who asked for for some thoughts in terms of who would be an appropriate partner for them in terms of Israeli hospitals this this is what you're seeing your it's what's neat to observe is there's a new friendship that's that's growing and people need some guidance right like who is the appropriate fit for me in a certain area and there's real networks that are coming to play so the UA Israel Business Council for example was created actually in the summer before there were the Accords the two co-founders of the council um one is a big Israeli hedge fund guy the other one's actually the the deputy mayor of Jerusalem they started this together because they already observed this pattern that there was a lot of business going on and then they brought on some of us who were involved in that um and and to this day there's there's more than 3 000 members it's a 50 50 split which is really incredible you know you read a lot about the Accords on the Israel side um but to be able to say that it's a 50 50 split with Emirati participation as well as a big deal and we also started the Gulf Israel Women's Council which is not just UA specific we have women from all different Gulf countries including some who are not part of the Accords um who really want to foster um you know friendships that will then become business relationships um you know as a result of this and I think if if you haven't already seen it it's worth looking it up there's a gentleman in the UAE he's a big real estate developer his name is Muhammad Alibar he owns emart properties um emars is the big the big real estate folks out there and he put out this video it was from one of the interviews that he did and he said don't come here looking for business come here and introduce me to your mother I want to introduce you to my mother that's that's really how business gets done on the outside of the world it's about relationships and once there's trust that's built then it becomes a commercial business and so people like myself who have been there for a decade you know people now are looking at us saying oh I think these relationships they have but it was a decade of building that and I think it's it's something we say all the time to our Israeli clients who are looking to enter the market that you know you have to kind of go at their pace you can't you can't out rush this and so uh some of those are those are some of the trends we're seeing and just to go off of that last point um were there any cultural challenges that were faced and trying to bring together Israeli clients a lot of them um and and and in all due respect to to everybody on the phone um I will say this the biggest one that we see is is ways of working that's what you'd call it in the business world right um it's Israelis there's like a joke that there's no Hebrew word for let's wait and see there is you can actually translate it but Israelis by nature are much more their go-getters they want to do things now now now Israel and and and it works it works even when they work with the western worlds but in the gulf this is not just the Emirates in the gulf in general it's a very different attitude things are a little bit slower pace and if you try to rush them they think you're trying to pull one over on them so we've had a lot of what I refer to often as bull in a china shop moment you've probably heard that analogy right like um we have a lot of those work where somebody will come to us in Israeli you know company and they'll say we tried to do such and such and the door got closed in our face and we'll say well what happened and then you know even though we're a PR firm we do communications obviously and one of the things that we say to them is that's a communications challenge so let's you know let's kind of do that together we've we've actually been doing some training sessions for people like small businesses councils have brought us in to do that even different divisions of government in terms of how do you work with one another um those are those are kind of the the big things that are coming up but there are other things too I mean you know you've probably all read about you know Hanukkah this year like in December time there was anywhere between 50 to 70 000 Israelis who visited Dubai and it was a very different Dubai I mean it was they didn't all come kind of doing their homework in terms of what what to do and so many times you know we've been called saying can you help can you assist or you know we're about to send a delegation can you kind of do a training with them of what to expect but those are a lot of the things that we're seeing and by the way conversely we just haven't yet seen the same like level of of tourism coming from the Gulf but they'll get there once Israel opens the borders there's a lot of interest but I have a lot of friends who are part of that big delegation you might have seen the Bahrainis and the Emiratis who visited Israel and they lit the menorah at the western wall you might have seen that it was through this organization in Sharaka and they're very good friends of mine and I think what was neat is to hear from them their perspective about what were some of the the cultural similarities and differences but no matter our differences what's so beautiful about this newfound relationship is both sides really do want to make it work so you don't see people saying you know I'm giving up you just you don't see that that's not part of the rhetoric which is very exciting. If I may may I just continue on from what Ariela said first and foremost yes there is a quite a different way of focusing on how to do business and one can see that of course when it comes to Israelis who have a tendency to be more shoot off the hip as they say as opposed to the Gulf culture and the Arab culture which is slower get to know you let's see what's going on but there is a difference and it was mentioned previously by Ariela that it is more a people to people accord if we compare it to what came in on with the Egyptians and the Jordanians where it was more a leadership down a top down sort of focus to normalization what seems to be doing and seems to be coming about with especially with the Emirates and to a lesser extent with Bahrain and more on the tourism side with Morocco this people to people focus is what is so important I also think that might that might have been one of the it's it's a my personal theory that that might have been one of the problems that we had when we started with the peace process in the 1990s that it wasn't it wasn't a bottom up approach and yes it was more a top down approach and I think that the fact that as was mentioned so many Israeli tourists I mean 130,000 Israelis haven't already visited the the UAE and that was before we closed our borders and our airports to to travel and that was about two months ago and so the the amount of people visiting is actually absolutely staggering and and why I think we focus in on the United Arab Emirates and Israel because I think they are actually two countries that are very similar they are two countries that are focused both in the top of the technology technological advances in the world and not only in the Middle East and you can see that by the rollout in both of the countries both Israel and the United Arab Emirates and the rollout of the vaccines have have been leading the world but there have been some very interesting things like 50 stake in Beytar Jerusalem soccer club was actually sold to an Emirati which is a very interesting one because the Beytar Jerusalem soccer club has a rather infamous name for for not really allowing too much intercollaboration or cooperation between Jews and Arabs but this I think is a definite wake-up call for for some Israelis and I think that people are really seeing this normalization accord as a new start to what is going on in the in the Middle East and I think that this is really something that is is very good to see yeah you brought up a good point in terms of the bottom-up approach I often get asked the question of you know when how did how do people know that this was the time the truth is is that leaders can always make decisions but it's up to the people about how warmly they're embraced and I think what you're seeing here is actually Emirates and Israelis and Bahrainis too were ready for this already because if they weren't ready if it wasn't part of the essence of their societies then their leaders could have done this but we would not see the collaboration that we're seeing today in both business social you know etc so it speaks also to the people because if they if they weren't ready for it it doesn't matter that that this would have happened and I think to your point earlier you know there's examples of Jordan Egypt where people weren't ready and you cannot compare the you know the relationships where they are today thank you very much that was definitely a question ahead of why this happened now so thank you for answering that um Marilyn would you like to touch on that and just the significance of it happening now as opposed to five years ago 10 years ago um well I I think it's it's something that that happens all over the world when is it the right time is it ever the right time and and what conjunction or what brings about the the meeting of of ideas and the meeting of of peoples and then and then and reaching an accord I think that this is something that I don't know whether there ever is the correct time but as Ariela said I think that people are wanting change we're a decade after the so-called Arab spring and we are in a position whereby I think people are a little bit sick and tired of the stagnation that has been going on in the Middle East I think people have realized that there are and have been realignments throughout the Middle East and that real real politic as as they call it is maybe starting to to push in and to and and to move things move things forward as as I mentioned beforehand we had been speaking behind the scenes with a lot of our neighbors I think that Israel is in a position now in the in the third decade of the of the 21st century to actually be a country that is recognized for its technological and medical and advances the fact that there are and we've been known for our agricultural advances in the past and I think that we have a lot to offer one another it's not only it's not only a one-way street I think it's a definite two-way streets and and and that I think is what is so important I think over the years I think whereas beforehand when Israel maybe talked about things what we could move forward and how we could move forward not everybody saw it as a two-way street and I think that this is the major change that we're seeing now in in the Middle East I think that the time has it's sort of has the time has gelled or the or the situation has has come about that people are now willing to to move forward also you know the some of the countries in the Middle East are beginning to understand that oil something for for longer that oil is not going to be there for forever and that they've got to refocus their economy their society on a different on a different footing on a different level and so this I think is where Israel can come in Israel is close Israel is next door Israel has the ability I mean it's not for for a long time people from all over the Arab world without diplomatic relations have come to Israel for medical services this is nothing new at the moment and and people and the Middle East have seen the advances that exist in Israel and I think we at long last are learning to put out our hand and to show the countries in the region how important we see it I mean we we have longed to be part of the Middle East that's where we are and that's where we have to focus we have been we've had to have a sort of island mentality over the decades because we were not always allowed to to be in direct contact or work economically with the the countries in the in the neighborhood but I think that this is about to change as well I think that the change and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and these normalization agreements will also bring out a change of focus in the countries that we already have agreements with both in Egypt and in in Jordan because I don't think they want to be left behind and I think I would add to that and I did peek at some of the questions and in the in the group I think it will also bring about an advance an advancement with with the Palestinians and why do I say that because it is the Palestinians who have been our neighbors for 70 years or 73 years and longer actually for for over a century and they actually know us better than anybody else in the in the in the region some of the things about us they don't particularly like but other things they actually even copy us even though they won't always say that but but the Palestinians could definitely be a bridge and I think that more and more people in Palestinian society are also beginning to understand that their close proximity in fact it's not even a close proximity we live more than with neighbors we're we're intertwined in the neighborhood whether we like it or not and so I think that what will come out of this why hope that will come out of this is that the the focus of the Palestinians will start to change as well when they realize that their brothers and their brethren in the Arab world are beginning to move towards maybe where they should they should have been some decades ago but they can still be there I mean they they know Israeli technology they know Israeli people they speak Hebrew a vast majority of them so they can definitely be that bridge and let's hope that this is where things are going to they're going to go in in the future but the Palestinian leadership has to also change some of some of its rhetoric that they use I think that if you look at Israeli history we have definitely moved when when the rhetoric has been changed we have been very forthcoming both with Egypt and with Jordan over the decades when they have put out their hand in peace and I think that this is is something that just might be or might bring about an opening also on on the other level because the Palestinians are also of course very well supported by especially the Gulf countries and and I think that this is is something that will definitely manage or I hope will manage to to move things forward sorry sorry I stole one of the questions that was asked there well if I can add to that I think one of the elements here which impacts both the Palestinians as well the Middle East in general is there's real economic opportunity here so you know at the end of the day when we're coming out of COVID the the entire world was financially and economically impacted by COVID what better time than to reopen markets and say on top of that now you have access to new markets so for Emiratis they now have access to Israel for Bahrain now they have access to you know to Israel but Israel now has access to four markets which is pretty incredible right so I think when you when you know when you talk about some of the challenges that that the Palestinians face a lot of it goes back to economics and so if they're if they're cousins okay are now working with the Israelis and there's going to be um businesses that are developed as a result they will probably feel more comfortable working for those businesses which in turn will create more economic opportunities and when there's more economic opportunities they tend people in general doesn't matter your race or ethnicity you tend to be happier people and so they'll probably be better you know better or or more interested let's say in coming and coming to the table once they see that this will actually benefit them and in a tangible way and I think that that's also part of the answer in terms of you know people always say who's next and you know how far is the you know are these accords going to extend the reality is is we're living in a day and age where everybody needs to bend together to come up with a solution to COVID and everybody has to come together and figure out how we rehabilitate our economies and what we're seeing here is that this does seem to be part of the secret sauce doing both because when Israel partnered with the Emirates to bring you guys probably remember this they brought those two uh Etihad flights right of aid for the for the Palestinians unfortunately they did reject those two planes but the point is they worked together and that was before the accords and now we're seeing the economic benefits in terms of business and again like I said Dubai alone not even all of the Emirates and and you know I always say the the Emirates the United Arab Emirates it's like the United States of America there are multiple Emirates like there are multiple states and so just the numbers alone from Dubai and Israel being 272 million and that was just between you know when the accords were signed in in September through the end of the year think about that's basically a quarter a little bit more think about what that could be over the course of a full year for all of the Emirates and then how it now will um will will kind of metastasize throughout all of these countries and I think it's an amazing opportunity and it speaks to everybody. Yeah so we briefly touched on um COVID and effect on Palestine and as Marilyn mentioned earlier Israel has received international praise for its excellent vaccine response already over 54 percent of its population has been vaccinated however um they have taken a pretty slow response with Palestinians um only certain Palestinians with work visas have been vaccinated by the Israeli government and just yesterday Palestine received 40 000 doses from the UAE. Does Israel have a duty to vaccinate Palestinian people and how does this action by the UAE affect Israeli citizens? Marilyn if you'd like to start. Well it's a it's a two-pronged question and I would say that Israel is in a situation of damned if you do and damned if you don't and I'll try and explain to to you why. First and foremost in the Oslo Accords it specifically stipulates that the Palestinian Authority has control of the health of the Palestinians living in both Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip or the West Bank and the Gaza Strip whatever you'd like to call it and they are in charge of their health system. Now in the beginning the Palestinian Authority said they do not want Israeli involvement and they joined the accords that were set up by the World Health Organization and the United Nations in signing up for vaccinations that were were about to were going to be given out or disseminated by by the other countries or by or by the international organization sorry. Then of course some very interesting people around the world started saying oh well you know Israel as the occupying power has to make sure that the health of the Palestinian people is is brought on par with that of of what is going on in Israel. Now you know it's not always so so easy to to be involved in a system that you are not controlling and that you don't deal with daily. First and foremost Israel is dealing with its population which includes everybody in its population and the focus is such that up till now your numbers have to be up to a little bit Zach it's now more than 60 percent of of Israel's population of over 16 year olds who have received two vaccinations. We have also as you rightly mentioned started vaccinating the well we've offered the vaccinations because we're not forcing anybody to to receive the vaccination but of the 110 to 120,000 Palestinians that work in Israel daily have been offered the ability to get the the vaccinations and there is a campaign ongoing campaign at the moment to do so. We have also been allowing in the vaccinations of course from from other countries and and the few countries that have been giving vaccinations so I think that we are seeing more and more Palestinians who are being vaccinated. I think there is no other country in the world that wants to see the Palestinians vaccinated quicker than us because as I said we live one next to the other and we work together or at least a large percentage of them work together with us so we definitely do want the populations that are connected with us to be vaccinated so you know it does take time all in all if I'm not mistaken some nine and a half million vaccinations have already been given out to to the Israeli population and I presume that once once this has we have reached herd immunity there will be a little bit more vaccinations to go to go around and even for our neighbors but this is a political decision and as you know we are going into another round of elections our fourth elections on the 23rd of March and so you know sometimes bureaucratic decisions take a little bit longer to move forward but but I definitely think that you know vaccinating or allowing 120 000 Palestinians to be vaccinated that's 240 000 vials of the vaccine I think we can't really be faulted that much for what is going on in the Palestinian Authority because they have their own leaders and their own leaders are supposed to look after their health needs but we are there to try and help and move things along of course and I hope that we will be seeing herd immunity in the whole region and not only in Israel in the not too distant future. Next I'd like to move to audience Q&A so there is a question about security concerns specifically with Iran and the Shia movement associated with Iran so how important were security concerns for both countries and getting the accord signed and how do you envision the two countries will collaborate on protecting their mutual interests Ariel if you'd like to take this one first. Well it's probably more of a diplomacy question but just in terms of what I hear I think everybody recognizes that that Israel really is a strong military power and I think that everybody's excited to be in partnership with them to have each other's backs and I think that you know I think whether it's that you know it's it's funny I mean Miro mentioned that there's this thread of the oil running out there really are a few existential threats that the Gulf is facing one of which is obviously Iran which we all know the other one is the point that he made right about gas running out so I think that you know I can't tell you how high up on the list that was but I think that everybody around the world recognizes the impressive military you know power and position that Israel has and I think anybody would want to be their friend when they have a common enemy that's that's how I would answer it from an outsider's perspective but honestly it's really probably more of a diplomacy question so I'll turn it over. Okay well we we do see more eye to eye with the people on the southern shores of the Gulf than we see on those in the northern shores of the Gulf but yes there is that that joint threat that we we see about Israel and the majority of the Gulf states see Iran as a fermenter of terrorism as a power that is a very very strong regional power that is trying to get nuclear weapons and that is definitely focused on the destruction of the state of Israel that they have said openly time and time again and I think that they would like to improve or gain a lot of access and focus on their neighbors south of them as well I mean you can see Iranian involvement both in Iraq and in Syria and in Lebanon and in Yemen and it's it's not a power to be dealt lightly with and and I think that when you are living in the region with Iran it's different than being 10 or 20,000 miles away and not having to deal with them daily. They are definitely a power to be reckoned with and they are definitely trying to force their focus on the countries in the Middle East and one can understand why there would be a joint interest to focus in on some of the problems that Iran is causing in the region. So yes I think that that is one of the reasons why there is that interest in signing agreements with Israel and being in contact with Israel. There is no joint defense agreement that we have with the Gulf countries. The defense agreements that exist are actually with the United States and not with us and the military bases are from the United States. So I can't see that ever happening with Israel and that's not the way we focus and we're not I don't think there's any interest of Israel. We're to have any outside base outside of the state of Israel but I definitely think that there is a very important, there are quite a few important points that we see eye to eye on and I think that this has definitely moved things forward. We definitely see Iran as a major instigator of instability and violence and terrorism in our region and even further afield. Oriela earlier you mentioned kind of how your commercial through your commercial work you saw public opinion already moving towards peace and normalizing our relations and so one audience question is although the people of certain Middle East countries are ready for change some people like the Sudanese aren't. How Israel and Sudan go about sedating the grievances and resentment the Sudanese feel for Israel to make sure there's willingness to go forward not only from the leadership side but also the civilian one. Sure, that's a good question. I will tell you most of my experience is really more on the Gulf side but what I will tell you is this was not an overnight thing. I think sometimes people think that it's just like I don't know if they the Emirates woke up and it was April 13th they're like you know let's do something it's not how this works and I think it's really important that people understand there was a process and part of the process is actually it's a process of teaching and tolerance about different religions right. So if you take a look and in the Emirates in the 2019 they named the year of tolerance and that was the year that the Pope came which was a very big deal and when the Pope came they actually had rabbis come and speak at this conference that was associated with it and that was the year that the Emirates actually have a copy in the other room but the Emirates put out a book of all the different religions that are in the Emirates and this was all part of a process and so I think you know Bahrain is actually the the only Gulf country with its own indigenous Jewish community where really really it's a vibrant community a part of the fabric of society and I think that people have to understand it's a process first we have to teach that we have you know Muslims and Jews have things in common and then through commonality that's how friendship is built and that's how friendship you know you have to water that friendship and then it blooms into something bigger and I think that when it comes to you know country like Sudan and I'm sure you know God only know the others that are going to have similar profiles the way to do it is really through education and to show what unites us and what brings us together and then it will grow into something more and the other thing is I think what the Emirates has seen at least what I've heard from my friends were Emirates is that they also acknowledge that you know a lot of maybe their past feelings stemmed from media coverage of Israel which maybe they didn't always read the the most the most balanced media and so a lot of them you'll hear them say things like wow I didn't realize Israel does this because they had this mis these misconceptions and so my hope is that the Sudanese will will take the opportunity to kind of educate their society and their public about that all all that Israel has to offer not just them but the region in general and I think that like I said earlier there's this domino effect with the accords but I hope even outside of the accords and to tie in a little bit with my own side in terms of you know there's potential opportunity for this to also impact Jordan and Egypt I always say that there's kind of two Middle East right now there's the Middle East and then there's the new Middle East and the new Middle East is based on providing opportunities for everybody and saying let's let's knock down these barriers and let's come together and we're seeing that with some of the big players in the region Israel the UAE Bahrain Morocco and I really hope that you start to see more more countries come into that way of thinking as we have leaders that are now coming you know we have a new generation of leaders that are coming up in a lot of these countries many of whom were actually educated out in the west so they they they went to school with Jews they they've done business with Jews and there there's there's really a change that's going on I think Sudan is a little bit unique to the points that you mentioned but I think that with with good communication and with good education we can absolutely get there so we just have a couple more minutes um so if you could answer this question a little more briefly but you touched on this already a little before but do you believe that Abraham Accords will open the door to more agreements of a similar nature between Israel and other countries in the Gulf in the greater Amina region and so maybe if you can mention a couple of those 100% and it's not a question of if I think I know I know it's going to happen and I'm not saying that just I'm an optimist I've I've I've participated in conversations I think look things things went on hold they went a little bit on ice with the because of what was going on here in the US in terms of our elections right you know this was really driven you know from the Trump administration a lot of countries wanted to kind of see what was going to happen and then you know what's the impact but there's no question that it's going to happen and and I mean listen MBS you know the crown prince of Saudi Arabia has been quoted in the media as saying that he knows he needs Israel as part of his vision 2030 which is like the Saudi plan to rehabilitate their economy and to move it away from being so dependent on just oil so there's no question that it's going to happen it's it's just a question of time when is it going to happen but it will Maren if you'd like to take about 60 seconds well yes I definitely do think and I agree with Ariela that we will see more agreements I hope that we will I think the new it always takes a new administration time to to get its act together and of course this administration has to deal first and foremost with the the problems of the pandemic and so it's very understandable that they the Biden administration is focusing of course first and foremost on internal policy and it just might take a little bit more time to focus in but I think it's definitely one of the points from the previous administration that this administration the new one would definitely like to continue and I think it's it's good not only for the Middle East I think it's good for the world for the world and I think that is that is where we we would definitely like to to focus in on great thank you so much Maron and Ariela for the wonderful conversation thank you for all the attendees for coming to us today sorry to cut a little short there's just another webinar hopping on here in a few minutes but I hope everyone enjoys the sunshine in Boston wherever you are and have a great day thank you very much bye thank you all