(New York Times) Isabel Kershner - More than two dozen Israeli high-tech executives turned up in Dubai recently, six weeks after the Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements to normalize relations with Israel and open up embassies. The rancor of more than seven decades of Arab-Israeli conflict seemed to melt away in a matter of days. Emirati investor Mohamed Mandeel, CEO of Abu Dhabi's Royal Strategic Partners group, said he felt a sense of kinship with the Israelis. He recounted how he had taken a DNA test and found a match for his rare Babylonian gene in Tel Aviv. "If we set aside the religious ideologies and 70 years fueled by conflict, wars and the media, we end up with human beings," he said. "We share the same food, the same DNA, the same look," and he described the Israelis as "cousins." The Israelis said the encounter felt like a dream come true, unlike any they had experienced in the Arab world before, and different from Israel's decades-old "cold peace" with Egypt and Jordan.
2020-11-09 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive