The United Arab Emirates was among the first states to name Israel as responsible for the bombing of a Gaza hospital as the threat of Iranian action looms larger.
Iran has been fiercely critical of states such as the UAE and Bahrain for normalizing relations with Israel, in the wake of the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020 and the UAE has trodden a fine line to keep the balance between its new and old friends.
The UAE reinstated diplomatic relations with Iran last year, following tensions due to the war in Yemen where Iran’s proxy, the Houthis, was at war with the UAE and Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
The fine line the country, seen as the Middle East’s Switzerland, walks became was no less apparent as its foreign ministry announced just hours after the attack on the Al Ali Baptist Hospital in Gaza announced its “strong condemnation” of the attack, naming Israel as the perpetrator.
Meanwhile, in Tehran, protests were being prepared with the regime’s leaders organizing free food and drink for those coming to the streets in support of Gaza and “down with Israel”, an easy sell while the people of Iran are being pushed more rapidly below the poverty line.
The regime grows each day more vocal about pulling the cord on unleashing a region wide war with its proxies on each side of Israel, in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.
Fanning the unrest President Ebrahim Raisi said: “The flames of US-Israeli bombs dropped tonight on innocent Palestinians being treated for injuries in Gaza's hospital will soon engulf the Zionists. No free human being’s silence is permissible in the face of such a war crime. Iran, as a part of the Islamic nation, is grieving.”
Israel claims the tragedy was a misfired rocket from Gaza-based Islamic Jihad, the resulting tragedy due to the hospital having been hiding massive amounts of munitions and explosives.
Earlier this week, fake news spread across social networks claiming four Israelis had been murdered in a terror attack in Dubai. The emirate’s media office came out with an unprecedentedly fast denial of the incident calling it fake news, a crime in the Persian Gulf state.
With hundreds of thousands of Israeli tourists flooding into the country since the diplomatic ties opened and trade (excluding software) between Israel and the UAE in the first eight months of 2023, reaching $2.112 billion, up from $1.623 billion in 2022, there is a lot at stake.
The fake news which had already gone globally viral suggested the hand of Iranian cyber tactics to destabilize the country’s growing Israel and Jewish ties. Earlier this year, Abu Dhabi opened the region’s first synagogue in over 100 years at the Abrahamic House, a complex housing a mosque, church and synagogue side by side in a symbol of the togetherness of the region’s ancient religions.
Commentators have decried the Arab world’s silence over the atrocities caused by Hamas’ invasion of Israel on October 7, when the terror group massacred hundreds of civilians and took at least 200 more hostage.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain, research fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, said: “Had Arab governments and protesters shown similar outrage against Hamas and demanded its end after October 7, I don't think Israel would have gone to war in the first place.”
Others saw through the potential political gain the hospital attack would garner, succeeding in Jordan’s canceling of meetings with President Joe Biden. Shahram Kholdi, a Middle East specialist, wrote: “Islamic Jihad Of Palestine’s long record of crimes makes them the prime suspect in the rocket attack on Gaza Baptist Hospital with the clear intention of sabotaging [the] Amman Summit between Biden and Arab leaders.” The summit was supposed to unite the leaders of the UAE, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt.
Furthermore, alongside providing tens of millions in aid to Gaza during the ongoing conflict, the UAE Red Crescent has utilized its substantial resources, which represent the country's most influential diplomatic asset. This organization has established 26 donation centers, and volunteers have joined in large numbers, underlining the continued surge of solidarity with the Palestinian cause, even in the face of the agreements.
Even at the level of the country’s royals, the allegiance is clear, putting the UAE in a challenging position each time conflict breaks out between Israel and the enemies on its borders.
Olympian Meytha Al Maktoum, part of the Dubai ruling family, has been actively supporting Gaza on social media this week, while in Sharjah, the wife of its ruler, Sheikha Jawaher Al Qassimi, has also been actively sharing posts in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. There has been no condemnation of terror group Hamas.