White House senior adviser Jared Kushner on Tuesday led a delegation from Israel to Morocco on the first known direct flight since the two countries agreed to establish full diplomatic ties earlier this month as part of a series of US-brokered normalization accords with Arab countries.
Kushner has overseen the diplomatic push that saw the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco normalize relations with Israel in historic agreements.
As part of the deal, Morocco, which is home to a small, centuries-old Jewish community and has long welcomed Israeli tourists, secured US recognition of its 1975 annexation of the disputed region of Western Sahara, which is not recognized by the UN.
Photo: Reuters
Joining Kushner was the head of Israel’s delegation, National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat.
Both men met with Moroccan King Mohammed VI and other top officials.
Speaking to reporters, Kushner described the meetings as “enormously productive.”
“Morocco and Israel are making huge strides on their commitments to resume full diplomatic relations, promote economic cooperation and to reopen their liaison offices very quickly,” he said.
Kushner also defended the US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara, saying it was “rejecting the failed status quo, which benefits no one.”
He called on both sides to work with the UN in implementing a proposal to give the people of the territory broad autonomy.
“Genuine autonomy is the only feasible option, but it will take work,” Kushner said.
The delegations signed a joint declaration pledging to quickly begin direct flights, promote economic cooperation, reopen liaison offices and move toward “full diplomatic, peaceful and friendly relations.”
US International Development and Finance Corp chief executive Adam Boehler said he expected the visit to yield huge trade benefits by bringing an existing relationship out into the open.
“We’ve been doing a lot of legwork looking at investment in Morocco,” Boehler said. “They’re a gateway to Africa, they’ve been a great ally to the United States, they have a great investment climate. So I think you’re going to see obviously a multibillion-dollar memorandum coming out of this, but also some individual investments announced.”
Before Israel’s establishment in 1948, Morocco was home to a large Jewish population, many of whose ancestors migrated to North Africa from Spain and Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition.
Today, hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews trace their lineage to Morocco, and a small community of Jews, estimated at several thousand people, continues to live there.
During the 1990s, Israel and Morocco established low-level diplomatic relations, but Morocco closed its representative office in Tel Aviv after the eruption of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000.
Even so, the two countries have maintained good behind-the-scenes contacts, and 30,000 to 50,000 Israelis continue to visit Morocco each year.
On the tarmac in Israel, Kushner said that he hopes the delegation’s visit will “pave the way for another warm peace between Israel and Morocco,” pointing to the emerging ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Ben-Shabbat, whose family immigrated to Israel from Morocco, said before takeoff that “history is being written before our eyes.”
Israelis of all backgrounds have celebrated the normalization accords after decades in which their country was shunned by the Arab world over its still-unresolved conflict with the Palestinians.
Saudi Arabia, a regional power with close ties to Morocco, has given its tacit support for the normalization accords and could be next.
The agreements, billed as the “Abraham Accords” after the Biblical patriarch revered by Muslims and Jews, were a major foreign policy achievement by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
The agreement with Morocco deals a major setback to those in Western Sahara who have fought for independence and want a referendum on the territory’s future.
The US decision to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara has drawn criticism from the UN as well as US allies in Africa and beyond.
Israel usually backs the UN position and has not said whether it would join the US in recognizing Moroccan control over the area.
The former Spanish colony with a population estimated at 350,000 to 500,000 is believed to have considerable offshore oil deposits and mineral resources.
The accords have also contributed to the severe isolation and weakening of the Palestinians by eroding a longstanding Arab consensus that recognition of Israel should only be given in return for concessions in the peace process.
The Trump administration has given unprecedented support to Israel by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, abandoning US opposition to West Bank settlements and recognizing Israel’s claim to the Golan Heights, which it seized from Syria in a 1967 war.
Critics say that the US recognition of Israeli control over the Golan and Moroccan control of Western Sahara undermine a bedrock principle of international law — the prohibition against seizing territory by force.
Supporters say the accords recognize the reality on the ground and seek to banish age-old enmities to the past.
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