Felice Friedson walks readers through the Abraham Accords at five years—part progress report, part stress test—as veteran insider Asher Fredman weighs [1] what has endured and what must change. Brokered by President Donald Trump in 2020, the accords unlocked a web of cooperation that stretches from green hydrogen and precision agriculture to health tech, space projects, and even women’s rugby. The numbers tell a story of momentum: between 2021 and 2024, trade between Israel and its Abraham Accords partners—along with Egypt and Jordan—rose by 127%, and nearly 50 intergovernmental agreements were signed, including a free trade pact with the United Arab Emirates.
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The past two years have been brutal, and the accords have felt that pressure. Fredman says flights kept moving between Israel and the UAE, even as Gulf delegations thinned and public opinion soured. After Israel’s strike in Doha, the UAE summoned Israel’s envoy and barred Israel from an air show—signals that patience is finite—yet ties held. Fredman argues that Gulf capitals view peace as a strategic choice, while Israel views eliminating Hamas leadership as essential for stability; that gap, he says, needs bridging.
Looking forward, he points to a restart playbook: push multilateral projects such as the India–Middle East–Europe Corridor, I2U2, and regional initiatives in artificial intelligence; upgrade Israeli border crossings to plug into trade corridors; and rebuild people-to-people links. He also names the next potential wave—Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Mauritania, the Maldives, Comoros, and Oman—while warning that regional media and war fatigue weigh heavily. The United States still matters, he says, and renewed American investment in the architecture of normalization would serve US interests as well as regional stability. For the full interview and the granular trade and policy details behind these claims, read Felice Friedson’s complete piece [1].