Jewish community of UAE: With treaty, ‘our prayers have been answered’

The Jewish community of the United Arab Emirates says today’s peace treaty with Israel could have a “transformative effect” on Muslim-Jewish cooperation across the Middle East.

“We’ve been praying for this day for years, and today, those prayers have been answered. This moment will forever redefine life in the Middle East,” says Ross Kriel, the president of the Jewish Council of the Emirates, says.

“The news that Bahrain followed thereafter gives us even greater hope for the future of a peaceful, welcoming, and inspired Middle East –– one in which this type of interfaith harmony is not the exception, but the norm.”

Kriel is representing his congregation at the White House ceremony together with its chief rabbi, New York-based Yehuda Sarna.

“What distinguishes Abraham –– in the Torah, the Bible and the Quran –– is not that he was the first to make a covenant with God, but that he was the first to establish peace agreements with others,” Sarna says, referring to name of the agreement to be signed today.

“Bearing his name, the Abraham Accords honor that legacy of peace by opening a new chapter of coexistence.”

— Raphael Ahren