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JUDY WOODRUFF: Returning now to the deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations, midwifed diplomatically by the Trump administration. There are many moving parts here. And our foreign affairs correspondent, Nick Schifrin, joins me now to walk us through it. So, Nick, how significant is this?
NICK SCHIFRIN: Judy, one analyst call this a seismic shift. Another analyst told me this was inevitable. But the fact is that the UAE becomes only the third country to normalize relations with Israel. Israel and the UAE had already been growing closer because of a shared enemy, Iran. But if they had been working mostly under the table over the last few years, this basically removes the table. As one senior U.S. official put it to me today, that just because this isn't maybe a big surprise doesn't make it a big deal. And the U.S. and Israeli officials hope that it is an even bigger deal because it leads to more countries normalizing relations. A senior U.S. official told me he hopes it is a domino effect. U.S. and Israeli officials have been talking to Bahrain, Oman, hoping that at least one of them, Judy, joins the UAE at a signing ceremony at the White House next month.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Nick, what changes on the ground right now in Israel and in the UAE?
NICK SCHIFRIN: The two countries will open embassies. And that means there will be an Israeli embassy across the Persian Gulf from Iran. They will sign bilateral deals over trade, technology, business. There will be Emirati investment into an Israeli vaccine on COVID. And they will be direct flights between the UAE and Israel. Israel hopes that those changes are permanent. But what is not permanent, Judy, is the deal over annexation. Bibi Netanyahu today was very specific. He said that annexation was not off the table. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman just a few minutes ago repeated that same language, saying that Israel did not have to take annexation off the table permanently, even though the Emirates today said that the annexation of occupied West Bank had been "stopped." Judy, behind the scenes, U.S. officials tell me that Jared Kushner had already been pushing Israel not to annex some of the occupied West Bank in order to make sure that today's deal wouldn't be blocked.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, finally, Nick, we see the Palestinians critical of this. What are they saying about it?
NICK SCHIFRIN: Palestinians are expressing a sense of abandonment. Emirati leaders' relationship with the Palestinian Authority was already very strained. But this is exactly what the Palestinians feared, an Arab country normalizing with Israel, despite steps, despite policies that the Palestinians opposed, the U.S. moving the embassy to Jerusalem, the U.S. endorsing the annexation of the Golan Heights, and cutting off funds to the U.N. Palestinian Refugee Agency. Israeli officials hope that this isolates Palestinian officials, convinces them to make a deal. But the sentiment among Palestinians is really expressed by a tweet tonight from Hanan Ashrawi, a longtime Palestinian senior official. She is quoted, saying: May you never be sold out by your friends, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All right, Nick Schifrin reporting on all this for us. Thank you, Nick.
