In a series of tweets over the weekend, former Dubai police chief Dhahi Khalfan Tamim showed his support for Israel and calls on the Arab world to follow suit.
“The truth is, it’s meaningless not to recognize Israel,” Tamim tweeted.
“Israel is a country build on science, knowledge, prosperity, and strong relations with all the developing countries. Who are the people who don’t recognize Israel’s position? From where do you think the Jews came? From Hawaii?”
In another tweet, he said if reconciliation happens he would choose to visit Israel before visiting the Kaaba, referring to the Islamic faith’s most holy edifice in the Great Mosque of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
He also urged the Gulf states to accept Israel in order to stop terrorism.
“As soon as the Gulf states normalize their relations with Israel, Qatar’s role as a proxy state for terrorist organizations will be over,” he wrote.
“It is known that Qatar supports Hamas and still maintains a relationship with Israel. So what stops us from having a normal relationship with Israel?”
Despite the fact that the UAE does not officially recognize the State of Israel, relations between the two countries have reportedly been softening.
In February, it was reported that the UAE coordinated meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sudanese leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to encourage reconciliation between the two countries.
In December, a secret trilateral meeting in December involving the U.S., Israel, and the UAE took place at the White House, with the aim of coordinating moves against Iran.
Last summer, Israel affirmed that Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz had visited the UAE and met with a senior Emirati official on the sidelines of a climate conference.
