[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 149 (Thursday, September 15, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4805-S4806]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ABRAHAM ACCORDS
Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, 2 years ago, almost to the exact
moment, I was sitting on the south lawn of the White House in the
blazing Sun, where a redhead should never sit, getting a sunburn, on a
hot September day in DC, watching leadership of the UAE, Bahrain,
Israel, and the United States all shake hands and sign an agreement
called the Abraham Accords. It was a remarkable moment in American
history.
We have become so accustomed in the last 2 years to this conversation
about the Abraham Accords, we lose track that it was just 2 years ago
that we had one of the greatest breakthroughs in Middle East peace that
we have had in decades.
In 1979, Egypt and Israel came together for a peace agreement under
President Jimmy Carter and the Camp David Accords. In 1994, Jordan and
Israel normalized relationships under President Clinton. But for 26
years, there were no additional peace agreements and, quite frankly,
very few conversations even. It stopped. All the conversation among
foreign affairs was that you had to resolve the Palestinian conflict
before anything else could be resolved in the Middle East, and for 26
years, all the focus was on that.
The Trump administration came in and put the whole thing on its head
and said: What if? What if we work towards peace agreements outside of
the Palestinian conversation? If we set that aside, could we still
normalize agreements?
Again, most people said: No, that is not possible--until 2 years ago
today. Two years ago today, when the leaders of UAE, Bahrain, Israel,
and the United States met together and signed an agreement, they
started not just a process, they started a conversation and a dialogue.
They shook hands and signed an agreement that had remarkable statements
in it about religious liberty that we look at and think: The Arab world
would not sign that, but they did, quite frankly, because people hadn't
asked them to.
There were conversations and agreements made about energy policy,
about economic development in a region of the world that many would say
that no one will ever meet and this will never get better.
President Reagan once said:
Our involvement in the search for Middle East peace is not
a matter of preference; it is a moral imperative.
[[Page S4806]]
We are a people of peace. We are a people, as a nation, passionate
about religious liberty. We are a people who want to see a nation
joining other nations in economic development. It is who we are. It is
who we have been from the beginning, and we are at our best when we are
expanding that.
Since the signing of that document, several things have happened in
that 2-year time period.
The first thing that happened, really, was that in October of 2020,
Sudan raised their hand and said: I want to join that agreement. Then,
in December of 2020, Morocco raised their hand and said: I want to be
in that agreement. It quickly went from four nations to five, to six,
all in this ongoing dialogue about peace in the region.
The countries have exchanged Ambassadors since then. Again, that may
not sound revolutionary, but it is in that region. The UAE, Morocco,
and Bahrain all opened up Embassies in Israel--again, revolutionary.
Israel opened up its Embassy--the first ever in the Gulf nations--in
Abu Dhabi in January of 2021. It opens up its next Embassy in Bahrain
in September of 2021.
The UAE and Israel have signed comprehensive free-trade agreements.
There is now $10 billion worth of trade in the next 5 years that has
been set up between those nations. Trade has begun between Israel and
Morocco. In fact, it has increased 94 percent in a year. Trade between
the UAE and Israel has increased 88 percent in 1 year. Trade between
Israel and Egypt, even, has increased 41 percent in the last year and
between Israel and Jordan, with a longstanding agreement, has increased
55 percent.
The UAE and Morocco now have university students who are studying in
Israeli universities--something we thought we would never see. The UAE
has overhauled its school curriculum to increase tolerance and
understanding of other faiths and other religious groups.
Dozens of daily flights are now moving in those Abraham Accord
countries, bringing business and tourism. There are even real
conversations about water, about energy sharing and development and
large economic infrastructure projects.
There are other countries, even, in the region that have started to
take notice of this. Countries like Saudi Arabia are now allowing
Israeli-bound flights to fly through Saudi airspace. Now, again, that
may not seem revolutionary to some, that planes get to fly over them,
but, you understand, 2 years ago, that didn't happen. The Saudis made
every Israeli-bound flight go around their airspace. Israel and Saudi
Arabia have also participated in multilateral naval and air drills,
alongside UAE, Bahrain, and other countries. It is an enormous shift.
If I can even say this in the region, Israel and Lebanon are very
close right now to forming an agreement on what they call the Blue
Line, the border between Israel and Lebanon, including the maritime
areas. What does that matter? It is a tremendous development for
Lebanon, for their economic development, because there is a large
natural gas field just off of Lebanon's coast, but the border has been
unresolved for years.
In the conflict between nations and the trust that has collapsed, the
Abraham Accords have provided an opportunity and a moment for the
nations in the region to say: If peace can begin with UAE and Bahrain
and Sudan and Morocco and Israel and recognition and economic
development and Ambassadors can be exchanged, who else can engage in
economic development?
Let's start with their neighbor Lebanon. To build trust is to also
build clear borders. This is real progress in 2 years.
My challenge to the administration and to our State Department is,
fan the flame. Keep going on this. We have seen nations begin to do
economic development, families meeting other families, school
curriculum changing to taking out anti-Semitic tropes, basically, out
of their curriculum. We have seen real progress in this area. Keep
going. Other nations should be welcomed to be able to join in the
Abraham Accords. It is not closed. Other nations can join in that
economic development.
There are four of us who began the Abraham Accords Caucus: myself,
Senator Rosen, Senator Ernst, and Senator Booker. We launched out the
four of us and invited all of our colleagues to be able to join into
it. Our focus is to be able to work with the Ambassadors of those
nations to say: How can we partner together to bless what has already
occurred, and how can we expand into other nations? How can we
encourage increased economic development?
Now, there are still very real challenges. The work is not done by
any means, but it has at least begun, and progress is taking off--this
simple principle of economic engagement, going past all of the
government noise and saying: What if we allowed infrastructure to be
able to work together? What if we allowed tourism to be able to happen?
What if we allowed businesses to work with other businesses in other
nations that used to be hostile? How can we engage in such a way that
would help?
The four of us in the Abraham Accords Caucus brought to the floor
today a resolution to recognize this 2-year anniversary. It sat before
all 100 Senators, and I don't know a single Senator who is opposed to
that because we all want to see peace in the Middle East. We all want
to see that kind of progress, and we all want to see this increase.
So, to our State Department, keep the work going. Keep the
conversation going. To nations around the world that used to be hostile
to Israel and the region, why don't we set down the past and prepare
our families for the future?
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.
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