Later tonight, I will be tweeting about perhaps previously unknown chronology of Arab Israeli contacts and relations since the late 60’s. It may upset, open the eyes, surprise or help explain things to some. But important to put things in context.

Arab Israeli talks have been going on since the late 60s, and become quite intense and frequent in the early 70s, primarily between Israelis and the local Palestinian leadership in Jerusalem. They also include indirect talks with Jordan.

The Shah of Iran hosted a meeting between King Hussein and Teddy Kollek in Tehran and local Palestinians benefited greatly. Perhaps history will tell how. The Shah could have a great peace broker but sadly the Islamic republic took over Tehran.

Although Jordan did not participate in the 1973 Yom Kippur/Ramadan war, the plan was that Jordan, along with Egypt and Syria would sign a military disengagement agreement in 1974. Israel agreed to withdraw from the West Bank town of Jericho which it had occupied from Jordan in 67

The PLO led a campaign to oppose Israel’s withdrawal from Jericho, and it’s media then called it a “conspiracy of handing over Jericho to Jordan”. Khadomi, who privately spoke on behalf of Arafat said: it doesn’t matter what kind of peace is signed, as long as we- the PLO sign it

Israel of course did not withdraw and Jericho only got autonomous rule 20 years later. The PLO actively stood against Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank town.

King Hussein was also ready to sign a peace deal with Israel, along with Sadat, but that was also sabotaged by the PLO’s Egyptian allies. So another 20 years of peace lost

After sabotaging Israeli withdrawals from Palestinian towns because they weren’t involved, PLO back stabbed Jordan in 1993 by negotiating the Oslo Accords with Israel & this ushered in a new era of corrupt rule by the PLO over Palestinians who were never consulted

Gulf states largely didn’t have direct contact with Israelis until the mid 1990s. The first major one was with Qatar. I remember meeting Nathan Sharansky in London (I led a peace student group then). Sharansky was Israeli minister of trade In Netanyahu’s first govt.

That was in 1997 & Sharansky boasted to me that he had just returned from Doha, which he pronounced “Dokha”, in his strong Israeli accent. I couldn’t stop laughing which I had to explain to him that Dokha means “dizziness” in Arabic دوخة. His first pronounciation was accurate!

Hamad Bin Jassim who later became PM of Qatar (he was FM then) tried to bribe Israeli officials. One told me he responded to HBJ: “my salary is enough for me, maybe yours is not enough for you”. He never met HBJ again...HBJ later became one of the wealthiest people in Qatar

Then comes the Israeli MK Azmi Bishara who fled Israel for collaborating with an enemy (Hizbollah or Syria). He became a main advisor in Qatar and I know first hand that he has personally blocked all Qatar funding going to causes to Palestinians (I know which)...

In fact, Bishara’s twisted ideology - traitor to his own state, helped move Qatar to become funder of extremist Islamists.

There were lots of business meetings between Gulf and Israeli businesses and all were well intentioned people to people (the one in Qatar were different..). Most of those meetings were brokered or involved Palestinians and would create Palestinian jobs.

Peace agreements, including the UAE Israel deal, are not meant to do what they don’t say. 2 states or whatever is not what bothers ordinary Israelis and Palestinians.

But what I can say hand on heart and I have no doubt hundreds of thousands of Palestinians agree, is that Palestinians could not have a better friend and supporter than the UAE which is why I wish this deal total success. Thank you, UAE, for being a true brother and friend

I am extremely disappointed by Western media who like to pretend they “know”, say most Palestinians oppose deal. They’ve probably saying it to undermine @realDonaldTrump or simply ignorant. PLO or Hamas may not like it, but Palestinians do! Cc @BBCNews @Stone_SkyNews @BBCWorld