This is a historic day in Arab-Israeli relations. Some things are not that complicated: two Arab countries signing to full normalization with Israel is good for the region and of course the countries involved. (thread)

You do not need to support (or even ‌find remotely tolerable) Donald Trump, Bibi Netanyahu, MBZ, or Jared Kushner to recognize that is element of all the bad they've cooked up--and it's a lot of terrible stuff--is an excellent thing...

The relations could open up opportunities for everyone involved to get on with the real business of life--which, shocking, has little to do with politics, or conflict, or all the things we on twitter spend our time on.

There are big downsides, of course, like with many good things. The Palestinians are the clear losers here and that should bring no one joy to anyone, including Israel...

Trump vainly declared he would produce "Middle East Peace" (a terrible moniker for one conflict in a region with so many) and it was not supposed to be between countries thousands of km apart... this is a distant second best...

But even amid all the nonsense spewed by the Trump team, there is some truth to this: Palestinians must (for their own sake) understand the world will not wait for them. It waits for no one. It may be unfair: they are not solely responsible for their own misery, far from it..

But they are not just passive, agency-less victims either. Imagine if they had pounced-not just accepted, but urgently promoted-their own independence in several previous historic moments opportunity. It would have been far from perfect; it would have disappointed many of them..

But it would have been SO much better than their reality today. They could have gone on with the real business of living. They've done remarkably at it even under conditions of occupation. Imagine what they could do without it, imperfect though the reality would have been...

Seeing the Palestinians so low should bring zero joy to Israel. The Palestinians aren't going anywhere--MBZ can ignore them from thousands of km away. Israel cannot...

As Israel embeds the West Bank further into Israel, with Kushner's great help, they will have MORE, not less, say over Israel's future...

The irony of the Kushner-led effort in total is that while working so hard to sideline (and humiliate) the Palestinians, it will only helps produce a future for Israelis that is so tightly bound with the Palestinians that neither side may be able to move on from their conflict..

And yet... and this is just not that complicated... countries accepting each other as legitimate partners after 7 decades is a good thing. A very good thing...

We have an unspoken bargain w intolerable politicians: Do something good and you get to celebrate it like you've discovered a vaccine for polio. Even leaders so terrible at handling actual pandemics, get to celebrate themselves. They enjoy it. Just do the good stuff when you can.

Trump is such a failure on so many counts, including Israeli-Palestinian peace, that it's worth letting him enjoy a moment when something good comes out of all his ill-fated trouble. (Spoiler: American voters don't care that much...)

And now for some comedy: @DaphnaLiel
reports that only the Israeli Foreign Minister is authorized to sign (the Israeli prime minister after all is still just one cabinet minister, even if the "primary" one).
The catch? Bibi didn't invite FM Ashkenazi to Washington, of course..

They'll find a workaround, it's ok... but this is emblematic of the state of the Israeli government and affairs back in Israel, while Bibi enjoy's his party.

Again: Politicians need to enjoy their celebrations of themselves. If they deliver actual treaties, they can blow their own horn as much as they want. It's childish, but honestly, who cares?
/End (no promises)
@BrookingsFP