Morocco became the fourth Arab state to reach a peace deal with Israel this year, as news broke Thursday that the Kingdom would sign an agreement establishing diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
President Donald Trump congratulated the two parties in a tweet: “Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed to full diplomatic relations – a massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East!”
Less than a year ago, President Trump launched his Middle East peace plan, which departed from previous efforts in that it sought agreements between Israel and Arab states without giving a veto to the Palestinians.
Earlier U.S. administrations had believed, incorrectly, that such an approach was impossible. Then-Secretary of State John Kerry said in 2016 that no separate peace between Israel and Arab states was possible:
Morocco has quietly enjoyed unofficial ties with Israel for many years. The country has a large Jewish community, many of whose members moved to Israel after the Jewish state declared independence in 1948.
The Trump administration has been reaching out to Morocco for years. Ivanka Trump visited the kingdom last November. Morocco also granted an exclusive interview with Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita to Breitbart News in 2018.
On Thursday, Trump announced that the U.S. would be recognizing Morocco’s claims to the disputed Western Sahara:
The kingdom is the fourth state to make peace and forge diplomatic relations with Israel this year. The other three include the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which signed the Abraham Accords on the White House lawn in September; and Sudan, which announced it had reached an agreement with Israel several weeks later.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.