For many Jewish Americans, the sight of Israeli and Arab officials gathering on the White House lawn to sign an agreement is an emotional one. So many of us, myself included, long to see Israel welcomed by the Arab world as a legitimate and vital part of the Middle East.

While the normalization of Israeli relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain is a positive development in this regard, this is not about peace, as Trump and Netanyahu would have us believe.

It’s not simply the fact that Israel was never at war with the UAE and Bahrain. (Indeed, these Gulf sheikhdoms did not exist as independent countries until 1971, after Israel’s foundational wars.) And it’s not just the possible quid pro quo U.S. sales of F-35s to the UAE, which doesn’t scream “peace.”

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