Today, Morocco has a Jewish population of about 4,000, said Samuel L. Kaplan, the U.S. ambassador to Rabat from 2009 to 2013. Between 2014 and 2017 the volume of trade exchanges stood at $149 million, according to statistics published by Moroccan newspapers. Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony whose indigenous people, the Sahrawis, have long sought independence. About 3,000 Jews remain in Morocco, and the Casablanca community is one of the country's most active. In exchange for normalizing relations with Israel, the U.S. agreed to recognize Morocco's claim over Western Sahara. Liaison offices between Israel and Morocco were established in 1994 after the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements known as the Oslo Accords, but they closed after the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in 2000. The two countries have long had intelligence ties, including a shared operation in 1995 to recruit Osama bin Laden’s Moroccan secretary to gather information and ultimately assassinate him. That is down from more than 200,000 Jews who lived in Morocco when Israel was established in 1948 but who then began responding to calls to immigrate to Israel. In a commentary published earlier this month in the Jerusalem Post, he said the two countries had a "shared history", adding that he was "overcome with pride and gratitude" when the deal was announced. Mohamed Daadaoui, a Moroccan academic, noted that Morocco and Israel already had economic, military and cultural ties. In a rebuke to the Trump administration from a fellow Republican, Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the “rights of the Western Saharan people have been traded away.”. So far, the Saudis have insisted that more progress must come first on peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The Israel-Morocco agreement can best be seen as a win-lose-win-lose-win arrangement. After US President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that Morocco and Israel have agreed to normalize diplomatic ties, the ambassador shared … Israeli-Moroccan relations are the official relations between the State of Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco. It will also allow overflights of its air space and direct commercial flights to Moroccan airports from Tel Aviv, Mr. Kushner said. Morocco and Israel agreed to normalize ties in an agreement brokered by the Trump administration this past December. Lara Jakes reported from Washington, Isabel Kershner and David M. Halbfinger from Jerusalem, and Aida Alami from Rabat, Morocco. Morocco and Israel in December signed a US-brokered normalization agreement in Rabat, and on Tuesday Israel announced the re-opening of its diplomatic mission in the North African country. Partial normalization has triggered outrage from some of Morocco’s neighbors and will likely upset many of its citizens; indeed, 88% of surveyed Moroccans said they would oppose diplomatic recognition of Israel, and 70% viewed the Palestinian cause as one that concerns all Arabs (according to the 2019-2020 Arab Opinion Index). Trump and Netanyahu at the signing of the Abraham Accords. The Moroccan decision to normalize relations with Israel is thus not a question of recognition itself but rather a resumption of earlier relations: with Moroccan recognition, trade with Israel could now also grow. A diver noticed a banjo shark got entangled in a fishing line and jumped in to rescue it. Show full articles without "Continue Reading" button for {0} hours. “The move shows that #Morocco’s regime is willing to sell its soul to maintain its illegal occupation of parts of #WesternSahara,” Sidi Omar, the Polisario Front’s representative at the United Nations, wrote on Twitter. By Lara Jakes, Isabel Kershner, Aida Alami and David M. Halbfinger. Nasser Bourita, the Moroccan foreign minister, said the king affirmed his commitment “to the Palestinian cause, which remains unchanged.”, Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran Palestinian leader and politician, denounced Mr. Trump’s administration as “scrambling to do anything it can to extract concessions and benefits for Israel.”. Recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara is an unusual move from the United States, and comes at a critical time for the region. A demonstration in Rabat, Morocco, against normalizing relations with Israel in September. Israeli media are reporting that Israel and Morocco have reached an agreement on allowing direct flights between those two countries. King Mohammed VI has said Morocco will remain an advocate for the Palestinians, but the Palestinians like the Polisario have cried foul and condemned the normalisation announcement. Although ties between the two countries were suspended in the year 2000, trade between Israel and Morocco was not. Morocco to normalize ties with Israel in deal with Trump over Western Sahara. In January, the two countries signed an … Morocco has agreed to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, President Trump announced on Thursday. Morocco closed its liaison office in Tel Aviv in 2000, at the start of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising. Ruth Maclean contributed reporting from Dakar, Senegal, and Ronen Bergman from Tel Aviv. About fifteen political parties, unions, feminist networks and Moroccan associations have united to fight against normalization with the Hebrew state. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel celebrated the announcement at a prearranged, televised Hanukkah lighting ceremony in Jerusalem, accompanied by David M. Friedman, the American ambassador to Israel. The resumption of relations between Morocco and Israel is not to the liking of some who see it as a danger for the Palestinian people. Another Arab-majority Muslim country has recognized its … Morocco became the third Arab state in 2020 to normalize ties with Israel under US-brokered deals, joining the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. It will be difficult for Mr. Biden’s incoming administration to return to a role as an impartial actor committed to resolving the dispute. Israel eyes normalization deal with Morocco after US polls, Intelligence minister says. On October 23, 2000, during Netanyahu's time [sic – at that time Israel's prime minister was Ehud Barak], the Israeli liaison office in Rabat and the … The pro-normalization view takes a pragmatic stance that aspires to protect territorial integrity and gain enormous economic benefits. Morocco did not suspend relations with Israel until after the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada in 2000. Morocco’s government now finds itself in the same uncomfortable position of having to explain its warming relations with Israel — at the cost of longtime sympathy for Palestinians — as other nations that have signed onto the Abraham accords. Mr. Kushner suggested that recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over an area where it mostly already maintains administrative control could “possibly break the logjam.”. As part of the recognition agreement, the United States diplomatic mission to Morocco will open a consulate in Dakhla, a city in Western Sahara. The whale was being taken to safety when it escaped, according to the BBC. Morocco-Israel Normalization and U.S. Policy Change on Western Sahara December 15, 2020 On December 10, President Trump announced that Morocco would normalize relations with Israel, and that the United States was recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the … Israel meanwhile is home to 700,000 Jews of Moroccan origin. He predicted “a very warm peace,” given that Israel and Morocco have maintained some ties for more than half a century. Photo … As the deal was being announced in Washington, King Mohammed VI called Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader. Coming on the heels of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalizing relations with Israel, this signals that a tectonic shift in Middle East politics is underway…if President Trump is reelected. Why Israel Wins. Morocco joins Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates in agreeing to set aside generations of hostilities toward Israel over the Palestinian conflict as part of a campaign to stabilize the Middle East and North Africa. Blocked by Morocco, that referendum has still not been held. It also aims to showcase the achievements of the Trump administration in Middle East diplomacy, weeks before Trump is replaced at the White House by President-elect Joe Biden. In talks dating to 2017, officials discussed the promise of American recognition of Western Sahara as a condition of warming ties with Israel. "The new agreement is merely the formalisation of a de facto partnership between Morocco and Israel dating back 60 years," said Moroccan media boss Ahmed Charai. The effort was to be coordinated by the United States International Development Finance Corporation. Video: Boko Haram kidnaps more than 330 boys from a government school in northwest Nigeria (USA TODAY), Rescuers work to save young whale from under footbridge in London, Diver rescues banjo shark snagged on a hook, Mattel launches new Playback program to recycle old materials for new toys, Gunman kills six people plus himself at Colorado Springs, Colo. birthday party. Morocco has sought to temper the anger by insisting that relations with Israel are not new. The cabinet approved Israel’s normalization agreement with Morocco in a unanimous vote on Sunday. US President Donald Trump made the announcement on Twitter. "It is indeed the case that the two states have assisted each other vitally for decades," Charai wrote. Morocco, Israel normalize ties as US recognizes Western Sahara The Trump administration viewed finalizing establishment of ties between the two countries as a … Briefing reporters in Washington, Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, said the agreement called for Morocco to open full diplomatic relations and formalize economic ties with Israel. “There have been strong ties between Morocco and the Jewish people throughout the entire modern era,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Not sure this is the best decision #Morocco should make right now domestically,” he wrote on Twitter. With the agreement, which has been under discussion since 2017, Morocco becomes the fourth Muslim-majority state to pledge warmer official relations with Israel this fall under accords brokered by the Trump administration. As a wave of enthusiasm for rapprochement with Israel has been set off by the landmark normalization deals reached in August, the political landscape of the MENA region has been reshaped. Israel has in the past also lobbied the United States to provide Morocco with military equipment. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Last month, after Morocco launched a military operation in a buffer strip patrolled by U.N. peacekeepers, the Western Sahara’s pro-independence Polisario Front declared war and threatened a full-blown military conflict. Munayyer also linked the Morocco-Israel normalization issue to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands and its position in the Middle East. Negotiations leading to Morocco's resumption of ties with Israel included the opening of a US consulate in Western Sahara, and US investments which Moroccan media described as "colossal". Why the Lakers need to avoid the NBA play-in tournament at all cost, Biden border critic Rep. Henry Cuellar says "it's not his first rodeo" on the border, 'Don't take questions': White House press secretary frowns on Biden's media interaction, DC Mayor bans dancing at weddings, brides and grooms opting to relocate, Coldplay's outer space premiere, Weezer, Miranda Lambert highlight new music releases, How to make Mother's Day flowers last longer, With Jesse Williams leaving 'Grey's Anatomy', here are 5 times the ABC show broke us, 6 best military moms stuns, surprises and screams, Why the Aaron Rodgers Green Bay situation is 'unsalvageable', Why Jimmy Garoppolo will be the Niners starter this season. The recently announced rapprochement between Morocco and Israel goes back several years, especially in the economic and commercial field. The White House announced Thursday that it had brokered an agreement for Morocco to normalize relations with Israel. Morocco became the third Arab state this year, after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, to normalise ties with Israel under US-brokered deals, while Sudan has pledged to follow suit. The first winner of the normalization agreement is obviously Israel. Mattel's new PlayBack program will recycle old toy materials for future Mattel products. It undercuts an independence movement in the Western Sahara region, which has rejected Morocco’s claims of sovereignty, with United Nations support, and could fuel instability in that yearslong dispute. The Moroccan government downplayed the announcement from Washington that the move amounted to a full or new normalization with Israel, noting years of ongoing if opaque relations. Connect with friends faster than ever with the new Facebook app. Outgoing President Donald Trump's double announcement of a normalisation of ties between Morocco and Israel and US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara has prompted mixed reactions. The flight from Tel Aviv to Rabat is seen as highly symbolic after Morocco announced on December 10 a "resumption of relations" with Israel. Morocco Signals to Israel It Does Not Want Public Ceremony to Mark Normalization . The move infuriated the Algerian-backed pro-independence Polisario Front, which controls about one fifth of the desert territory that once was a Spanish colony. But the Moroccan king was deeply hesitant to jeopardize his standing in the Arab world, according to two Moroccan officials briefed on those efforts who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them. If the two countries ultimately open embassies, Israel’s new agreement with Morocco would be similar to the accords that the Trump administration helped broker with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in September. Morocco will become the fourth majority-Arab state to normalize its diplomatic ties with Israel this year, President Donald Trump announced Thursday, part of a … Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and advisor, is due to arrive Tuesday in Morocco from Israel on the first direct commercial flight between the two countries since they normalised ties. "Not only did intelligence and security cooperation help Israel defend itself in the 1967 Six-Day War and Morocco win its Sahara war a few years later, quiet Moroccan diplomacy proved instrumental in fostering peace between Egypt and Israel," he added. For many years, Moroccan King Hassan II facilitated the secret relationship with Israel, and it was considered instrumental in … In a December 15, 2020 article, Ahmed Assid, a Moroccan secularist and political activist who belongs to the Amazigh (Berber) minority, welcomed Morocco's normalization agreement with Israel, which had been announced on December 10 along with a U.S. declaration recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara. Kushner will be heading an American delegation, and during his visit to Rabat a series of agreements will be signed between Morocco and Israel, according to officials. The Moroccan government downplayed the announcement from Washington that the move amounted to a full or new normalization with Israel, noting years of ongoing if opaque relations. It reached about 250,000 in the late 1940s, 10 percent of the national population, but many Jews left after the creation of Israel in 1948. The Trump administration had long hoped Saudi Arabia would join the push for normalizing relations with Israel. Israel and Morocco agreed on Thursday to normalize relations in a deal brokered with U.S. help, making Morocco the fourth Arab country to set aside hostilities with Israel in the past four months. A senior Trump administration official confirmed on Thursday that the development office was considering investments worth up to $3 billion in Morocco over three years, but said they were not linked to the reconciliation with Israel. At the same time Israel and Morocco are due to reopen diplomatic offices and activate economic cooperation between them. Moroccan officials also conspicuously committed only to reopening so-called liaison offices with Israel — not embassies or consulates — pledging vaguely to “resume diplomatic relations as soon as possible.”. potentially facing a new round of elections, threatened to withdraw from the agreement, have insisted that more progress must come first. The deal came together with the help of a Moroccan investor, Yariv Elbaz, who does business in Israel, and acted as a go-between for Washington and Rabat. Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the deal “will make it easier for Saudi Arabia to take the step when it is ready to do so.”. Has Russell Westbrook's dominance turned the Wizards into a playoff sleeper? Between 1975 and 1991, they fought a war against Morocco under the Polisario Front. Many Israelis have visited Morocco in recent years, traveling via third countries but entering on Israeli passports. Morocco becomes the fourth Muslim-majority state to do so as part of a push by the Trump administration. In 2018, long before the normalization deals were announced, Morocco seemed to try and gain favor with the administration of President Donald J. Trump, Israel, and … The recent normalization of relations between Israel and Morocco was accompanied by U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara. After years of war, the U.N. brokered a cease-fire in 1991 that called for a referendum on independence for Western Sahara. Thursday’s agreement also hands Morocco’s monarch, King Mohammed VI, a long-demanded prize: American recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara territory. US President Donald Trump was the first to announce on Thursday that Morocco and Israel had agreed to normalize relations, following a call with Moroccan … Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called … There’s no such thing as Morocco-Israel normalization being good “in and of itself”. “There is something extremely immoral in the way they are exploiting countries’ needs and demands,” she said. They will be reopened as part of Thursday’s agreement, Mr. Bourita said. In return, the US president fulfilled a decades-old goal of Morocco by backing its contested sovereignty in Western Sahara.

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