Peace Deal Opens Doors for Entrepreneurs

Last week, a joint announcement was made between Israel, the US, and the United Arab Emirates that a peace deal had been brokered, officially establishing normalized ties between the UAE and Israel. This deal is the third such deal between Israel and surrounding nations like Egypt and Jordan. Currently, Israeli and US officials are optimistic that more Arab nations will follow suit, but the group that is most excited about the arrangement is entrepreneurs.

For years, ties between Israeli and UAE governments have been increasingly relaxed, but there have still been social taboos among business owners in the two countries that have made trade between the two challenging. These taboos have included Israeli business partners never speaking Hebrew when dealing with their foreign partners, and never mentioning that they were from Israel, on top of the fact that travel between the two countries was extremely limited. “You had to be a little brave and a little bit James Bondie, and out on a ledge,” to do businesses with these countries, Jon Medved, the CEO of the Jerusalem-based VC fund OurCrowd explained. Now, as airlines open up and flights are charted between them, entrepreneurs are thrilled at the prospect of unfettered deals and unfiltered access to the second strongest economy in the Arab world. “The official relationship between Israel and the UAE is new, but close relations took place a long time ago,” said Gil Feiler, a senior researcher at the Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at the Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, who specializes in Arab markets and economies, and Mideast economic cooperation. “The potential is huge,” and trade between the parties could “double” in the next two to three years.

The new normalized ties between Israel and the UAE, and the economic potential this union brings, comes at an opportune time in Israeli history, as the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic devastated so many businesses. Now, thousands have a new chance at success in a newly opened and easily accessible economy. “This has created so much enthusiasm, my email’s blowing up,” said Jon Medved, “I cannot explain to you how many people are reaching out from there… asking to meet. We already had a bunch of interactions in progress, but everything is going to be accelerated.” Hopefully, as peace talks with other surrounding countries begin and continue after this announcement, more countries and economies will be able to cooperate and thrive.