The husks of what used to be apartment buildings line the streets like something from an apocalyptic movie. Scavengers scramble over the debris of bombed-out structures, searching for anything of use. Craters litter the area as if someone transplanted the lunar landscape into the Middle East. Thousands of people line up for food and other aid. Today, their concern is getting something to eat; tomorrow, it will be revenge.

The war in Gaza is ending. Israel has liquidated almost all of Hamas’s military units. Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader, is dead. Israel’s concern now will be less on military strategy and more on what to do with Gaza.

The details of Israel’s postwar plan for Gaza are murky. Many may not be finalized yet. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his broad outline public. And his plans are big.

The Plan

Netanyahu spoke before the Joint Houses of the United States Congress on July 24. “A new generation of Palestinians must no longer be taught to hate Jews but rather to live in peace with us,” he stated. “Following our victory, with the help of regional partners, the demilitarization and deradicalization of Gaza can also lead to a future of security, prosperity and peace. That’s my vision for Gaza.”

“Regional partners” is referencing moderate Arab countries at peace with Israel. But Netanyahu didn’t stop with inviting them to help put Gaza back together.

“America and Israel today can forge a security alliance in the Middle East to counter the growing Iranian threat,” he said. “All countries that are in peace with Israel and all those countries who will make peace with Israel should be invited to join this alliance.”

Iran is behind Hamas, Hezbollah and virtually every major threat Israel faces. Iran has also rattled many Arab governments whose status quo Iran wants to uproot in revolution. In 2020, four Arab states opened relations with Israel under the “Abraham Accords” in part because they feared Iran. Netanyahu indicates he wants a formal alliance with the Abraham Accords countries. He also wants their help to reconstruct Gaza.

But there is likely one country in particular Netanyahu has in mind.

Enter the Emirates

Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco all signed up for the Abraham Accords. But the United Arab Emirates was the big prize. It has one of the Middle East’s largest economies and most advanced militaries. It has a lot of money to burn. Its former war against Yemen’s Houthis shows it isn’t afraid to fight Iran’s proxies. To Israel, the U.A.E. and its leader, President Mohammed bin Zayed, look like a natural partner. Netanyahu in his autobiography called Zayed “a shrewd and visionary leader” he could ally with against Iran.

Since 2020, Israel-U.A.E. relations have grown incredibly close. Before the 2023 war started, the two countries conducted joint exercises and had a trade relationship worth billions of dollars. Throughout the Israel-Hamas war, Zayed has kept his Tel Aviv embassy active and is the only Arab state still hosting an Israeli ambassador. U.A.E. airlines still fly from Dubai and Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv, the only Arab country to do so. During Iran’s missile barrage against Israel last April, the U.A.E. reportedly cooperated with Israel on intelligence against Iran.

Zayed is keeping close and public ties with Israel, while the rest of the Middle East is distancing itself. Such support isn’t going unnoticed in Jerusalem.

On July 17, the Financial Times posted an article by U.A.E. diplomat Lana Nusseibeh. The article was essentially the U.A.E.’s public declaration of its vision for a postwar Gaza. According to Nusseibeh, the U.A.E. is willing to help reconstruct Gaza.

Nusseibeh called for “a temporary international mission that responds to the humanitarian crisis, establishes law and order, lays the groundwork for governance, and paves the way to reuniting Gaza and the occupied West Bank under a single, legitimate Palestinian Authority.” This, according to Nusseibeh, would lead to a Palestinian state. She implied the U.A.E. is willing to spearhead its formation.

She also called for “all relevant stakeholders” in the Middle East to “play a critical role” in assisting the force’s mission. She stated U.S. leadership for the project “remains indispensable.” She said the force should introduce “rigorous [security] monitoring and a system to enforce the ceasefire’s terms” in Gaza. Regarding the United Nations, she claimed the force “must work in partnership with the UN system and amplify its resources and mandate.” In other words, the mission should take place separate from the UN. Israel has a very rocky relationship with the UN, owing to the agency’s enabling of Hamas prior to and during Hamas’s terror war.

This sounds a lot like what Netanyahu proposed later that month. The big difference would be Gaza rejoining the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the support for the two-state solution.

Netanyahu has stated he doesn’t intend to bring the PA into Gaza. But he also hasn’t rejected Zayed’s offer. He has barely commented on it at all. Compared to Netanyahu’s criticism of other countries’ suggestions, his silence is deafening.

Zayed knows there is little appetite for a revival of the two-state peace process. The references to the PA and two states may be to deflect pressure from the rest of the Arab world and the international community. Netanyahu may be treating those clauses as negotiable, willing to offer vague promises of self-determination for Gazans on Israel’s terms.

There is surely much more Netanyahu and Zayed are negotiating that the public isn’t yet aware of. But the biggest sign that Netanyahu’s plan is based on Zayed’s outline is that the Palestinians rejected it.

The Palestinian Reaction

On July 23, six days after the Financial Times published Nusseibeh’s article, 14 Palestinian factions signed a declaration of unity in Beijing, China, mediated by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. According to Lebanese outlet Al Mayadeen, which reviewed a copy of the text, “[T]he participants agreed to form a temporary national unity government after the approval of Palestinian factions and the president of the Palestinian Authority. This government will exercise its authority ‘over all Palestinian territories,’ including the West Bank, [Jerusalem] and the Gaza Strip.”

China has yet to release the agreement or full list of participants. But we can confirm three noteworthy participants: Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah, which controls the PA under President Mahmoud Abbas.

Fatah and Hamas have signed previous agreements that have gone nowhere. But in a November 2 meeting, both agreed to form a committee to control all-Palestinian affairs like borders. “Hamas seeks to establish an intra-Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip as an alternative to [the] Emirati-proposed plan that would exclude Hamas from postwar governance,” the Institute for the Study of War think tank wrote on November 4. “Hamas likely calculates that it could subvert, infiltrate and ultimately control a national unity government and thus allow Hamas to remain politically dominant in the Gaza Strip.”

The U.A.E and the PA have frosty relations. In a meeting last spring between several Arab delegations, the U.A.E. foreign minister accused the PA of being the modern “Ali Baba and the 40 thieves,” claiming the PA isn’t a reliable partner for peace. “Why would the U.A.E. give assistance to the Palestinian Authority without real reforms?” he reportedly declared.

There are plenty of hurdles for Fatah and Hamas to jump over to achieve unity. A reconciliation may never happen. But Mahmoud Abbas would probably only negotiate with Hamas if he thought the U.A.E. peace plan was likely to happen and would exclude him.

Where to Now?

At the time of writing, nothing is official. But even public talk of the U.A.E. reconstructing Gaza is monumental. The first Arab leader to recognize Israel, Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, was assassinated for doing so. Mauretania, the third Arab country to recognize Israel in 1999, withdrew recognition years later because of problems with the Palestinians. Saudi Arabia was supposed to be nearing a peace agreement with Israel in 2023. Hamas launched the October 7 attack in part to stop that from happening. It worked.

There are plenty of factors to make an Arab leader afraid of reaching out to Israel. Zayed is evidently not afraid. Netanyahu evidently trusts him. Whatever happens with Gaza in the months to come likely will involve the U.A.E. Apparently, Israel trusts the U.A.E. to deradicalize Gazans’ genocidal brainwashing from Hamas.

Nobody seems to think this trust could be misguided.

“We all want peace,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote covering the Abraham Accords. “But sadly, these recent peace pacts have a deadly flaw. Biblical prophecy gives us deep insight into these agreements. It actually foretells that moderate Arabs will unite, somewhat like we are now seeing. But they are prophesied not to cooperate with the United States or Israel!”

Mr. Flurry was referring to a passage in Psalm 83, which describes an alliance of Middle Eastern peoples so that “the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” (verse 4). Verse 3 shows this alliance is made through “crafty counsel,” or backroom deals the outside world isn’t necessarily aware of.

The peoples in the alliance are “the tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them” (verses 6-8).

Biblical and secular history records no such alliance. That is why Mr. Flurry labels it as a prophecy for today. But the prophecy is meaningless unless one knows the modern identities of these same peoples.

“God in this end time has supplied this key,” Mr. Flurry wrote. “Based on biblical and historical research and with God’s inspiration, Herbert W. Armstrong gave a good general idea of which nations these peoples correspond to today, equating the Ishmaelites with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states [including the U.A.E.], the Hagarenes with Syria, the Philistines with the Palestinians; Gebal and Tyre with Lebanon, Moab and Ammon with Jordan, and Edom and Amalek with Turkey.” Assur, meanwhile, is Germany.

Much must happen before this alliance fully forms, but it is already underway. The United Arab Emirates could play a key role.

Notice Psalm 83 lists the Philistines as together with the Ishmaelites and Assur. Gaza used to be a major ancient Philistine city-state. Another prophecy in Daniel 11 shows that Germany and its partners will be allied against Iran. Mr. Flurry explains this in his booklet The King of the South.

Gaza under Hamas suddenly switching allegiance from Iran to Germany was unlikely. But Israel is almost begging the U.A.E. to step in and reconstruct Gaza’s government. If it does this, the new Gaza government would be indebted to the U.A.E. And it would be entirely dependent on outside sponsorship, which the Gulf states—and Europe—can provide. In short, Gaza could become a puppet government of the U.A.E. and Europe.

This is not the only way circumstances could play out, but events are pointing in this direction. Bible prophecy is clear that the moderate Arab world, including the Palestinians, will form an alliance, cemented together by Germany.

Daniel 11:41 shows Germany, “the king of the north,” will enter “the glorious land”—the Holy Land, or the State of Israel. The word “enter” suggests a peaceful entry. “The indication here is that Israel will actually invite the Germans in because they believe they already have peace with them,” Mr. Flurry wrote.

“The current peace deals between Israel and the Arab states are creating this sense of security,” he continued. “But Israel should be more aware of history and prophecy! What awaits the Jews at the hands of this European-Arab alliance is one of the most treacherous betrayals in history!”

Israel is inviting the United Arab Emirates to its doorstep at its own peril.

This is bad news in the short term. But as Mr. Flurry brings out in The King of the South, these same prophecies have a happy ending.

Daniel 12:1 states: “… and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time ….” The Middle East’s current events lead to this time of trouble. But notice how the prophecy continues: “but at that time your people … will be rescued. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake (resurrect), these to everlasting life …” (verses 1-2; Amplified Bible).

The same prophecies that speak of Israel’s coming betrayal also show God will not abandon His people. He will rescue them. And it all leads to the coming of the Messiah and the resurrection of the dead that accompanies it.

God’s Word is sure, and it points to the solution to these problems. Unlike any humanly devised peace pact, this solution is the hope to live by.

To learn more, read “Deadly Flaw in Mideast Peace Deals.”