Arab states want ties with Israel for reasons unconnected to the Palestinians. After a century of conflict, they appear to realize that subordinating their interests to the Palestinian cause was not good for anyone but the Palestinians.

My timeline is filled with analysts bending over backwards to make the Palestinians a central issue in the UAE announcement and future annoucements by other Arab states. It’s bizarre. The under-the-table relationships between Israel and Arab states are driven by self interest.

When we talk about self-interest, that includes: security, cyber, intelligence sharing, technology, trade, etc. Fear of an aggressive Iran looms largest. Israel’s ability to tangle with Tehran does not go unnoticed. But there are other benefits to reap from ties with Israel.

More broadly, what reason does Bahrain have to be at odds with Israel? Oman and Morocco, too. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict did not have to be an Arab-Israeli conflict. A century later, that fact appears to be dawning on these peripheral states. Better late than never.