“Rarely does the Middle East deliver good news, which is all the more reason to celebrate the historic normalization of ties between Israel and both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
There are still many unknowns, and it is too early to discuss the details of the agreements and the plans for their implementation. Nonetheless, it is clear that these agreements and the ones that might follow, will have a positive impact on the region by ‘spurring economic growth, enhancing technological innovation and forging closer people-to-people relations,’ as the accords’ rubric declares.“
Shira Efron
Shira Efron is a policy advisor at Israel Policy Forum. In parallel, she is a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS in Tel Aviv and a Special Advisor on Israel with the RAND Corporation, where in 2017 she founded a unique research program dedicated to Israel, and where she taught a class to PhD fellows. Her research focus is U.S. policy toward the Middle East, including on Israel’s evolving ties with China and the Israeli-Arab conflict. Dr. Efron specializes in policy analysis, research, and planning methods that can be applied in a variety of contexts. Her studies on Israel-China, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the costs of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were featured in Israeli and international media outlets. Before joining INSS and RAND, Dr. Efron was a Middle East analyst at several think tanks in Washington DC including the Center for American Progress and Middle East Institute. She has a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in policy analysis from RAND’s Graduate School, an M.A. in international relations/international business from New York University (NYU) and a B.Sc. in biology (major) and computer science (minor) from Tel Aviv University. She is a member of the board of directors of Deborah Forum, which promotes women in the security establishment.