Opinion: The United Arab Emirates can help bring Israeli hostages home

Families of hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, continue to plead with world leaders for the release of their loved ones. These appeals highlight not only the suffering of the families but also the international community’s failure to secure their release and hold Hamas accountable for its actions.

While Israel’s role in the crisis is often scrutinized, the responsibility lies more broadly. The failure to reach an agreement to secure the release of the hostages — including my brother-in-law, Omri Miran, who was kidnapped from kibbutz Nahal Oz — doesn’t fall on Israel alone. Hamas, its accomplices and the international community have played an even more damaging role.

The failure to hold Hamas accountable has allowed the group to remain a destabilizing force in Gaza. Despite global outrage, little substantive action has been taken against Hamas on a global basis. Yes, Israel’s military campaign has weakened the group, but major global players have been reluctant to engage key international enablers such as Iran and Turkey, whose harmful policies shield Hamas from accountability. This protection has emboldened Hamas to prioritize its military objectives over the welfare of Palestinians.

Qatar has received the most attention, given its role in funneling funds to Hamas’s governing apparatus and hosting its leadership, both in coordination with Israel and the U.S. But Iran is Hamas’s most significant backer. Through financial support, weapons and military training, Iran has helped Hamas grow into the dominant force it was on the eve of the Oct. 7 atrocities.

Iran’s involvement has come at the cost of both Palestinian and Israeli lives, continuing to fuel conflict rather than fostering stability. This support mirrors Iran’s support of Hezbollah, another militant group that hijacked a territory, southern Lebanon, complicating efforts for stability in the region.

Turkey, while not materially supporting Hamas to the same extent, offers rhetorical backing that is just as harmful. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has frequently portrayed Hamas as a legitimate resistance movement. He avoids acknowledgment of Hamas’s role in inciting violence and extremism, and supports it on the international stage.

The international community’s broader failure to confront the group has played a significant role in Hamas’s continuing influence. Over the last three decades, global responses to conflicts between Israel and Hamas have disproportionately focused on Israel’s military actions, often ignoring Hamas’s exploitation of civilian infrastructure, the intentional targeting of civilians and its authoritarian grip over Gaza. Criticism of Israel’s military actions is necessary, but this imbalance in the narrative has allowed Hamas to escape accountability, while portraying itself as a champion of Palestinian rights rather than the main culprit in Gaza’s destruction.

Furthermore, Hamas’s strategy of hostage-taking is a war crime that the international community has failed to address adequately since Gilad Shalit was kidnapped in 2006. The hostages taken on Oct. 7 are held in tunnels under Gaza, deprived of basic needs and subjected to torture, as evidenced by revelations from released hostages. Some have been murdered, underscoring Hamas’s brutality. Yet global rhetoric focuses almost exclusively on Israel’s actions, ignoring Hamas’s culpability and depriving Gazans of any agency in taking down the oppressive Hamas regime.

This imbalance emboldens Hamas, as the group believes it can escape consequences. Without acknowledging the central role that Hamas plays in perpetuating violence, there is little hope for a cessation of hostilities. The international community must shift its approach; failing to do so will only ensure that Hamas survives this conflict and remains in power, making future wars inevitable.

There is, however, a potential way forward that has yet to be undertaken earnestly. The United Arab Emirates could be key in brokering an end to the current round of violence. The UAE’s relationships with Israel, the U.S. and powers like Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Russia position it as a potential mediator. This is a role Qatar failed to exercise, as it continues to shield Hamas and propagate its narrative on the global stage — most recently by Sheikh Tamim ibn Hamad Al Thani in his address to the UN’s General Assembly.

The Abraham Accords have demonstrated the UAE’s ability to engage diplomatically with Israel while maintaining open channels with Palestinian leadership and regional actors. Its growing influence could persuade Hamas’s backers, particularly Iran, to reconsider their stance and force Yahya Sinwar to agree to a cease-fire deal.

Such a deal would will bring home the hostages, release convicted Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons and provide relief to Gazans. It would create a new equation in Gaza, with Sinwar going into exile, as part of a comprehensive end to the crisis. This would align with Iranian interests in the region, as its strongest proxy, Hezbollah, gradually loses its assets in Lebanon due to Sinwar’s continuous refusal to sign a viable deal — and to Hassan Nasrallah’s bet on joining the hostilities on Oct. 8, which ultimately cost him his life.

Any solution must involve confronting Hamas. Israel’s policies should be scrutinized, including by its independent judicial system. Still, Israel, a democratic state actor that sought to resolve the conflict in the past, cannot be treated similarly to Hamas. This Islamist terrorist organization seeks to perpetuate the conflict.

As long as Hamas remains entrenched in Gaza, a peaceful future remains out of reach. Without pressure on Hamas’s backers on the global stage and a shift in the international narrative, violence will continue.

Increased involvement by the UAE may be the best path for achieving a hostage deal that could reunite families, offer Gaza a chance to rebuild and bring on board regional actors that back Hamas materially and ideologically. But this can only happen if the international community acknowledges the destructive role Hamas plays, and unites behind the demand to remove it from power in post-war Gaza.

Moshe Emilio Lavi was born in Sderot, Israel. He is a former captain of the Israel Defense Forces and now works as a management consultant. His brother-in-law Omri Miran is a hostage in Gaza.

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