In the days after Hamas’s October 7 attack and the war that followed, Israeli entrepreneur Ron Daniel left Dubai, his home since 2021, fearing that he was “sitting on a volcano”.
The chief executive of asset manager and financial technology company Liquidity Group flew back to the United Arab Emirates a month later after deciding these concerns were “mainly in my head”.
Daniel is among a small band of Israelis who have been living and working in the UAE since it normalised relations with Israel four years ago. His decision to return reflects hopes among Israeli businesspeople that the US-brokered normalisation with the UAE and three other Arab states — which allows them to openly seek deals in the Middle East — can withstand the fury and anguish created by Israel’s war in Gaza.
“The peace survived, the interest survived, the friendships survived,” said Daniel, adding that while it was “awkward” with Emirati friends at the start, “very quickly it was like, ‘it’s got nothing to do with us’.”
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