Six years is still fresh and new, but unfortunately, like a good new car, what matters is not only when you bought it, but how many kilometers it has traveled and on what roads. And the Abraham Accords, with all due respect to their young age, have already traveled a hell of a road.

The Abraham Accords were signed six years ago today with great excitement and optimism during Trump’s first presidency, but it did not take long for the normalization momentum spreading across the region to change dramatically following the October 7 attacks.

It must be said that, tragically, this was one of the direct goals of the attack. The Axis of Evil, led by Iran and its radical Islamic proxies across the region, felt a critical threat of a kind they had never faced before.

The most fundamental goal of what they call the “resistance” is to de-normalize Israel and leave the region in perpetual war for as long as Israel exists.

The momentum of the Abraham Accords and the broader wave of normalization created an existential threat to these terrorist groups and to the regime of the Ayatollahs in Iran.

The idea of being on the verge of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel was a step too far.

The October 7 attacks were intended to derail that progress, and in some areas it has indeed set us back years, reinforced by extensive propaganda aimed at demonizing Israel and its intentions in Gaza.

But despite all of this, bright lights can still be seen. Security and economic cooperation between Israel and the Abraham Accords countries is growing, even when much of it happens behind the scenes, and the potential for further growth is even greater.

But we must not be satisfied with the current situation.

The Middle East has the potential to return to its historic place as a cradle of humanity, as represented by the Fertile Crescent. Just as it did millennia ago, the region today can harness its vast human capital, energy resources, and financial capital to become an epicenter of global leadership alongside the United States.

But all of this can happen only through a revitalization of the Abraham Accords, or, as some might argue, by paving a new path and perhaps even reframing the Accords from the ground up.

To do that, much must change in the way the countries of the region, Israel included, engage with one another.

The countries of the region must stop flirting with, tolerating, or implying the idea that Israel is not a natural neighbor and part of the region.

The Jewish people have millennia-old roots in the region, alongside many other peoples and minorities, and ignoring this fact is ultimately to the detriment of those who choose to do so.

But Israel must also stop considering itself foreign to the region.

Encouragingly, we can see an intellectual trend spreading in Israel that seeks to move away from the idea of the “Villa in the Jungle.”

Israel must see itself as part of the neighborhood, build trust and friendship with its neighbors, dramatically expand regional trade, and offer constructive ideas for the way forward.

Both of these trends are unavoidable. They will happen, whether we embrace them early enough or only after continuing to pay the highest of prices.