The Abrahamic Ideology: Patrilineal Kinship and the Politics of Peacemaking in the Contemporary Middle East

Abstract

This article examines the geopolitical landscape organised by the Abraham Accords, signed in 2020 between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain under US sponsorship, by exploring their namesake’s status as the common ancestor of Jews/Israelis and Muslims/Arabs through his sons Isaac and Ishmael. I begin by presenting the background and significance of the Accords, and show how despite its US-Christian origins, their nomenclature was enthusiastically received by Israeli and Emirati signatories thanks to its appeal to genealogy. Utilising anthropological theory, I then trace the legend of Abraham and his progeny from Genesis, through ancient and medieval debates between monotheists, arriving finally at the modern discourse of patrilineal cousinage and ‘Abrahamism’ as semi-official ideology. Other Abrahamisms may be possible, but in the form embedded in the Accords, I argue that this ideology promotes not sustainable peace but patriarchy, territorial homogeneity and violent marginalisation of those deemed ‘not to belong’ to the family.