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Welcome to Rewind & Reconnoiter. Each week, we’ll ask one of our authors to look back at an article they’ve written for War on the Rocks in light of a current news event. Did their argument hold up? Read more below to find out.***In 2020, Mike Singh, managing director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote “As Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates Normalize Ties, China Looks on Warily” for War on the Rocks, in which he argued that while the then-rapprochement between Israel and Arab states, including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, “may be good for the Middle East, it poses problems for Chinese strategy in the region.” In light of the war in Gaza and renewed tensions in the Middle East, we asked him to look back on his article.Read more below.Image: Andrea Hanks for the White HouseIn 2020, writing about the rapprochement between Israel and many Arab states in the Middle East, you wrote that “while the growing Arab-Israeli rapprochement may be good for the Middle East, it poses problems for Chinese strategy in the region.” How has this changed with the outbreak of war in Gaza?While Beijing in past years has sought to cultivate good relations with all states in the region and in particular has curried favor with Israel and the wealthy Gulf Arab states — both of which offer potential economic opportunities for China — Chinese officials see the Abraham Accords as essentially a U.S.-led project that strengthens American partnerships in the region. The Gaza war has not changed this, but it has offered Beijing a chance to weaken the Abraham Accords, which it has tried (albeit unsuccessfully thus far) to seize by obliquely criticizing those Arab states that normalized with Israel and emphasizing the need for a more unified Arab approach.